Dr. Rodrigues draws on personal experience for SSHRC Grant

Congratulations to Dr. Felipe Rodrigues, Assistant Professor in King’s School of Management, Economics and Mathematics (MEM) and adjunct professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences at Western University, and his colleagues on receiving a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant for “Optimal contract policies for improving access to Child and Youth public services: the case of the Ontario Autism Program.”

“This research will provide a road map to change policy and hopefully help to improve the lives of 60,000 autistic kids in Ontario,” says Dr. Rodrigues, the lead on the grant.

Dr. Rodrigues’ personal experience has influenced his work on the grant. Both he and his son are neurodivergent [1]. “We have been through the hassle of getting provincial funding and have been greatly affected by the changes made by the provincial government,” he says.

Familiar with healthcare operations management and business analytics, Dr. Rodrigues has previous experience researching queueing, game, and contract theories. “I thought that the best way I could advocate for my son and all children with autism was to use my expertise and provide solid, mathematical modelling to suggest the best funding structure to increase the efficiency of the Ontario Autism Program (OAP),” he says.

The research grant will work directly with Parent Advocacy groups to improve access to public services for children and youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Canada, specifically focusing on the OAP. There are currently 60,000 children and youth in Ontario whom wait yearsto receive public funding for autism treatments under the program currently proposed by the province. Moreover, about 7,000 children are added to that list every year, which only increases their wait-times, reaching up to 4 years in some cases.

As part of the project, Dr. Rodrigues and his team will develop a novel mathematical framework combining management science, economics and mathematics into an emerging branch of mathematics called “queuing game contract theory.” The models they plan to develop will be used to optimize contractual agreements between the government, service providers, and families in the OAP and similar public service systems. The team will work towards advancing the queuing game theory and contract literature, policy implications, and improved access to public services for children and youth with ASD. The findings will be shared through various channels to reach academia, advocacy groups, industry, and the government.

Dr. Rodrigues is joined on the project by collaborators from multiple disciplines, departments and institutions:

• Dr. Renfang Tian, Assistant Professor, King’s School of MEM
• Dr. Jingjing Xu, Assistant Professor, King’s School of MEM
• Dr. Daniella Bendo, Assistant Professor of King’s Childhood and Youth Studies (CYS)
• Dr. Rachel Birnbaum, Professor (retired) of CYS and the School of Social Work at King’s
• Dr. Camila de Souza, Assistant Professor. Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences, Western University and Director of Western Data Science Solutions
• Dr. Salar Ghamat, Associate Professor, Operations and Decision Sciences at Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University

There are also plans to involve graduate students in the research process.

This grant has already spurred more research and community collaboration. For example, Dr. Jingjing Xu has been awarded a King's Research Excellence Scholar Grant titled “Economic Burden of Families with Children with Autism in Canada,” which will further increase the understanding of the impact of autism in Canadian society. The research team has also recently included Dr. Greg Zaric, a Management Science professor at the Ivey Business School, and Dr. Nicole Niel, Associate Dean (Research) at the Western Faculty of Education.

Congratulations to Dr. Rodrigues and his team on receiving the grant.

[1] Differing in mental or neurological function from what is considered normal, typically associated with attention/hyperactivity or autistic spectrum disorders.