Bentley Hosts Annual Analytics without Borders Conference

The 2021 Analytics without Borders Conference was hosted by Bentley University virtually on March 26th alongside academic partners Bryant University, Tufts University, and Manning School of Business at UMass Lowell. Co-sponsors included DahShu National Institute of Statistical Sciences and the American Statistical Association. Faculty, students, and industry experts connected with one another and shared their thoughts on applications of data science.

This year's event featured keynote speakers Ren Zhang, PhD, Chief Data Scientist, BMO Financial Group, Nathaniel Lin, PhD, President, Analytics Consult, LLC, and Victor S.Y. Lo, PhD, Senior Vice President of Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Fidelity Investments Workplace Investing. 

Zhang provided insight on AI changing the financial service industry: "The artificial intelligence has demonstrated the potential to transform the entire financial services industry, with a combination of an explosion of data, technological advancements, and improved maturity of several promising techniques. It provides relevant customer experiences, enhanced operational efficiencies, prudent credit risk decisions, proactive fraud detection, and optimal price assignments. Though the potential impact is big, the transformation through AI comes with its challenges. It ranges from talent, data, technology, organization awareness, and regulatory support." 

She added: "When there is a business problem, let's forget about AI and other fancy technology tools because they are just the toolkit to solve the problem. We need to understand the business and find out the right way to tackle the issue." 

During the conference, there were opportunities for students to present research and network. The diversity of participants and presentations highlighted students skills in data analytics, visualizations, and communications necessary to become impactful future young professionals. 

The conference concentrated on a shared plan to harness the power of data science and discuss complexities of different issues in the field today. Students attended career discussion panels with industry professionals and panel discussions on Data Analytics and Data Science education. 

The Data Analytics Research Team is an interdisciplinary group of Bentley faculty and researchers dedicated to exploring and analyzing data sets to create knowledge and insights. The Bentley MS in Business Analytics program further encourages students to hone in on their interests by selecting elective courses in various professional areas, from finance, information, management, and marketing.