Nan Shan Insurance Sponsors SCU’s Big Data Research Center

Soochow University’s Department of Financial Engineering and Actuarial Mathematics (FEAM) signed a cooperation agreement with Nan Shan Life Insurance Company, Ltd. (Nan Shan; 南山人壽) at Downtown Campus on October 3^rd, 2018. Nan Shan became the first major sponsor of the Department’s Actuarial Big Data Research Center, and is expected to provide research fund for three years and scholarships for related projects.

In the signing ceremony, SCU vice president Wei-Liang Chao (趙維良) mentioned that with outstanding achievements in teaching and research, FEAM has been nurturing talents in various sectors including insurance industry, and that Nan Shan is arguably the most recognizable insurance company in Taiwan particularly known for its professional management and stable financial condition. Moreover, Nan Shan’s current CEO Ying-Tsong Du (杜英宗), is one of Soochow’s distinguished alumni from the Department of Accounting. Chao considered the cooperation with and sponsorship from Nan Shan to be great support and a privilege for Soochow.

Miao-Chiu Hsu (許妙靜), general manager of Nan Shan, stated that the trend of Big Data has emerged all over the world with the rapid development of Information Technology, and Nan Shan would like to cooperate with SCU in cultivating insurance actuaries and applying Big Data to the field of insurance. Hsu also complimented that many excellent actuaries are from SCU, and brilliant graduates are welcome to Nan Shan, where they may apply what they have learnt at school into practice.

Since its establishment in 1968, FEAM has cultivated numerous elites with two major focuses: financial engineering and actuarial insurance. With Big Data integrated into its program in recent years, FEAM has made further progress in researching and developing insurance technology and innovative insurance products, according to the chair of the Department Fang-Shu Chan (詹芳書).

Chih-Hua Chiao (喬治華), director of Actuarial Big Data Research Center, said that in hope of offering facts and numbers on the innovation, development, and risk assessment for enterprises, the Center will put its emphasis on “actuarial Big Data” and “artificial intelligence”, which is also useful and helpful to students in understanding more about the demand in this industry, getting familiar with corporations, and putting what they have learned into practice.