Data scientists showcase potential
THE CIMB Data Science Challenge 2017 for university students in Malaysia has been held for the second year to discover data scientists with great potential in analysing and interpreting big data.
The competition was organised by CIMB Group in collaboration with SAS Malaysia. It is endorsed by the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).
CIMB Group group chief people officer Datuk Hamidah Naziadin said: “The second edition of the CIMB Data Science Challenge 2017 reaffirms the Group’s commitment towards developing young talents in data science.”
“Data analytics and the focus on FinTech is already an integral part of our business, feeding into our strategic programme to improve CIMB’s customer experience. One objective of the challenge is to also raise awareness on the importance of data analytics to improve lives and contribute to Malaysia’s focus on developing its digital economy.
“To that end, identifying future data scientists is key to realising the opportunities and potential solutions presented by the proper analysis of big data.”
This year, the competition received 987 individual applications, in contrast to 120 team applications in 2016. Out of the 987 applications, 245 participants were shortlisted based on their online analytics test results.
Eight workshops were conducted to provide each participant with hands-on training on SAS software, modeling and interpretation skills. Seventy two were then selected to advance to the next level where they were randomly assigned into 24 teams of three. The teams then presented their business proposals during the recent challenge.
This year, the data challenge was on building models that could effectively evaluate the creditworthiness of banking customers, to help improve credit underwriting decisions.
After two days of data crunching, analysis and presentations, six teams emerged victorious to claim a total of RM30,000 in cash prizes. T eam 18 were named as champion, sweeping the top prize of RM12,000, in addition to a job offer with CIMB.
Team 13 was declared the first runner-up, taking home RM8,000 while Team 7 was second runner-up, winning a prize of RM5,000. Teams 24, 27 and 1 were named third, fourth and fifth runners-up, which won RM2,500, RM1,500 and RM1,000 respectively. The top six teams will get automatic internship opportunities in CIMB, if they are still studying.
SAS Malaysia managing director Andrew Tan said: “Analytics is a critical tool, highly in demand and valued globally for its ability to solve complex problems or create new opportunities that result in highly impactful outcomes for the economy and society.”
Tan said partnering with CIMB for this challenge helps to bring to life the importance and usefulness
of data analytics to a new generation of talents, who will be able to use the tools to develop their potential in the field of data science and help organisations like CIMB make informed
decisions using data-driven insights.
MDEC director, data economy Dr Karl Ng said it supports such initiatives to groom and nurture the talent pool for Malaysia’s business data analytics industry.
The Higher Education Ministry has supported this initiative by promoting and encouraging students in universities across Malaysia to participate in this annual competition.
Also present at the event were Higher Education Ministry director of Industry Relations Assoc Prof Dr Arham Abdullah, TalentCorp CEO Shareen Shariza Abdul Ghani and CIMB Group CEO of Consumer Bank Samir Gupta.