Zhiyang Yu was working full time at Bank of America while pursuing his masters in Mathematics in Finance when he joined the 2014 Threesis. He hoped to leverage his programming skills and further expand his skill set. Juggling a full-time job, classes, and assignments was hardly easy, but Zhiyang was up to the task, finishing the Threesis in second place with his presentation on factor-timing momentum, which uses historical data to predict future stock prices. He admits, “It started off a bit intimidating during the qualifying rounds. I didn’t expect to be in the final round, because I am not a native English speaker and to compete with native English speakers is challenging. But the experience was very rewarding when I completed the whole journey.”
Beyond his award-winning presentation, the hard work paid off for Zhiyang with added confidence and adroitness in presenting ideas. His advice to aspiring participants? “Practice a lot: the way you present the thesis is more important than the content itself especially because it is only three minutes. Enjoy the whole experience.” He credits the experience with giving him the confidence to conduct his presentation to management and leadership at his current job. He moved to Texas with his young family to work for IBM as a senior consultant in predictive analytics. GSAS provided him with good networking opportunities and knowledge skills but he reckons that most importantly his learning skills were sharpened. The knowledge he mustered in school will never be enough but the fast-paced life at GSAS gave him the skill to learn quickly.
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