Niko MAN

BSc in Risk Management Science
HKEX

For eight weeks last summer, I worked at the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) as an intern. Each of the 23 summer interns was assigned to a supervisor. A few seminars were held to help us understand the daily operations of each department at the HKEX and give us a comprehensive picture of the company.

In the middle of the internship, the interns had a presentation contest. The contest created an opportunity for us to discover more about the global role of the HKEX, and through research and analysis develop our presentation skills. Giving a formal presentation in front of 100 people, including senior executives, provided a unique and valuable experience. In addition, I had a great time with my supervisor, who inspired me in many ways. I learned to make the extra effort and be well prepared before every meeting so that progress could be efficiently made. I learned the importance of collaboration, how each individual contributed to the team through his/her unique strengths and profession and how we could learn from each other regardless of seniority. I really appreciated my supervisor’s commitment to lifelong learning.

I gained far more from this internship than I had anticipated. I did not expect people to be so willing to give us guidance, and I did not expect such an amiable supervisor who would inspire me and teach me life lessons. I was also lucky to meet a lot of enthusiastic and crazy colleagues. Their laughter made me look forward to going to work. The work experience at the HKEX was definitely one of my most enjoyable summer moments.

Hei Ming CHENG

BSc in Risk Management Science
Lund University, Sweden

During the first half of 2017, I experienced a very fruitful semester in Lund University, Sweden. The mathematical statistics courses in Lund University suited my academic needs unexpectedly well. During the time of being an exchange student, I left some of the specific investigation in my major study like investment strategy for a period, and went back to the inevitable fundamentals, statistics and mathematics.

During the training in Lund University, I was introduced into non-parametric inference. I found that the investigation in statistical convergence is very crucial when it comes to different applications like simulation techniques, confidence intervals of parameter estimates and statistical model fitting. Also the study in empirical distribution contributes a lot in survival analysis, actuarial science and non-parametric bootstrap. Only through understanding the mathematics behind can we ensure whether we are using the statistical tools in the correct way and right situation. By learning statistical inference, I believe I am able to take several steps further when I return back to my specific major study.

Besides, I took some courses highly related to my major study, which are Monte-Carlo Simulation and Extreme Value Theory. The simulation course exactly covered the materials which are not taught in the course RMSC4001, such as sequential importance sampling, markov chain monte-carlo and bootstrap techniques. Although it introduced the random number generation and variance reduction techniques in the beginning, most of the contents were still fresh to me. The extreme value course is mostly about modeling the extreme values in 3 different approach, which are block maxima, threshold model and point process, and the relations between their respective statistical distributions.

Last but not least, I took a Swedish introductory course for international students in the very beginning of the semester. I met friends from different countries there and we all agreed that Swedish is a vague language to learn.