Data Science Conference 2021

Temple University’s Fox School of Business and Wells Fargo Equity Finance hosted the inaugural Data Science Conference in November 2021. Faculty from leading universities participated in a series of panels exploring technical issues relevant to today’s unprecedented environment. The conference explored aspects of statistical machine learning, deep learning and AI with an emphasis on tools and ideas that are relevant to systematic investing methodologies.

Agenda

Thursday, November 10, 2021

Modern tools for quantitative investing

10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Scholars working at the interface of statistics, machine learning, and finance, will offer a review of recent methods that promise to impact the practice of systematic investing.

Panos Toulis, University of Chicago, Booth of School of Business
Jun Liu, Harvard University
Natesh Pillai, Harvard University

Causal inference and policy evaluation in complex dynamic systems

1:30 pm - 3:00 pm

In the past few years we have witnessed a push in industry and academia on improving predictions out-of-sample by leveraging causal mechanisms and causal relationships among key performance metrics, in the context of a variable/complex environment. This panel will explore new methods that generate robust predictions by borrowing strength from A/B testing, causal inference, and policy evaluation tools.

• Ed George, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania
Hedibert Lopes, Arizona State University and INSPER
Alexander Volfovsky, Duke University

Recent advances in AI

3:15 pm - 4:45 pm

In Tech, Finance, and Big Pharma alike, techniques from machine learning, to artificial intelligence, to data science, promise to revolutionize how operations are run, forecasts are made, and vaccines discovered. Despite several CEOs have been warning the public about AI taking over the world, there have been real results and substantial progress. This panel will discuss AI tools that have impacted the practice.

• Ruslan Salakhutdinov, Carnegie Mellon University
• Donald Rubin, Temple University and Harvard University
Alan Karr, Fraunhofer USA Center Mid-Atlantic and National Institute of Statistical Sciences

Videos

Content Library

Speakers

Edoardo M. Airoldi

Fox School of Business, Temple University

Ronald Anderson

Fox School of Business, Temple University

Dean of the Fox School of Business and the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management

Ed George

Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania

Universal Furniture Professor Emeritus of Statistic and Data Science

Alan Karr

Fraunhofer USA Center Mid-Atlantic and National Institute of Statistical Sciences

Principal of AFK Analytics, LLC, Senior Data Scientist

John Leone

Wells Fargo Equity Finance

Jun Liu

Harvard University

Professor of Statistics

Hedibert Freitas Lopes

Arizona State University and INSPER

Charles Wexler Professor of Statistics in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

Natesh Pillai

Harvard University

Professor of Statistics

Donald Rubin

Temple University and Harvard University (emeritus)

Professor of Statistics, Temple University, and Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Harvard University

Ruslan Salakhutdinov

Carnegie Mellon University

UPMC Professor of Computer Science, Machine Learning Department, School of Computer Science

Panos Toulis

University of Chicago, Booth of School of Business

Associate Professor of Econometrics and Statistics at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

Alexander Volfovksy

Duke University

Assistant Professor of Statistical Science and Computer Science