Be the Future Analytics Leaders: Join HKUST IEDA!
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Prof. ZHANG Xiaowei is an Associate Professor and the Undergraduate Programs Coordinator in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics. He is also the Academic Director of MSc in Financial Technology Program at HKUST. His research focuses on methodological advances in stochastic simulation and optimization, decision analytics, and reinforcement learning, with applications in service operations management, financial technology, and digital economy. |
By Prof. Zhang Xiaowei
When you think of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics (IEDA), what comes to your mind? Factories? Manufacturing? Labor-intensive work? These notions are common misconceptions. IEDA is an interdisciplinary subject applied to smart decision-making using domain knowledge, data, models, and analysis. It is the modern discipline of scientific management.
Industrial Engineering emerged during the Industrial Revolution, when factories focused on improving efficiency in manufacturing processes. In the early 1900s, Frederick TAYLOR, known as the “father of industrial engineering”, laid the foundation for modern industrial engineering principles and practices by introducing scientific management and time studies. Operations research and decision theory arose in the mid-1900s, using mathematical models to aid decision-making. Today, with the rise of data and advancements in technologies like machine learning and AI, IEDA is applicable across various industries, including financial engineering, healthcare, and supply chain management.
Take financial engineering as an example. Financial engineers leverage predictive and prescriptive analytics, statistical models, machine learning algorithms, and simulations to create strategies for trading, risk management, and financial planning. For instance, they forecast market trends, optimize investment portfolios, tailor banking experiences, design and price financial products like derivatives and options, and even detect fraud by analysing extensive financial datasets.
At the HKUST IEDA Department, we prepare future analytics leaders through a robust curriculum that includes strong core courses in probability, statistics, predictive and prescriptive analytics, simulation, stochastic models and up-to-date application domains. Our graduates are equipped with portable skills applicable to a wide array of fields in the knowledge economy. They pursue careers in domain-specific areas such as financial engineering, consulting services, and engineering management, become managers, engineers, consultants, and analysts with supervisory and managerial roles in risk management, supply and demand analytics, e-commerce, revenue optimization, healthcare analytics, operations planning and scheduling, and global supply chain management.
To nurture the next generation of leaders in Decision Analytics and Financial Engineering, we offer the Future Analytics Leaders Scholarship to students who demonstrate exceptional academic performance and place IEDA (JUPAS Code: JS5260) as their Band A JUPAS choice. Beyond regular admission scholarships, recipients gain exclusive opportunities to intern at leading corporations, receive a bonus for global exchange applications, enroll in the elite program BEng in Decision Analytics with a concentration in Financial Engineering, and benefit from dual mentorship from faculty and industry leaders.
Embrace the opportunity to anticipate, strategize, optimize, and create a world that is not just efficient but also profoundly transformative. Are you ready to take the next step with IEDA? If you are passionate about becoming a future leader in the field of Decision Analytics, we invite you to join us. Hope to see you on HKUST Campus in the near future!