For the last six years, the University of Liverpools Institute for Financial and Actuarial Mathematics (IFAM) has organised summer research projects for mathematics undergraduates.
This year, around 50 students worked in project teams on challenges posed by industry partners, supervised by graduate students and mentored by IFAM academics. Dr Corina Constantinescu-Loeffen, director of IFAM, led the exercise.
The projects were wide ranging and had an international feel. They covered:
- Calculating compensation for loss of future earnings
- Assumptions of the USS valuation
- Double-debt problem
- Car insurance in countries where females have just been allowed to drive
- Probability of default in Ghana
- Credit scoring
- Analysis of social security systems for orphans in China
- Triangle-free reserving
- Automobile insurance and claim severities
- Traffic flows (in conjunction with Eddie Stobart)
- Profitability matrix (in conjunction with Eddie Stobart)
The results were presented by the students at their London Campus on 12 July. I had the pleasure of saying a few words at the end in my guise as alumnus and IFoA council member. It was excellent to see their application to real-world practical problems, and I am sure they will do well as their studying progresses and they enter their careers.
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