The Center for Business and Social Analytics (CBSA) at HKUST Business School is pleased to announce the winners of the CBSA-Wiser Analytics Challenge @HKUST 2023/24. Following a rigorous final round held on February 24 and 25, Team Xinovel formed by students from HKUST and CityU, clinched the top spot, while two other HKUST teams, ScamBusters and Social Pulse, claimed the second and third prizes, respectively.
Co-organized and sponsored by Wisers Information Limited (Wisers), this year’s competition attracted nearly 40 teams, totaling over 120 students from various local universities. Launched in November 2023, the competition tasked teams with mining a massive dataset of over 1.2 million news articles, social media posts, and comments. Their mission was to frame a problem, develop a data methodology, and craft innovative solutions in the form of predictive models or research projects to drive the development of risk management in Hong Kong.
Examining the predictive ability of news sentiment on future stock prices, building a scam monitoring system for risk management, and creating a visual representation of potential political risks: were among the proposals presented by the five finalist teams. The judging panel comprised esteemed industry experts from AIVI, BOA International Financial Group, HSBC, HKUST, and Wisers. They commended the teams for their drive and foresight, noting that some concepts, if developed further, could attract attention from industry stakeholders.
“Partnering with HKUST for the Analytics Challenge has been a fantastic initiative, not only in terms of advancing impactful social and business solutions, but also in nurturing and identifying exceptional talent,” said Ms. Denise CHE, CEO, of Wisers Information Limited. “We have been impressed by the students’ analytical skills, enthusiasm, and ability to work in teams, which are essential qualities for future leaders. The event provides a platform for young talent in Hong Kong to gain a head start in exploring potentially transformative data-driven tools and services across various domains.”
Dr. Michael LEUNG, CEO of BOA International Financial Group, expressed his views, “By using data analytics and machine learning models, the students have been able to find correlations amongst salient variables, such as social media posts, cybercrime rates and market indices, and predict changes that could be occurring and risks that would be looming. What matters to me most is the recommendations and solutions they proposed do bear great relevance to problems faced by government, businesses and industries alike. I congratulate all the teams for their efforts and achievements and wish them greater success in their pursuits of data analytics for academic and professional applications going forward.”
Mr. Clarence CHEUNG, Global Head of Non-Financial Risk Analytics, Wholesale Bank, HSBC, emphasized the end goal, “When building analytical applications, it is important to keep the user journey in mind. While data analytics applications are intricate and complex, the delivered insights should be presented as simply as possible. Similar to a sophisticated weather forecasting system, the prediction leverages sophisticated models, but the insights are delivered in a simple manner. Ultimately, insights should lead to timely action, like a reminder to bring an umbrella when the analytics expect it to rain tomorrow. This is an illustration of risk management using analytics with effective intervention.”
In the closing remarks, Prof. HUI Kai-Lung highlighted the immense opportunities presented by big data and CBSA’s commitment to harnessing its potential for the betterment of Hong Kong and beyond.
(Front row from left) Dr. Chao HE, Founder and CEO, AIVI Technologies; Mr. Clarence CHEUNG, Global Head of Non-Financial Risk Analytics, Wholesale Bank, HSBC; Ms. Denise CHE, CEO, Wisers Information Limited; Prof. Jean WANG, Associate Professor of Business Education, HKUST; Dr. Michael LEUNG, CEO, BOA International Financial Group; and Prof. HUI Kai-Lung, Director, CBSA.
(From left) Ms. Denise CHE with first-place winning team members including FOR Lek Shyuen, LE Trung Ha, NGUYEN Newt, and Adrian LEE Man Chun. They examined the predictive ability of news sentiment on future stock prices.
(From left) Prof. HUI Kai-Lung with second-place winning team members including CHOW Yu Gok, CHEUNG Tsz Ying, SO Chun Hin, and HUANG Hon Tsun. They built a scam monitoring system for risk management.
(From left) Dr. Chao HE with third-place winning team members including LEUNG Hok To LEUNG, LUI Hiu Pang, and CHAN Wing Yan CHAN. They created a visual representation of potential political risks.
See here for the finalist teams.