Student profiles

Xinyu is a PhD candidate at the Department of Engineering of University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the safety analysis in the energy sector. In his research, he was involved in many data wrangling and analysis work as well as the advanced simulation of the fast-nuclear reactors. He is also the tutor of MATLAB programming. During his time with the CCAF, he is helping to build up the database, cloud infrastructure, collect data and analyse data using programming skills. Xinyu holds a BEng degree in electrical engineering from University of Birmingham and an MPhil degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Cambridge.

Kristian is an undergraduate student at the University of Birmingham, currently studying for a BSc in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. He has experience with multiple machine learning libraries including Weka and TensorFlow related to the development of solutions utilising both regression and classification. He has a background in web development, IT system and network management, and a keen interest in machine learning systems, big data analysis and FinTech.

Lukas holds a BSc degree from WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management where he studied Finance and International Business. He was also one of the youngest graduates in the university, where he obtained the BSc degree at 19 years old. His research focuses on the development of new soft computing methods for financial forecasting. His bachelor thesis demonstrates the machine learning application on the conventional investment strategies in asset management, using deep-learning method of multi-layer perceptrons as well as a portfolio allocation system. His other interests include the benchmarking of machine learning algorithms against statistical models, GPU computing and the interaction dynamics of machine learning algorithms. Before joining CCAF, he interned with various companies in investment banking and consulting.

Derek Snow is a PhD student at the University of Auckland (UoA). He completed his secondary schooling in South Africa, before moving to New Zealand in 2013. He graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with a BCom in Finance, Accounting and Commercial Law, and went on to complete an Honours in Finance at the UoA. Prior to starting his PhD, Derek worked at three of the big four firms in assurance and advisory and corporate finance. His primary interests are in machine learning and prescriptive analytics. He is also an avid participant in data science competitions. The topic of his thesis is ‘Machine Learning Applications in Finance’. Derek’s future projects involve the creation and assistance of a postgraduate course in machine learning, the development of FirmAI.org, and the prospect of joining a newly created data science team at a bulge bracket investment bank.