IDB announces winners of the Award for Best Application of Agent-Based Simulation in Islamic Finance

Source: IDB.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has revealed the winners of the Award for Best Application of Agent-Based Simulation (ABS) in Islamic Finance. ABS is a modelling approach that uses computer simulations to assess the effects of the actions and interactions of individuals or groups on a particular system. The objective of the ABS award is to encourage students worldwide to learn and apply agent-based simulation to contribute to the advancement of Islamic economics and finance.

The award, a collaboration of IDB, the Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) Chair for Islamic Financial Markets (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) and the Islamic Financial Engineering Lab (Rabat, Morocco), was first launched in February 2015. Winners receive US$8,000, US$6,000 and US$4,000 for first, second and third place respectively.

The Award Committee received eight completed projects, which were anonymously screened to select the best five. The screened projects then were sent to two external referees for evaluation, after which the Committee chose three winners.

The 2015 first-place winner is Mohamed Wail Aaminou for his project Leveraging ethics to expand Islamic banks’ customer base: A fuzzy agent-based modeling approach.

The second prize is awarded to Safae Badraoui, Khalid Bensaid, and Ahmed Mouad El Haloui for their team project The impact of qualitative characteristics on market equilibrium: Application to Shariaa compliance simulation with agent-based modeling.

The third prize recipient is Sara Bourhime for her contribution to the project Agent-based simulation in Islamic microfinance: Qard Hassan peer-lending.

The award ceremony will be held in Rabat, Morocco, on 18 February 2016.