MITB FTA Quarterly Highlight - August 2019

Please click here if you are unable to view this page.

A group of five MITB students comprising of Tristan Lim, Pan Tao, Ong Chin Sin, Chia Jie Jun Jeremy, and Chen Shuaiwei, facilitated by Prof Ma Nang Laik, won the OCBC Data Rockstar title at 1 Aug 2019, awarded by Donald MacDonald, SVP OCBC Head of Group Customer Analytics & Decisioning. It was a unanimous decision from the panel of OCBC judges. Through the use of analytics, the team successfully identified a potential high growth area in the Healthcare sector for OCBC clients, alongside the potential development of a healthcare ecosystem, which impressed the OCBC judges for being particularly pertinent and unique as a business solution.

Robert Kauffman
Visiting Professor Of Information Systems & Strategy School Of Information Systems,
and Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

THE TRADITIONAL dominance of established big-hitters in financial services is at an end. The market for many types of financial transaction is being disrupted by small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs. They are quicker off the mark in both spotting gaps in the market and developing state-of-the-art systems to respond to customer needs.

This includes extending consumer access to money and financial products outside of branches and beyond normal banking business hours, as well as adding unheard of levels of personalisation through the use of digital sensing and big data analytics.

THE ACCELERATED DIGITALISATION of both people and business around the world today is having a huge impact on the investment management and advisory space. The addition of new and vastly larger data sets, as well as exponentially more sophisticated analytical tools to turn that data into usable information is constantly changing the way investments are decided on, made and managed.

At the forefront of this change is the automated investment decision-making industry. Whether entirely run by algorithms or interlaced with human interaction, these so-called ‘robo-advisory’ firms are finding new ways to absorb data and to use it at a startling pace.

Catalin Burlacu
Co-Founder and CEO Nexus Alpha Capital Management Ltd

Paul Griffin
Associate Professor of Information Systems (Practice)
Director, MITB (Financial Technology & Analytics) Programme

IF YOU ARE IN NEED OF a reminder of the levels of hype surrounding blockchain, then look no further than Japan’s J-Pop sensation Kasotsuka Shojo, otherwise known as the Virtual Currency Girls who, with their debut track “The Moon and Cryptocurrencies and Me”, aim to educate fans about cryptocurrencies in an entertaining way.

Whether the track will be a one hit wonder remains to be seen – but with blockchain, certainly, levels of hype do appear to be tailing off.

So is this the end of blockchain? Have we witnessed a flash in the pan? Can we now all get back to real business?

Attending graduate school was the furthest thing on my mind upon completion of my undergraduate studies. However, after 3 years in the public sector, I felt the need to acquire the knowledge and skills to analyse and validate hypothesis with data. Studying through the various data-related courses across local institutions, I quickly set my mind on MITB as the course focuses not only on technical knowledge but also on application to satisfy business needs.

Apart from the teaching faculty, the Post-grad Career Services Advisors also play a key role in preparing you for your next career. There are many engagement sessions with industry speakers to learn about the nuances of different industries and I am sure you will be able to come across a role that is of appropriate fit. It was during one of the sessions where I met my current boss.

Soo Zhi Kai
Country Regulatory Advisory & Project, Maybank Singapore Limited
Master of IT in Business (Financial Services Analytics)
Graduation Class of 2019

Yew Teik Kheng
Data Scientist, AirAsia
Master of IT in Business (Analytics)
Graduation Class of 2019 (Expected)

Taking a break from work to enrol myself in the full-time MITB programme from SMU was one of the most difficult decisions I have made, but it is also one of the most fulfilling chapters in my life. Coming from an engineering background in the offshore & marine industry, I had minimal training in programming and data analytics. However, the MITB programme offers a breath of courses including foundational ones such as Data Analytics Lab, Applied Statistical Analysis and Spreadsheet Modelling, which helped me to build my foundation for more advance courses such as Applied Machine Learning and Operations Analytics. Besides analytical courses, MITB also offers other domain specific courses such Big Data, Cybersecurity and IOT Technology, which are very relevant in the current technology landscape today.

Have any question? Please contact mitb@smu.edu.sg

Don’t want to receive these emails anymore? Unsubscribe

Where to find us

Get in touch