September 18, 2020
On the evening of September 18th, the Graduate Admissions Office of NYU Shanghai and NYU Stern MS programs held an online webinar in Chinese to introduce the application requirements and procedures of the two master's programs: MS in Data Analytics and Business Computing (DABC) & MS in Quantitative Finance (QF). We were delighted to invite Professor Shizhuo Zhu to participate in the webinar. Professor Zhu is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Data Science at NYU Shanghai, and as of Fall 2020, he taught Dealing with Data & Introduction to Python Programming course for the MS DABC program.
Professor Zhu is an artificial intelligence expert at Ping An Technology Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, where he’s mainly responsible for the analysis of corporate performance in Environment、Social Responsibility, Corporate Governance (ESG). Professor Zhu received his bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Peking University, and afterwards he graduated with a master's degree from the Computer Department of the University of Science and Technology of China, before obtaining a PhD from the School of Information Science and Technology of Pennsylvania State University. Before joining Ping An Technology, he worked at the Big Data Center at AT&T, and the machine learning center at Capital One.
In his talk titled "Data, Information, Intelligence and their applications”, Professor Zhu first introduced what to expect from his course, and focused on the concepts of data, information, and intelligence and the relationship among them. He then further explained the actual application of data science using Ping An as an example.
Dealing with Data & Introduction to Python Programming
Python programming skills are now essential for data processing. The first part of the course taught by the Professor Zhu is to acquire the basic knowledge of Python programming; the second part is more practical, focusing on common application of data processing, including studying various processing skills, such as text processing, web crawling, website building, accessing database, data calculation and visualization, etc.
Data, information and intelligence
Professor Zhu shared more about the relationship among data, information and intelligence. Data is collected through text, manual input or directly from the Internet. Its original form is messy and noisy, of huge dimensions, and comes from diverse sources and formats. Therefore, data needs to be cleaned and organized through statistical analysis, so that it can be transformed into clear information. Traditionally speaking, data processing ends here (information), while in the new era of artificial intelligence, further processing is definitely needed. In the field of intelligence, the information we extract is not only clear, but also more meaningful. It can guide the computer to perform the following practices: i. Cognition, such as machine recognition of the car and people in the pictures; ii. Prediction, such as predicting what will happen next in a certain context; iii. Decision-making, which demands that the machine choose the best path possible based on existing information. The application includes decision-making investment, and urban planning (building hospitals, commercial centers) as government.
The applications
In recent years, there has been great progress in the machine learning field. After several years of development, the investment related to artificial intelligence has matured. The existing artificial intelligence companies in the market have all found real life applications for their technologies, which has also become one of the prerequisites for their continued development. Artificial intelligence must be combined with business scenarios to give full play to its advantages, and thus maintain activeness. We’ve listed below a few applications of the real life applications of the current artificial intelligence technology.
To further explain the importance of application of the technology, Professor Zhu used the work at Ping An Technology as examples, and elaborated on the application of artificial intelligence used for risk control, business development and assistance from the dimensions of insurance, credit and investment.
Risk control in insurance: Determine the probability insurance issued, risk profiling, and launch different insurance quotes. When applied to business development, the use of artificial intelligence will improve the processing speed, such as the rapid accident insurance claims for auto insurance. Car owners only need to upload the picture of the damaged/scrapped vehicle to the app, then the pricing calculations and claims will be quickly performed without any human intervention. The use of artificial intelligence as assistance is reflected in customer service, which does not require manual answers, as the machine could automatically search for answers to the questions with the help of artificial intelligence.
Risk control in the credit: risk profiling and assessment of the borrowers; when it comes to business development, artificial intelligence could help analyze and identify high-net-worth clients and link them to Ping An's products, in order to expand business.
The risk control in the investment includes performing risk assessment on bids and the debt paying ability, as well as identifying risks such as financial fraud. In the business development area, machines could help with investment consultations, while its application as auxiliary would lie in helping to generate intelligent reports, and automatic display of investment-related information and analysis results.
Based on the examples mentioned, Professor Zhu concluded that through the MS in Data Analytics and Business Computing (DABC) program, students can expect to learn not only technical skills and theory, but also their applications in the business settings. He then pointed out that, in the current workplace, business experts often do not know technical terms, while the technical experts do not understand the business world. Therefore, a "the person in between", that is, talents who understand both basic technology and its applications, will definitely help with future technological development, leading to the company’s success.