An important skill for data scientists is to be able to summarize their findings in an efficient manner. We believe students should master soft skills such as presenting along with technical skills to become well-rounded, desirable employees. To facilitate this, students receive final projects that allow them to do a deep dive into the course subject matter, honing their technical skills. For their Statistics with R final presentation, students were required to summarize their findings in a short presentation. They then shared this presentation with a panel of judges.

Student projects focused on the analysis of LIBOR rates and the real-world conclusions we can draw from trends within these rates. Given the time constraints of their presentations, students centred their presentations around important events like the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Some students even took the opportunity to forecast upcoming financial events based on existing trends!

The panel of judges is comprised of subject matter experts and professionals who are unfamiliar with the technical work. Students need to prepare their presentation in a way that is appealing for the varied audience. This mimics the interview environment and prepares them for their future careers.

We are very proud of our September 2018 cohort! They’ve dedicated countless hours to our Data Science and Mathematical Finance program and their hard work shows in their Statistics and R presentations. We are looking forward to seeing their continued success and growth in the second half of our program!