News

Chao Qian is preparing for the trading environment of the future. More than 60 percent of stock volume is attributed to algorithmic trading, but older generations of traders have never learned to code. “In the future, I expect that everyone will need to be able to code and be comfortable with AI and machine learning,” he affirmed. “Thanks to the Masters of Quantitative Finance (MQF) program, I will be ready.”

Internet users from Canadian rural and remote communities suffer from frequent Internet interruptions, which generally result from various network issues. The lack of human resources, expertise and support make these issues difficult to identifyand fix. Remote areas lack responsive and cost-effective operations or maintenance efforts.

Eli Margolis learned to appreciate math at a young age. “There was always a right and wrong answer, always a correct way of figuring something out if you searched hard enough,” she reflected.

The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science would like to congratulate Wenyuan Li and Yechao Meng as being two of the three new recipients of The Society of Actuaries (SOA) James C. Hickman Scholar for 2020-2021, and to Ou (Jessica) Dang for having her stipend renewed. 

To learn more, read the full article on The SOA site.

When Grace Tompkins attended Waterloo’s Grad Visit Day in 2019, she was presented with an opportunity to combine her interests in public health with her research in mathematics. The Master of Mathematics in Biostatistics program was the perfect blend of mathematical theory and epidemiology that she was looking for.

Longevity risk is an essential concept for life insurance companies and reinsurance companies. A deep understanding of the risk is crucial, as an underestimation of longevity can seriously affect the financial healthiness of pension plans and annuity funds.

Statistics and Actuarial Science is proud to announce that David Saunders was appointed Director of the Centre for Financial Industries at the Fields Institute.

Glen McGee holds a PhD in biostatistics from Harvard University. He is interested in developing statistical tools to solve problems in epidemiology, environmental health, and health policy. Currently, Glen is working on Bayesian frameworks for modelling multi-pollutant mixtures, corrections for informative presence in electronic health records, and designs for multigenerational studies.

Professor Matthias Schonlau of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science has been elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA). His citation reads: "For notable contributions to survey methodology in both industry and academia, for serving as a connector between statistics and the social sciences via accessible publications, education, and software, and for service to the profession."

The designation of ASA Fellow has been a significant honor for nearly 100 years. Under ASA bylaws, the Committee on Fellows can elect up to one-third of one percent of the total association membership as fellows each year.

Associate Professor Marius Hofert was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Accelerator Supplement for his suggested new work on copula modeling with generative neural networks.