Center for Data, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences

October 22, 2024Larry Shapiro - AI implementation for Finance Operations

AI implementation in Finance operations

Speaker: Larry Shapiro from PwC
When: Monday 11/11 at 6:30pm – Room ASB 136
Topic: AI implementation in Finance operations: Larry Shapiro leads the Global Oracle ERP implementation at PwC including application of AI to finance operations and engagement management. Larry’s talk will resemble a real life case study on how leaders in large global enterprises embrace AI.

Some of the topics he will cover include:

Leadership Concerns:

Risk Management: AI-related risks (e.g., model drift, bias, security breaches).
Regulatory Compliance: Adhering to regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, FINRA).
Return on Investment (ROI): Measuring AI’s financial benefits.

Ethical Considerations:

Bias and Fairness: Ensuring AI systems don’t perpetuate existing biases.
Transparency and Explainability: Understanding AI-driven decisions.
Data Privacy: Protecting sensitive financial information.

Strategic Imperatives:

Digital Transformation: AI’s role in modernizing finance operations.
Competitive Advantage: Leveraging AI for financial insights and agility.
Talent and Skills: Upskilling/reskilling workforce for AI-driven finance.

Implementation Challenges:

Change Management: Overcoming organizational resistance.
Data Quality and Integration: Ensuring accurate and unified data.
Scalability and Security: Deploying AI solutions enterprise-wide.

Please contact Jane Riff ( jriff@ramapo.edu ) for more information.

Categories: Data Science, Lecture Series, Mathematics, MSCS, MSDS

February 20, 2024A personal view of the Design and Evolution of C++ - Bjarne Stroustrup

Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of the C++ language and a pioneer in the field of Computer Science, is coming to Ramapo College on March 13th at 3:30 pm. Join us to learn about the past, present, and future of the language, and Dr. Stroustrup’s personal insights on its impact on the field of Computer Science . Dr. Stroustrup is currently a Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University in New York, NY.

All are welcome! Food will be available, along with a raffle for Google earbuds – courtesy of the Computer Science Club and co-sponsors. Check back here for room information as we get closer to the event.

Categories: Data Science, Lecture Series, MSCS, MSDS

October 26, 2023Science in Business: Challenges and Opportunities

Thursday, November 9, 2023, 11:15am – 12pm – Virtual (WebEx)

Please join us for a talk by Dr. Seyma Guven, Senior Applied Scientist at Amazon!

Dr Guven will share her personal journey to realizing how science works in a business setting. The talk will cover perspectives on the challenges and how students can be
better prepared to meet those challenges. This will be an open ended discussion – so bring your questions!

Dr. Guven have a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Georgia Tech, specializing in optimization in supply chain & logistics applications. She has been working for Amazon for 4+ years, in Supply Chain and Optimization Technologies (SCOT) department. She develops mathematical models and methodologies to solve inventory and transportation problems with high uncertainty using operations research and statistics techniques.

WebEx link provided to registrants prior to event

Categories: Data Science, Lecture Series, Uncategorized

March 29, 2023Bytes & Bites: Dinner and Data with Industry Professionals

Thursday, April 20, 3:30 PM – 6:30 PM (Alumni Lounges)

Please join us for sessions with Jane Riff, Product Manager, Business Intelligence & Advanced Analytics at KPMG and Peter Podolski, Senior Data Scientist at UPS

These sessions will focus on discussing the Capabilities of a Data Science Center of Excellence and on Theory, Practice and Pragmatism in Enterprise Data and Computer Science. This is a 3 part event, with a dinner for attendees served in between the 2 lectures for an opportunity for students to mingle with presenters and to informally discuss topics relating to the presentations.

.Register Now

Event Schedule:

- 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM: Presentation on Capabilities of a Data Science Center of Excellence by Jane Riff, KPMG
- 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM: Dinner and mingle with DMC students
- 5:30 – 6:30 PM: Presentation on Theory, Practice, and Pragmatism in Enterprise Data and Computer Science by Peter Podolski, UPS

Categories: Data Science, Lecture Series

March 29, 2023Data in the Music Industry

Tuesday, April 4, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM – SC-158 (Alumni Lounges)

Please join us for a talk by MSDS Alum Keith Osani, VP of Global Technology Data & Analytics at Sony Music!

This session will discuss the type of data available to music companies from digital platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube, TikTok and more. We will also explore the increasing volumes of data and the data engineering required to handle it all. Insight will also be given into the tools that data analysts are using to access the data and what types of analysis they are performing.

Categories: Data Science, Lecture Series, MSDS

March 15, 2023Decoding Data Science: A secret recipe for success

Thursday, March 30, 2023 7-8pm – ASB 323

Please join us for a DMC Lecture Series event: Decoding Data Science: A secret recipe for success, given by Dr. Kanad Basu, Data Science Leader & Applied Mathematician!

Abstract of talk:
Data Science has completely transformed all major business sectors such as IT, Banking, Healthcare, Entertainment, Sports & much more. In order to make better & smarter decisions, businesses all over the world have long gathered & analyzed data. The global data science platform market was worth US $ 3.93 billion in 2019 and US $ 4.89 billion in 2020. From 2020 to 2027, it is predicted that the Data Science market will increase at a compound annual rate of 26.9 percent. There has never been a better time to study analytics & data science and contribute to this exciting field.

In this talk Kanad will share his transition journey, lessons picked up along the way, the skills one must develop for being a successful data scientist and how to prepare & market yourself for the job market.

About the author:
Kanad Basu, an interdisciplinary scientist who has 18+ years of analytics and data science experience spanning across academia and industry. Kanad holds the prestigious “Professor of Practice” position at Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University. He also led a market research data science team at Medallia that focuses on building a consumer behavioral intelligence and benchmarking platform that combines millions of consumer activities to allow businesses to understand where, how, and why consumers spend their time and money. Before Medallia, he led the computer vision data science team at Covisus where he and his team implemented state of the art computer vision algorithms to keep our nation safe by securing supply chains, protecting global compliance for pharmaceutical and medical industries and aiding brands in the prevention of product tampering.

Kanad holds a PhD in Applied & Computational Mathematics, has multiple publications, patents & book chapters around big data analytics and statistical applications in the field of Mathematical Biology & Mathematical Finance. Kanad is a frequent speaker at national & international conferences in AI & Data Science.

Categories: Data Science, Lecture Series, MSCS, MSDS

February 14, 2023Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Discretely Observed Multivariate Vasicek Processes

Tuesday, February 21, 2023 – Via WebEx

Please join us for a DMC Lecture Series event: Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Discretely Observed Multivariate Vasicek Processes, given by Dr. Michael Pokojovy, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences, PhD Program in Data Science, PhD Program in Computational Science, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)!

This talk will discuss analyzing multiple zero-coupon bonds simultaneously to forecast future short rate dynamics. Those forecasts can play important roles in risk management, portfolio optimization, and other applications.

Because of low correlation with other asset classes, bonds play major roles in portfolio diversification efforts. A pure discount or a zero-coupon bond is a contract that does not involve intermediate interest payments but is traded at a deep discount, rendering yields at maturity when redeemed at full face value. As investment funds can create robust diversified portfolios with bonds, it is imperative that multiple bonds be analyzed simultaneously. The classical Vasicek model studies individual zero-coupon bonds and assumes the instantaneous interest rate follows a mean reverting process. In this talk, we consider an extension of the original Vasicek model to multiple zero-coupon bonds. The resulting coupled model is given by a stochastic differential equation driven by a p-dimensional white noise process. Given a set of observations over an equispaced time grid, our goal is to calibrate the system and forecast future short rate dynamics. Those forecasts can play important roles in risk management, portfolio optimization, and other applications. This is joint work with Ebenezer Nkum and Thomas M. Fullerton (UTEP).

Michael Pokojovy is an Assistant Professor of Data Science and Statistics. He holds a Ph.D. and a Dipl.-Math. degree in Mathematical Sciences, both from the University of Konstanz, Germany. Prior to his current appointment at UTEP, Dr. Pokojovy has held several postdoctoral positions in Europe and the US. His research interests include Statistical & Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, Scientific Computing, etc. In addition to numerous theoretical and methodological developments, he has a track record of collaborative research in statistical process control, quantitative finance, engineering, biomedical sciences, rational mechanics, etc. He has authored and co-authored a number of publications in a variety of professional journals. Dr. Pokojovy has also mentored and advised numerous undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students as well as postdoctoral scholars who are now successfully pursuing various exciting careers in industry or academia.

This talk was supported by a grant from the Ramapo College Foundation.

WebEx information will be provided upon registration

Categories: Data Science, Lecture Series, MSCS, MSDS

January 3, 2023Data Storytelling: The Secret to Delivering Business Impact with Analytics

Thursday, January 26, 2023 – 7-8pm – Location ASB 323

Please join us for a DMC Lecture Series event on Data Storytelling: The Secret to Delivering Business Impact with Analytics, given by Ganes Kesari, the Co-founder and Chief Decision Scientist at Gramener!

Did you know that over 50% of analytics projects fail due to bad data storytelling? Organizations invest heavily in hiring data science experts, buying expensive licenses, and setting up analytics processes. However, without the right data visualization, all this effort will go to waste. Stories have the power to engage people and inspire them to action. This session will introduce you to the concept of data storytelling. It will reveal the 4 steps to mastering visual storytelling with data using exciting industry examples.

Takeaways:

Understand the top challenges in converting data into actionable business decisions
Learn the 4-steps to building powerful data stories using real-world case studies
Find out how data visualization can drive decision-making at organizations

Ganes Kesari is the Co-founder and Chief Decision Scientist at Gramener , a data science company that helps organizations present data insights as stories. He advises executives on data-driven leadership and helps organizations adopt a data culture. Ganes is a TEDx speaker and Forbes Contributor. Find his latest work here: gkesari.com.

This talk was supported by a grant from the Ramapo College Foundation.

Categories: Data Science, Lecture Series, MSCS, MSDS

November 6, 20222022 Information Technology, Data Science & Computer Science Career Fair

Wednesday October 12, 1-3 pm, Alumni Lounges
On October 12, the Cahill Career Center hosted a specialized fair for Computer Science, Mathematics, Data Science and Information Technology majors to connect them to leading employers within their fields. 13 employers from a wide range of industries attended this event, with nearly 100 DMC students in attendance. Employer feedback was very positive, with high praise for RCNJ students on their preparedness and levels of knowledge. 100% of employers indicated that they would come back and attend more RCNJ events, with a highlight being the amount of engagement they each received from students in attendance. On the student end, surveys indicated more positive outcomes, with a focus on networking and the wide range of job opportunities that were discussed at the fair by employers.

The following employers were represented at this event: ACord Insurance, Aspen Insurance, Brooksource, Crestron Electronics, Gain Theory, Reckitt, SciTec, In., Selective Insurance Company of America, Sharp Electronics, United States Secret Service, UPS as well as the DMC Center and RCNJ Graduate Admissions. Of note, 7 RCNJ alumni represented their respective Employers at this Fair!

Categories: Data Science, MSCS, MSDS

October 25, 20222022 Raciti Memorial Lecture - The Curious Economics of Big-time College Sports

Thursday October 27, 6 pm, ASB 136

Please join us for a DMC Lecture Series event on economics, data, and sports – given by Dr. Brad Humphreys, West Virginia University and the Eastern Economic Association!

Dr. Humphreys is one of the leading sports economists in the world today, mainly known for his contributions to the economics of sports stadiums and the economics of college athletics. He is the 2016-17 Benedum Distinguished Scholar in Social and Behavioral Sciences at WVU and is the recipient of the 2022 Peter Sloane Award for his research contributions to European sports economics. He served as the President of the Eastern Economic Association in 2021-2022.
He is Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Economic Policy, a general interest economics journal and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Sports Economics, the International Journal of Sport Finance, the International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, and International Gambling Studies. Dr. Humphreys has published over 100 peer reviewed journal articles in leading economics journals.

This talk is sponsored by the Eastern Economic Association in partnership with the Sabrin Center and the Center for Data, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences.

Categories: Data Science, Lecture Series, MSDS