Estimator 17-2 by FAECTOR

volume 17 - issue 2

City Trip Budapest

page

ECONOMETRIE

Preface

From the president Dear reader, A lot has happened over the last couple of months. Our events have never been attended so well, for which we are extremely grateful. We most definitely were not short of social activities, but we also hosted both educational and career-oriented events. In this Estimator you can get an idea of what the last couple of months were like. Among the organised events were the National Econometricians Day (abbreviated in Dutch to LED), Find Your Match, ßETA and the City Trip. I would like to congratulate Kevin Dalmeijer on winning the ßETA. I hope the attendees understood his presentation. Besides that, I am relieved that we survived the City Trip to Budapest without any casualties or serious injuries. Based upon the consumed amount of alcohol, this can be considered a small miracle. In January, quite a few committees were launched; we welcome on board the new Almanac Committee, ECD Committee, IRP Committee, LED Committee, Lustrum Committee, QFT Committee and a new member of the IT Committee. With the addition of these new, ambitious active members we can assure you that FAECTOR will continue to move forward over the next couple of months. These new committees prove that we are already thinking about the next academic year, which will be a very important year for FAECTOR. Not only will be organise LED, but we will also celebrate our tenth lustrum. We are more than confident that the LED Committee and the Lustrum Committee will make sure that we will not forget these events any time soon. As a board member, it also starts to sink in that we will not be running this faculty association forever. As of the 16th of March, the applications for the 50th board of FAECTOR are open. Even though we are far from mentally ready to make place for our successors, it is necessary that we take a step back in a couple of months. If you are interested in a board year at FAECTOR, we highly advise you to stop by our office. I would like to encourage each and every one of you to keep up the amazing turnout at our events. Let’s make sure that the next few months will be just as epic as the preceding months. All the best, Bob Muijs President of FAECTOR 2014-2015

Table of Contents

Who is who? 04 | Activities Committee

05 | Recruitment Committee 06 | Almanac Committee & ECD Committee 07 | IT Committee 08 | IRP Committee

volume 17 - issue 2

Career 12 | Find Your Match

16 | LED 22 | Inhouse Day Travelbird

Study 10 | ßETA

18 | Exchange Experience Calgary & Coimbra 28 | Alumni Drink

Special 21 | Chefs Chiara & Jack

23 | Puzzle 26 | Adventures of the 49th board 33 | Agenda

14 20

Study Section 29 | Educational Board

30 | Education Committee 31 | Graduates

Colofon

Final Editing: Hugo Wolters, Ivan Olthuis, Madalina Moraru, Sian Tee, Susanne Pols, Ying Kid Cheung > Office address: Erasmus University, Room H11-02, P.O box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, estimator@faector.nl > Aquisition: Bob Maks, phone: 010 - 408 14 39 > Circulation: 1150 copies > Printer: Nuance Print Design/DTP FAECTOR > Estimator is a periodical from FAECTOR

VOLUME 17 ISSUE 2 // ESTIMATOR

FAECTOR

Preface

Preface Estimator Dear reader, Hereby we present to you the second Estimator of this academic year. It has been a while since the previous edition, but that by no means implies that life has stood still at FAECTOR. On the contrary, there have been numerous career and social events, not to mention the amount of mischief the 49th board has been up to. Some committees had a round of recruitment in January, and so we have a couple of new faces at several committees. In this edition, the Activities, Recruitment, IT, Almanac, and Econometric Career Days Committees will be given the opportunity to introduce themselves. As mentioned, there were ample career events over the last few months. The winner of the Best Econometric Thesis Award (Ă&#x;ETA) was Kevin Dalmeijer, whom we would hereby like to congratulate once again. Furthermore, there were events as the National Econometricians

Day (LED) and Find Your Match, which enabled many of our members to come in contact with all kind of companies. More career events can be found further in this edition. But there were of course also several social events. First of all, there was the interfaculty gala in January. On top of that there were the New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s drink and the ice skating. However, the city trip was undoubtedly the most exciting event, which you members already anticipated considering how the servers crashed once the subscriptions to the trip opened. Curious how the trip unfolded? Well, you can read all about it in this Estimator. Enjoy! The Estimator Committee

Who is who?

Activities Committee

The Activities Committee consists of the lovely guys and gals present on this page. The AC is responsible for the organisation of the Pub Quiz, the City Trip, the End of the Year Party and the programme during the Eurekaweek. This highly motivated committee is always in for a party. Immigrant Emrys’ effort to fit in and speak Dutch is appreciated, even though it makes him sound like he is too dumb to actually study Econometrics. The fairly balanced mix of wieners and boobies ensures that not every single activity is primarily about drinking beer or braiding each other´s hair (even though beer is involved in every single acivity). All jokes aside, it is great to have various perspectives of what an event should consist of. I hope to see you at one or more of the future events organised by the AC!

Hi, my name is Joost Dopheide and I am a member of the 20142015 Activities Committee. I am 20 years old and in my third year now. I decided to apply for the AC, because I always had a lot of fun going to all the activities in my first two years as a member of FAECTOR (it was still called Econometrisch Dispuut then), and therefore I thought it would be cool to do something back and to take part in FAECTOR. I chose for the AC, because last years city trip was a real success and I wanted to organize such a fun trip. Next to FAECTOR, I am a member of Antibarbari, the student football club in Rotterdam, and like to hang and go out with friends! I hope everybody who is attending this years activities organized by the AC will have a lot of fun and let Budapest be an unforgettable trip!

Hi, my name is Romana van Tuijl. I am 20 years old and a second year econometrics student. I have always had a lot of fun at the FAECTOR activities, that is why I joined the Activities Committee this year. We have already organised a pub quiz, and now the city trip is coming up, which (I can guarantee you) will be awesome. Besides FAECTOR, I like to have a drink at SSR Rotterdam or go out with friends. As a new year’s resolution I also started running this year, so let’s hope my discipline will not let me down. I am looking forward to see you at one of our activities!

Hi all! My name is Helga Koo. I’m 20 years old and currently a second year Econometrics student. I grew up in a small town called Leusden, but have been living in Rotterdam for almost 2 years already. In my spare time you will find me playing badminton and swimming. I’m also a member of B&R Beurs. Moreover, I like to party and to have fun with friends. As a member of the Activities Committee we are responsible for creating the most awesome events for you! We have only organized the pub quiz so far, but many more events are coming up. I’m really looking forward to seeing you all!

Hi there! My name is Jeroen Wernekinck and I am a third year student of the Dutch econometric program. I am born and raised in Maasland, which is a small village nearby Delft. Even though I attended many activities organized by FAECTOR, this is my first year as an active member. Last year I was among the lucky few who went on the amazing CityTrip to Dublin. This year we are going to Budapest and as a member of the Activities Committee I can tell you that this trip will be better! I hope you are among the lucky ones this year, so we can party together!

Hi, my name is Emrys and I am 21 years old. I grew up in a great town called Lewes in England but moved to Holland because they consistently outperform England at the World Cup and I just grew sick of it; if you can’t beat them, join them. I signed up to the AC as soon as I knew Bob Muijs would be our representative from the board, he’s so amazing. As well as being a keen econometrician I am a part time underwear model for Calvin Klein but will be giving this up soon to focus on my studies.

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FAECTOR

Who is who?

Recruitment Committee

Hi, we are Mats and Bob and are proud to work with one of the most awesome committees of FAECTOR: The Recruitment Committee. This committee helps us organise several big events such as Find Your Match, Alumnus Vertelt and several Inhouse Days. These events help students orientate on the job market and find a career path to pursue. Besides working around the clock for you the committee also likes to party and drink together and have already made quite a few memorable memories. Come have a drink with us and hear all about it at one of our upcoming events!

Hi, my name is Ishara and I´m 21 years old. I´m now a member of the Recruitment Committee and this is my first FAECTOR committee. I love to party, so maybe some of you already met me at the drinks, but I probably won´t remember you. The best memory of FAECTOR are the studytrips in my 1st, 2nd and 3rd year and the Recruitment Committee of course. With the committee we organize a lot of fun events with great companies. So if you want a great career, join our events! I´m looking forward to the 31st

Hi! My name is Zaja and I’m doing the premaster Econometrics. Before, I studied mathematics in Utrecht (where I also live), but I decided to switch to Econometrics. Right now, I think it was the best choice of my life, especially because I joined the Recruitment Committee at FAECTOR. There, I met my new BFF’s. We also have the world’s best (and hottest) leaders. My best memory with the RC was the LED, all committeegenootjes crashed my apartment in Utrecht and we had the best embarrassing moments in ‘t Hoekje (a snackbar near to the Filemon). I’m looking forward to

The name is Struijk, Koenraad Struijk. I am allergic to nuts and the Dutch. Therefore I will embark on an exchange to Singapore. Furthermore I love (telephone) numbers. That’s why the stock market has become my big passion. My mood is a representation of the stock rates; however, not necessarily perfectly correlated. The reason begin that there are more things in life. I like to step outside the social barriers of econometrics to enhance my personal development. Finally I love holidays, especially winter sport. A skiing holiday still seems a suitable initiative for an econometric faculty association such as FAECTOR.

Most people already know me but for the people who never met me, my name is Ricardo. I chose the international bachelor because I lived in the United States for 4 years. Currently, I’m in my 3rd year. Besides studying, I’m also a member of Laurentius, active member at FAECTOR and this year I founded an investment group within B&R Beurs. My interests lies in the stock market and baseball. Being part of the Recruitment Committee is useful to broaden your network and to practice your calling skills. Feel free to have to drink with me during the drinks at Divoza.

Who is who?

Almanac Committee

As the advisor of the Almanac Committee I proudly present to you all my fellow committee members, that you will get to know on this page. The Almanac Committee is responsible for the almanac of the academic year 2015-2016. We are enthusiastic and dedicated to make sure that you will store the new almanac onto your bookshelf for the rest of your life. Besides working hard for the almanac the committee also likes to hang around at a random party. We are looking forward to showing the new almanac to you!

Hello, my name is Martijn Cazemier. I’m 18 years old and I have started studying econometrics this year. I have lived in Rotterdam my entire life and still do. I like the university, the study and most of all its faculty association FAECTOR. Besides studying I like to have fun with friends and I play a lot of baseball. Currently I play for the Dutch national youth team. I decided I wanted to join the Almanac Committee and fortunately I got the honor of making next year’s lustrum almanac. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy making it!

ECD Committee

Hello everyone! My name is Mats van Rijn and as Career Officer I help the Econometric Career Days (ECD) Committee organise the biggest career event of FAECTOR. If you want to meet interesting companies to start your career of find internship, then the ECD is the perfect event. Coming year will be the third edition of the ECD. The committee is already working hard to make the next ECD even bigger and better than the last editions. I hope to see you all there next November!

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Hi! My name is Frank, 19 years old, and I’m in the second-year of Econometrics and first-year of Laws. I was born and raised in our beautiful city Rotterdam, which I love very much. For those who already know me, I’m a proud supporter of Feyenoord and go very often to the Kuip. Besides that, I’ve played on a high level ‘korfbal’ and I’m a referee in the masterclass of our country. I hope to see you all at activities from FAECTOR and ofcourse at the upcoming Econometric Carreer Days in November! Good luck!

Hello! My name is Eveline Mathol, I am 19 years old and I live in Leiden. Currently I am in the second year of my bachelors Econometrics. In my free time I enjoy partying with friends and playing sports, such as hockey and working out at the gym. I also really love to cook, Jamie Oliver is a great inspiration for me. Watching series also has a great role in my life, I can’t wait for the next season of Geordie Shore! This year I will be part of the Almanac Committee. Next year FAECTOR will be celebrating her 50th birthday. My committee and I are going to make a fantastic Lustrum Almanac, that you want to have on your bookshelf forever!

Heya! My name is Naut Bulten and I’m currently in my second year of econometrics. I grew up in Apeldoorn, and I moved to Rotterdam 2 years ago to study here. I live here in a nice apartment in Kralingen together with my beautiful girlfriend from Russia with whom I’ve been in a relationship for almost 4 years now. A couple of months ago we decided to get a dog together, so as I’m writing this a 7 month old beagle is laying next to me, chewing on her bone. Apart from dogs, I also love travelling (hence the Russian girlfriend, heh). My favorite country is the USA, and it would be a dream come true for me if I could live there one day.

Hi there! My name is Jelle Geerts, I’m a third year student of Econometrics in Rotterdam. This year I’m helping out Mats together with Nikki and Frank in organizing the Econometric Career Days 2015! Since the ECD is quite young, we are trying to organize a bigger event then last year. I like to go out, have some drinks and laugh with friends. I’ve also joined a student association and I live in Kralingen since then.

My name is Nikki van de Ven (23) and i am born and raised in Almere. I lived in Delft for the last 5 years because i already did a bachelor and master at the TU Delft. I hadn’t had enough of the student-life, so I decided to start a pre-master for OR&QL. In my spare time I play badminton and I like to travel as much as possible! I recently moved to Rotterdam, so joining the ECD Committee is a good way for me to get to know more people in Rotterdam and companies related to econometrics.

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Who is who?

IT Committee

The IT committee assists me as IT officer with maintaining the website, computers and other IT devices. The committee often operates after the office hours of FAECTOR, so they don’t interfere with the work of the board and the hard working FAECTOR committees. Furthermore these working times make it possible to do the IT tasks while enjoying some bottles of beer. I have a love-hate relationship with this committee full of nerds, since they generally don’t like the odd IT tasks but we enjoy doing a diskthrow competition disks through the hallway, our trips to the Media Markt and making fun of my embarrassing moment trying to place two disks into one CD player!

Hey everyone! My name is Sam Hazelaar, I am 21 years old and I’m born and raised in The Hague. I currently live in Rotterdam, nearby the Zoo Blijdorp. The last few years I have enjoyed the activities of FAECTOR and this year I thought it would be a good time to become an active member. I am really motivated to innovate the IT of our association as good as possible this year. In my leisure time, I like to do my hair, read books about computers and doing my homework ;).

My name is Nemanja Milovanovic and I’m currently in my third and final year of the Dutch Econometrics bachelor, majoring in logistics. Last year I joined the IT Committee and became an active member, which promised to be very exciting. Being a member of the IT Committee means that you are responsible for the IT infrastructure at FAECTOR, an essential part of their daily operations. Aside from all the responsibilities, there is never a dull moment in the life of an IT Committee member, be it having a DVD throwing contest in the hallways, playing Age of Empires in the board room or going out on a committee trip to the Media Markt, we are in for all sorts of fun! Adios!

Sorry, I’m too complicated to be described in a couple of words. I’m a puzzle, yes indeed. Yet I will try. The day I was born, the nurses wept in despair, for they knew they would never see a child such as me again. My hobbies include experiments into controlling the weather, and a successful attempt to breed dolphins and humans. I don’t need these lines to get laid. I am humble. I have no need to brag, but I do live on the ‘vijverlaan’ and drive a Rolls Royce Phantom. I am engaged to Candice. Don’t look for me, I will find you…

Hello everybody, my name is Bas Vringer and I am part of this year’s fabulous FAECTOR IT Committee. Together with Felix, Eric, Nemanja & our newest and promising member Sam, I spend some of my time taking care of FAECTOR’s IT related issues. Although we always have lots of fun playing with hard drives, LAN cables and old office CD-ROMs at H10-05 (and the hallway), the absolute highlight so far has been our committee trip to Media Markt. An unforgettable day with a beautiful result: a brand new NAS (Network Attached Storage) for the office, swiped by the one and only Felix; our strict but lovely supervisor. See you around!

Who is who?

IRP Committee

The IRP Committee is undoubtedly the most rewarding committee of all. It provides you with an internship as part of your Bachelor degree, experience with company communications and last but not least organizational skills as part of the study trip. This year’s IRP Committee has gotten off with a great start calling companies and acquiring positions for those of you who have decided to take part in this prestigious project. Next to that they are more than eager to start planning your studytrip!

Hello, my name is Jaap van Elsäcker and I am 20 years old. I am in my third year of econometrics and I live in a small town called Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel, which is only 30 minutes away from the university. In my first year I was a member of the ‘Eerstejaarscommissie’ and this year I am member of the IRP Committee 2015/2016. Right now we are looking for internships for students for their first block next year. The actual more fun part, organizing the amazing trip for the summer of 2016, will start later on. The reason I applied for this committee is the combination of learning a lot about acquisition, doing an interesting internship and after all going on a legendary trip, where you will probably hear and see a lot of in the next year!

Hi! My name is Loes, and I’m honored to organize the internships for the IRP this year, as well as an amazing trip! I am currently a 2nd year Econometrics and a 3rd year IBA student. My personal goal for the International Research Project is to help students get a better idea of the work they might be doing later on, while at the same time getting everyone excited to work abroad. I love traveling and discovering new cultures, and thus cannot wait for the trip next summer!

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FAECTOR FAECTOR

SOCIAL

09 9

After Exam Drink

New Year’s Drink & Pub Quiz After the well deserved two weeks of Christmas holidays, all of us were more or less eager to start fresh a new block. And not just a new block, but a new year. The students of Erasmus

University all migrated back to Rotterdam with plenty of new year’s resolutions, looking forward to FAECTOR’s first event in 2015: The New Year’s Pubquiz!

As to be expected, the event turned out to be a great success. On the first Thursday of the new block, students gathered at Divoza for the second annual Pubquiz, the most competitive event of our study association. As all the spots filled out quite fast, all our econometricians were training for this event which would soon determine the smartest of Erasmus’s best students. The night included two events: first, we would all gather at 7 P.M. for some rounds of challenging questions. Later on, around 9.30 PM the night started to flow into a regular social drink, and it started to get pretty crowded.

and beer. Thus, the atmosphere was constantly cheerful as the drinks kept pouring through the night. Screams of happiness and excitement and also disappointed faces were all over Divoza, and after all this emotional rollercoaster ended, the winners were soon to be announced.

Each participant was given a number of coins which were rapidly exchanged with wine

The rounds varied from picture rounds, where each team was provided a sheet of paper with

pictures and had to guess what it represented, to music rounds, where our amazing students had to recognise the most epic songs of all time. Of course, the rounds with trivia questions were not missing, testing the general culture of our students. Rumours say that they were quite tough, but nothing is too much for econometrics students! To end a perfect pubquiz, a new round was introduced, an unconventional round: every team was given some duct tape, a piece of rope, a marshmallow and a handful of spaghetti. Our mission was to build a tower, and the team with the highest tower of all, would win some extra points. Even though most of us ended up eating the marshmallow, some teams found the most creative way to build an empire to the

“Tears of joy and applauses filled the location as the song “We Are the Champions” by Queen was playing in the background.”

ceiling. After all these intense rounds, with great suspense the winner of the 2nd Pubquiz were announced. Tears of joy and applauses filled the location as the song “We Are the Champions” by Queen was playing in the background. After the lucky winners were announced, the usual social drink started. The place got even more crowded as more and more econometricians entered Divoza ready to catch up after the holidays and to party the night away once again next to their friends. The increase in the level of beer got the place buzzing even more and naturally, most of us ended out going out after the drink, as it was a Thursday night! Madalina Moraru

STUDY

Best Econometric Thesis Award

ßETA

After the successful previous editions of the Best Econometric Thesis Awards (ßETA), the third edition of this event was organized on Friday the 30th of January. The ßETA is an event

organised in cooperation with Veneficus, where the best thesis is rewarded with a prize of €1000!

The Best Econometric Thesis Award (ßETA) is an event which was first organised three years ago, and is organised in order to reward students who worked extremely hard on their thesis. For the ßETA, each student who wrote a master thesis had the opportunity to hand in their thesis to one of the master thesis coordinators. After the applications were closed, there was one thesis selected for each of the master specializations: Econometrics, Operations Research and Quantitative Logistics, Quantitative Finance and Business Analytics and Quantitative Marketing. Each nomination is judged on the following criteria: innovation, reproducibility, scientific contribution, potential for publication and entrepreneurship potential. Eventually, the best thesis is

workshop organised by Veneficus. Veneficus is a company which is specialized in doing complex data analysis, which is applicable in various topics. During the workshop, several employees at Veneficus showed which kind of tools are used in order to do proper data analysis in their specific field of expertise.

rewarded with a prize of €1000, and all other nominations are rewarded with a prize of €250. In contrary to the previous years, not only the best master thesis is rewarded, but there was also a special prize for the best bachelor thesis!

“Prof. dr. van Dijk announced that Kevin Dalmeijer had become the winner of the ßETA 2014, and therefore winner of the amazing prize of €1.000! ” Before the ceremony event started, there was first a

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After the workshop by Veneficus had ended, it was time to start with the ceremony. The ceremony was opened with a few words from Prof. dr. Groenen about the importance of doing proper academic research. Now the time had come to award the best bachelor thesis, and Dr. Heij announced that Gelly Fu had produced the best bachelor thesis! His thesis was about price discovery in the S&P 500

Index and Options Market. Price discovery is the process in which way new information is incorporated in order to arrive at a new market equilibrium price. His research specifically uses intraday quotes of the S&P 500 index market and options market. The best bachelor thesis was rewarded with an amazing prize, as the winner was rewarded with a skydive arrangement! Now the bachelor thesis has been announced, it was time to start the presentations for the master theses. The first presentation was given by Derrick Olij, who couldn’t be present at the ceremony as he is currently working in South Africa. His thesis succeeded in finding another risk measure when looking at diversification. Usually, the variance of the

FAECTOR

Best Econometric Thesis Award portfolio is used to express the risk, but the variance is not able to take into account the risk on very large negative returns. Therefore, his thesis focused on finding another measure, namely by expressing risk as the Conditional Value at Risk. After the video presentation of Derrick, the next presentation was given by Sabine den Daas, who did her thesis for the specialization Business Analytics and Quantitative Marketing. She gave an interesting presentation, where she explained the main ideas of her thesis. Her thesis focussed on gaining insights in user segments, by using a Multinomial Probit Model. Except from gaining knowledge about customers, another main aim was to forecast to which kind of group new customers would belong. This topic definitely has large practical relevance, which has been shown by using a real big data case of the Dutch site Marktplaats.nl. The third presentation was for the Econometrics specialization and was given by Didier Nibbering. He examined whether social contagion is at work within an social

network. In his thesis, he uses an econometric framework to understand the online behaviour. The methods are applied to a Twitter dataset about ‘The Ultimate Dance Battle’, and evidence for social contagion seems to exist, especially when looking at positive reviews. The topic of this thesis is interesting, as understanding behaviour on social media is a hot topic nowadays. Last but not least, Kevin Dalmeijer presented his thesis, which was for the specialization Operations Research and Quantitative Logistics. His thesis dealt with the Time Window Assignment Vehicle Routing Problem (TWAVRP). The TWAVRP is the problem of assigning time windows for delivery before the demand volume becomes known, while minimizing the expected total cost. In his thesis, he develops a branch-and-cut algorithm which is able to solve some test instances faster than any other existing algorithm. His thesis has clearly large value for the literature, as it is an improvement compared to all other existing algorithms. After all interesting presentations had been

finished, it was time to announce who would become the winner of the ßETA 2014. After some remarks and building up some tension, Prof. dr. van Dijk announced that Kevin Dalmeijer had become the winner of the ßETA 2014, and therefore winner of the amazing prize of €1.000! All other contestants were also rewarded for their

great theses, and all received a cheque of €250. Now the official ceremony had come to an end, it was time to end this great event with a social drink. Ivan Olthuis

CAREER

Company Speed Dating Event

Find Your Match

On the 22 January, FAECTOR organized the career speed date event Find Your Match. Seven companies participated this year. The participating companies were Capgemini, Gibbs, At one o’clock the first students arrived in the Faculty Club at the seventeenth floor of the Tinbergen building (formerly known as the H-building). Members of the Recruitment Committee welcomed the students and the companies. Before the event had started,

KPMG, Newcraft, Veneficus, Winkelstraat.nl and Zanders. These companies are in the field of Finance or Marketing/Big Data.

the students and the companies had a first small talk to become acquainted in the restaurant with a beautiful view of the city of Rotterdam.

sounded the gong. This means that the event has started. Every student had several dates with the companies. These dates took about seven minutes. At the end of each date, the gong After the small introduction by was sounded. This means the Bob Maks, the Commercial conversations had to be ended Officer of the 49th board, he in 30 seconds. Some students found the dates were over too soon.

“Every student had several dates with the companies. These dates took about seven minutes. ”

for the next date or to relax. Some of them had a break of half an hour. A few of them even had time to study! However, most of them just enjoyed the wonderful view. At five o’clock, the formal dating event ended. While enjoying a drink and a snack, both students and companies had the possibility to talk with each other. Some students were invited to visit the company at a later moment. So it was certainly a successful event. Ying Kid Cheung

Between the dates, the students had time to prepare

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FAECTOR

SOCIAL

Ice Skating

Ice Skating An old tradition for the Dutch, a brand-new tradition for FAECTOR: The Ice Skating Trip. On the 4th of February about 40 members gathered at ‘De Schaatsbaan’ to show off their skills on the ice. For many of the internationals, and even for some of the Dutch, this was their first experience with ice skating ever. So, to break the ice a little bit, ‘De Schaatsbaan’ organised a small clinic to introduce us newbies into the art of ice skating. We had to do some exercises both on our own and together, which were a lot of fun, but sometimes harder than expected. Even though many of us didn’t have much experience on the ice before, most of the econometricians proved themselves to be pretty good ice skaters in the end. When everyone had gotten tired and cold we had a little break, with some hot chocolate of course, because an Ice Skating Trip without hot chocolate milk is

not an Ice Skating Trip.

“So, to break the

ice a little bit, ‘De Schaatsbaan’ organised a small clinic to introduce us newbies into the art of ice skating. ” The first ever Ice Skating Trip was made into a big success thanks to the joint forces of the Eerstejaarscommissie and the Freshmen Committee and will hopefully be followed up by a lot more Ice Skating Trips in the years to come. Sian Tee

14 Gala

SOCIAL

Interfaculty Gala

The annual Interfaculty Gala was held this year on the 15th of January. Our association, together with four other associations, Cedo Nulli, FBMG, In Duplo and ACE suited up and gathered for the night at Pappegay, a party place in the heart of Rotterdam. The theme of this year’s gala was Hollywood, so the black tie was present in every econometrician’s outfit, while the ladies impressed with their glamorous outfits, because for the evening, they would be Hollywood celebrities. As the guests arrived, they were welcomed and asked to leave their coats at the wardrobe. As soon as they would enter the party, while still looking sharp, they could have their picture taken by a professional photographer, on the red carpet together. Rumor has it that characters like Austin Powers, Tom Cruise and Borat were the main guests of the evening and entertained all our members. Great Success! The bar was in a separate room from the dance floor, and served limitless drinks such as beer, wine and

hard liquor... which says it all.

“Rumor has it that

characters like Austin Powers, Tom Cruise and Borat were the main guests of the evening and entertained all our members.” After getting drinks, people would head to the main room

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with glasses of alcohol in both of their hands to assure a good start of the evening. The ice broke fast and the ladies and the gentlemen soon started dancing, forgetting that they are wearing tuxedos and long dresses which are about to be ruined by the end of the night. The room filled with almost 350 guests warmed up as the dj was playing music which fitted everyone’s taste. It was indeed crowded, but that was a good opportunity for people to get really close and of course, more pictures were taken which were

less decent and most of the times photobombed by Tom Cruise. Time passed by really fast, of course, with such a good atmosphere and an open bar at everyone’s disposal. The lights turned on around 4 in the morning, when people started finding their way out. Most of them started a journey which seemed to be full of obstacles in that state of being, in search for food to end their crazy night. Madalina Moraru

FAECTOR

Photobombs

Photopage

CAREER

Landelijke Econometristendag

LED

On Tuesday February 10th the National Econometricians Day (Mostly abbreviated as LED in Dutch) took place in Nieuwegein at the ‘NBC Congrescentrum’. The LED is a day which is specifically organized for econometricians, which gives econometricians the opportunity to get in contact with all kind of companies. First, let me explain the idea behind the LED. The LED is a day which is specifically organized for econometric students from all different universities in The Netherlands. Every year, a different study association organizes the whole event. This year’s LED was organized by VSAE and Kraket, which are the study associations from both universities in Amsterdam. During the LED, all students have the possibility to get in touch with 35 different companies, which are active in all different fields of econometrics.

In the early morning of February 10th, most of the econometricians from Rotterdam took the train at 07:50 from Rotterdam Central Station. Unfortunately, the train arrived at Utrecht with a delay of over 20 minutes, but everyone was still able to get at the NBC Congrescentrum in time. After arriving, it was time to drink some coffee or tea, and have some breakfast. After that, the LED 2015 was officially opened by the chairman of the LED committee, and the first guest speaker, Ad

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Verbrugge, was introduced. Ad Verbrugge is a Dutch philosopher, and during his guest lecture he tried to relate philosophy with economics and econometrics. When he finished his lecture, it was time to start with the morning cases. Each of the students was assigned to a case of a company. Beforehand, it was possible to state your preferences, and usually you were assigned to a company which was one of your stated preferences. In general, each of the cases starts with an introduction about the

company. After that, a case is explained, where usually the winner(s) could win some nice prizes. During the cases, it is possible to get in touch with the associated company, and ask any questions to one of the recruiters available. After the morning cases, it was time for the lunch. The lunch was very nice, with lots of luxury sandwiches and all kind of other things. During the lunch it was possible to have a chat with all of the participating companies in an informal setting. Besides this,

FAECTOR

National Econometricians Day you really had the opportunity to talk to multiple companies, since the lunch took quite some time. After the lunch, there was a second round of cases. The setting of those cases was similar to the ones in the morning.

“During the cases,

it is possible to get in touch with the associated company, and ask any questions to one of the recruiters available.” With ending the afternoon cases, the formal part of the LED was almost finished. Only one lecture was remaining, and for all Dutch econometricians

the guest speaker was wellknown; Former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. After his political career, he became ‘Partner Corporate Responsibility’ at EY. Therefore, during his lecture he mainly focused about sustainability and gave some views on this topic. After that, some students asked some interesting questions, and the formal part of the program was closed by thanking all members of the LED committee. Now the formal part of the program had finished, it was time to have some drinks. During this networking drink, everyone could get in touch with recruiters from all different companies. However, others took the possibility to have a picture taken by a professional photographer, such that the day

resulted in a nice picture for on LinkedIn. Also, others just took the opportunity to relax and have a couple of drinks. After a long and tiring day, everyone was getting hungry and hence it was a good thing that the dinner started. The dinner was the last opportunity to have a chat with a recruiter, since everyone was assigned to a table associated to a specific company. The dinner was really nice, and especially the service from all waiters and waitresses was really good. After everyone had finished their meal, it was time to leave Nieuwegein and head to Utrecht for the party! Lots of the econometricians from Rotterdam had chosen to stay over at a hostel in Bunnik, so first a bus went there such that everyone could change clothes. The party was in

Filemon & Baucis, which is at the Janskerkhof in Utrecht. For the entire party, all drinks were on the house! This contributed to a great party, which was a great ending of the LED 2015. Finally, for all students who didn’t attend the LED, I highly recommend attending next year’s LED, especially since it will be organized by our study association FAECTOR! By means of this, I would like to thank the LED committee 2015 for organizing this amazing event. Ivan Olthuis

18 Calgary, Canada STUDY

Exchange Experience

In the first two blocks in your third year of the bachelor, you could choose to study abroad. A lot of students want to have the time of their lifes. So did Luc Oudenes. He went to the

University of Calgary in the beautiful Canada and is willing to give some insights about his adventures abroad.

“Why did you choose the destination?” - “It was a difficult decision. So many opportunities, but in the end my main motivation was to improve

Canada. New Zealand and Australia were too common. In the United States the partner universities were not interesting enough and you have to be 21 to do all the fun stuff. And if you have the chance to go abroad for so long and you have the opportunity to go outside the EU, you don’t want to stay in the UK. So then Canada is left, and then I found this is actually a really interesting country. I had three choices inside Canada, but Calgary was my preference, mostly because of the Rocky Mountains. (Three beers later). And the other beatiful nature.”

my English. So I wanted a native English speaking country and then I could choose between Australia, New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom and

“What are the must-sees in Calgary, Canada?” - “Beers. Bears. I also saw foolball matches and ice hockey games. Which really gave me a insight in the Canadian culture. But

mostly the Rocky Mountains. In summer you can walk for hours through the mountains and enjoy the beautiful view. In winter, you can have the most amazing ski trips here. “

“The American

style, Bring Your Own Booze, and the predrinking culture is really a thing there.” “What is the difference between the student life at your destination and in Rotterdam?” - “The American style, Bring Your Own Booze, and the predrinking culture is really a thing there. Everyone tries to get as wasted as possible before they enter the club, so they don’t have to spend money in the club anymore. But actually they don’t go to clubs that often, instead there are a lot of house parties and parties inside the dorm rooms. They drink a lot of hard liquor instead of beer and wine to safe costs.” “What do you miss the most about Calgary?” - “I really miss the the nature and then especially the Rocky Mountains again. But also the true friends I made there. And the Canadian culture, where everyone is friendly all the time.” Ying Kid Cheung

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FAECTOR

STUDY

Exchange Experience

Coimbra, Portugal As part of their third year of University, most students choose the possibility to go on exchange during the first 2 blocks of the academic year. So off they go, to the most amazing and diverse locations this world has to offer. One of our students

who made the FAECTOR name famous in Portugal was Florine Groenen, who gave us juicy insights of the student life she had the chance to experience as an exchange student at Universidade de Coimbra.

The first question we asked her, of course, was “Why did you choose this destination?” - “I wanted to stay within Europe, so I signed up for Portugal, which was my first choice. My main goal was to learn a new language, and I though Portuguese is the one to go for.”

small city, but the main square is always alive and full with pubs and students.”

“What are the must-sees in Coimbra?” - ”Coimbra is the oldest University in Portugal, and the oldest within the Portuguese speaking countries.

So the University building is really beautiful, especially the library is impressing. That is definitely a must-see! And when you walk around the University, it really feels like you are in a Happy Potter movie, because of all the traditions. In Portugal, the traditions are a big part of the University life, and one of the most interesting is that freshmen go through a hazing throughout their first year and wearing a cape is one of the things they to do. That’s really awesome to see! Coimbra is a

“We were like a small family.” “What is the difference between the student life here, at Erasmus University Rotterdam and at Universidade de Coimbra?” “Coimbra gives you a relaxed feeling, maybe because of the Latin people, who are really chill and relaxed all the time. Also, everything is much cheaper, you can get anything from beer and wine, to shots with one or two euros. Plus, the festivals are soo much fun! There are two festivals, twice a year: for the opening and ending of the academic year which last for days! Portugal people really do know how to party. Related to the study however, I believe

that the courses are much more interactive and it was not as strict as Erasmus University. It was way more informal, students had more contact with the teachers and I really liked that ” “What do you miss the most about Portugal?” - “Everything! But especially my housemates because most of my friends which I would hang out and party with were from my house! We were really, really close. We would be every day in the kitchen, always chilling there, since we didn’t have a living room. We were like a small family. And I already booked a ticket to go back soon, just on time for the huge festival which ends the academic year. Perfect occasion to make a reunion in Coimbra!” Madalina Moraru

20 After Exam Drink SOCIAL

Photopage

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FAECTOR

21 Chefs Chiara & Jake Chef

On Friday the 13th of March, the Estimator Committee visited Chiara and Jake, two second year Econometrics students from respectively Italy and Greece. It was a 15 minute walk from the nearest metro station to their house in Capelle aan den IJssel, and Jake was so caring enough to pick us up. We Once we reached our destination, we could enjoy the more agreeable part of the evening. Chiara welcomed us all with some aperol spritz. Aperol spritz is a winebased cocktail prepared with prosecco wine, some bitter liqueur and garnished with a slice of orange. It had a very typical taste, and set the tone for what was still to come. As part of the ‘aperitivo’¸ we also enjoyed some Italian sausages and scarmoza cheese, as well as taralli, which can best be described as Italian crackers. On top of that Jake and Chiara had prepared a spinach and leek pie, and I can say on behalf of the entire Estimator Committee that describing the pie as delicious would be an understatement. Chiara had brought the taralli from Italy through a very ingenious

“Describing the pie

as delicious would be an understatement.” manner, but was nevertheless kind enough to share them with us. The sausages and scarmoza cheese tasted a bit more familiar, but their refinedness and sophistication was unmatched. We were subsequently lucky enough to enjoy a tutorial from Chiara and Jake on how to

make pizza. Jake applied a ‘watch-and-learn’ approach and at first his craftsmanship went by unnoticed as it did not look too difficult. But that was a mistake. Sure, everybody

“Magnificent-tasting

thus had our first taste of Greek culture: while we were all inclined to stop for the traffic lights, Jake guided us through all road intersections with an admirable calmness, as we could only narrowly dodge some of the fast-driving cars.

Chefs: Chiara and Jake Start year: 2013 Favourite dish: Lasagne Favourite spot: Kralingse Plas

with unparalleled excellence.”

knows the basics of making pizza, but the difference between a mediocre pizza and a truly Mediterranean one lies in the details. It all turned out well, and we enjoyed our pizza having gained new insights regarding the makingof process. The main dish was made by Chiara and was again typical Italian: lasagne. The lasagne was made up of pesto, mozzarella, and béchamel sauce. It was magnificenttasting with unparalleled excellence. One member from the Estimator Committee does

not eat cheese and thus enjoyed an alternative meal of bulgur with a mix of vegetables and spices. Don’t get me wrong, this also looked great, but I pity him (and you) nonetheless for the missed opportunity. And then came the dessert. This was the cheesecake I had already heard about from an Italian friend, so my expectations were (secretly) set high, especially after the lasagne. But once again, Chiara’s artistry at cooking was revealed: it was stunning, absolutely stunning. The cheesecake was a perfect conclusion of an evening which shall, cooking-wise, not be outperformed any time soon.

Jake and Chiara, on behalf of the Estimator Committee, thank you and make sure you keep up the MasterChef spirit! Hugo Wolters

CAREER

Inhouse Day

TravelBird

On 10th of March, FAECTOR visited one of the fastest growing online travel sites: TravelBird. Its office is located in the heart of Amsterdam, along the Keizersgracht. Founded in 2010, it is now operating in 17 countries and has over 600 employees. After the train journey with small delay, we arrived at the prestigious office in Amsterdam. The inhouse day started with a short introduction about this company. During this introduction, we were interrupted by the founder and CEO of TravelBird, Symen Jansma. He briefly explained how he founded his company. The atmosphere was very informal. After the lunch, the case was explained. We had to work in groups of four. We got a data set, created from TravelBird’s website. The data set consisted of orders made by customers who went to Paris. We had to predict when TravelBird should publish their next offer for a trip to Paris. That was not an easy task. The data was full of

errors and was incomplete. For example, one order looked like a big one. When we dug into this, it turned out that the order was still in Hungarian forints. Accidentally, we knew its exchange rate, because some of us just came back from the City Trip. As a data analyst, you will encounter the incorrectness and incompleteness of the data set daily.

of the groups was in a good direction. After the direction, it was time for a drink. The CEO also came by for a short while. Then we also get a tour through the building. The office has just been opened, some floors are still under maintenance. Yet,

they have plans to expand their office. The inhouse day ended after the tour and we have a nice impression of this company. Ying Kid Cheung

“We visited one of

the fastest growing online travel sites: TravelBird.” At the end of the day, we had to present our findings. Because of the lack of time, none of the groups could get the answer to the case. However, most

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FAECTOR

Puzzle

Cut out all the pieces to solve the puzzle, take a picture, send it to estimator@faector.nl and win an awesome prize!

Get the picture!

SOCIAL

City Trip

Budapest March 6th until 9th: 4 days full of partying, exploring the city, having fun and some more partying in Hungary’s beautiful capital: Budapest. At least it was for those who were lucky enough to secure a spot for themselves, since the trip was so popular that all 60 places were filled up within 80 seconds. So you could say that the trip was already a big success before the plane even took off in the first place. On March 6th FAECTOR’s luckiest econometricians gathered at Rotterdam Central to start their adventure to Budapest. After a train trip to Eindhoven Airport and some hours of waiting we could finally board our fancy purple airplane and depart to ‘The Pearl of Danube’, better known as Budapest. Having arrived we still had to make quite a long trip by bus to our hostel, as it was situated right in the middle of the beautiful old city centre. After everyone had picked a bed and was ready to go, it was time for some food. And it seemed like everybody was up for some culinary exploration and adventure, as it came down to a big FAECTOR gathering at the local McDonald’s. We didn’t have much time to enjoy the great quality of our dinner, because an hour later our guides for the pub-crawl were already waiting for us.

“The loud music,

the beer throwing and the bumping into the other beer bikes got us some funny looks from the local citizens.” The pub-crawl took us to 3 different cool clubs in Budapest. In each of these

we got a free shot with a percentage of alcohol so low, you could have given it to your little baby sister without feeling guilty about it. However, the cheap drinks completely made up for the shots and turned the pub-crawl into one big crazy night out. We started in a club with a little bit of a ‘hipsterish’ vibe around it and ended the night in ‘Instant’, the biggest ruin pub of Budapest with 26 rooms and 7 bars in it, with all kinds of musical styles, from popular music to electro, from tech-house and techno to hiphop. The nice thing about this last club was that it was almost like a big maze where you kept on discovering new rooms and cosy places each hour of the night. All in all we had a great first night in Budapest. The next morning and the first half of the afternoon (or what was still left of it) we could spend on our own to discover what Budapest has to offer during daylight, which is a lot. Because besides the eastern part of the Danube river (‘Pest’), where our hostel was, there was also the western part (‘Buda’), where you could find the beautiful Buda castle and the residence of the Hungarian president. Around 3 the whole group met again to bring a visit to the parliament building. The building looked beautiful, but most of us agreed that the couches were way more interesting than our tour guide’s

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story, which might have been caused by the hangovers from the pub-crawl. In order to maintain the hangover we went straight on to the next part of the program: the beer bike, which was probably way more interesting

to everyone than the previous activity. The idea of the beer bike is quite simple: put about 15 people on a big bike, add some loud music and lots and lots of beer and you’re done: you’ve just created a huge chaos on the roads of Budapest. The loud music, the

FAECTOR

City Trip

beer throwing and the bumping into the other beer bikes got us some funny looks from the local citizens, while in the mean time literally liters of beer flowed into the mouths of the hard cycling econometricians. Some decided to make up for the chaos we caused on the roads by being philanthropic and giving away some free beers to homeless people while we were standing still on a busy intersection. You could say we had a good pre-drink for the night. That night was spent at club ‘Kraft’, where we had yet another crazy night full of partying. For some, however, this wasn’t enough, so a small group crossed the river and climbed a big hill on the other side in the middle of the night to watch the sun come up. The last full day in Budapest was mostly spent relaxing. The whole morning most beds remained occupied by people still tired from the night before, but around 13 most people

crawled out of their beds to go to the next activity: the Széchenyi Thermal Baths. When you’re tired and hangover in a city also known as ‘the Capital of Spas’, what could be a better way to spend your day than laying around and relaxing in the healing thermal waters of this spa? So this is exactly what most of us did. However, some other people who were brave enough to choose to spend their day exploring the city with a hangover saw some more of Budapest. Which also wasn’t a bad choice, because this city has a lot more to see than is possible in just a few days. For example, the largest synagogue of Europe and the second largest of the whole world is actually in Budapest. However everyone had spent their day, in the evening we all came together again to have dinner with the complete group. After this three-course dinner we would spend our last night in Budapest in pub ‘Morrison’s 2’. Some were so dedicated to make it a good last night that

they even sneaked in a bottle of cheap liquor to start getting wasted over dinner. In the end most of us reached that point, as we had some beers and some shots of tequila on FAECTOR to kick-start our nights. We all had a super crazy last night full of shots and other fun. The way back home turned out to be a kind of a struggle for many, but in the end everyone got home safe somehow… The only things left to do on Monday were to pack our stuff

and start the long way back to the Netherlands, which ended when our plane safely landed on Eindhoven Airport sometime in the afternoon. Altogether this trip, which was already a success beforehand, turned out to be an even bigger success in reality. It was really a weekend to never forget, although many have probably already forgotten at least half of what happened… Sian Tee

ASSOCIATION

Adventures of the 49th board

49 board th

Having had an amazing start of this academic year in 2014, we were curious about what 2015 would bring us. Luckily it is a pleasure to be looking back at what the first months in a new and exciting year have already brought us. We’ve enjoyed

weekends away, meeting up with our old friends from other study associations and of course seeing your beautiful faces at many of our events.

January 2015 was kick started by an amazing Interfaculty Gala on January 15th at Pappegay in Rotterdam. Together with study associations Ace, Cedo Nulli and In Duplo we managed to organise an amazing party. After a more than “gezellig” date diner we figured it was time to step into the cold night to start making our way to what turned out to be one to a party to remember. Different kinds of fluids flowed in excess and our blazers were soon taken off as the neatly dressed crowd went into full on party mode. It was quite the miracle that the only casualty of this wild night was one of the men’s toilets, which was presumably struck by a full beer glass.

in the congress centre to listen to the first speaker of the day. Approximately an hour later it was finally time to start the cases. In a cheerful chaos, over 400 students found their way to many different case rooms. Two cases, a networking lunch, a networking diner and many drinks later the congress had come to an end. This is where the large group of econometricians would separate for a couple of hours to prepare for what was to come next: The LED party. Arriving to the party rather late, it was quite the challenge to acclimate to the drunken chaos that the party had evolved into. Jolly cheers and music straight from the après ski welcomed me as I stepped through

Next to that, we also ventured to Utrecht province for one of the most prestigious events as an econometric student. Newspapers wrote about it, we lived it: The Landelijke Econometristen Dag. Early on a Tuesday morning in February we, together with a herd of other Rotterdam econometricians, gathered at Rotterdam Central Station. Excitement and curiosity reigned among the LED first-timers such as myself. Older students fed our interest with stories of the business cases and the gigantic party that would follow after. And boy, did it live up to our expectations.

After being delayed (thank you, NS) we rushed into the big hall

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the doors of club “Filemon”. Quickly adapting (beers help) to the situation, I recognized my fellow board members. Unsure if they were capable to recognize me, I observed them consume ridiculous amounts of beer, dance drunkenly, sing along to numerous Dutch “carnaval” songs, or well... indulge in what can only be described as “several rounds of tongue wrestling”. March has year upon year proven to be a very busy month as part of the FAECTOR board. It’s not only crammed full with both social and career activities, but it’s also typically the period for all kinds of trips and excursions. In fact, three

FAECTOR

ASSOCIATION

Adventures of the 49th board of our four weekends in March were consumed by travelling, sightseeing and of course the “occasional party”.

“Oh did I mention

he did this completely naked?” It all started after the block 3 exams. Following a Master drink in the Erasmus Paviljoen on Friday February 27th, we hopped on the train to Antwerp. Enjoying the company of a bottle of rum, we felt like Rotterdam pirates ready to conquer the Belgian city. Locked and loaded we arrived at Antwerp’s fine central station and a mere five minutes later we had checked into our hostel, ready for the first night to begin. Having emptied the bottle and his twin brother, we ventured into the cold just before midnight. Not having done research myself, I followed “O-volix” (AKA Felix) through the old Belgian city. Debating over where to go, it took us a while to find a bar to enter. After rejecting several, we agreed it would be easiest to simply enter the next pub to cross our path. Fortunately for us, this wasn’t too far away and we soon entered a semi bar, semi club called “De Vuile Was”, which roughly translated to “The Dirty Laundry”. Belgians… At around 4 am, the Dirty Laundry would close its doors

on us. On the way home, we all managed to lose each other. Some took the “take over Antwerp” gesture rather literally and decided it was time to try and take back what was ours, starting with several road signs. At the same time, Mats and I were lost and encountered some difficulties with locals, after trying to sell them a couple kilos of fish… All ended well however and magically we all met up very close to the McDonalds where the third group of wonderers had settled down for a midnight snack. The following Saturday was, as you can imagine, a tough one. With very little energy remaining, we got ourselves out of bed. The plan was to see Antwerp, but we did not get much further than a stroll along the river Scheldt and a local terrace. We did enjoy a wonderful drive through the centre of Antwerp, where we learnt a little about its history and got to see several interesting structures. Unfortunately for us, it took the exact route that we had walked in the morning already. Saturday night our energy was back to normal levels of course. It was time to visit one of Antwerp’s greatest clubs: Noxx. Upon arrival, both the dancefloor, the VIP area and the bar seemed to be abandoned. We grabbed this opportunity with both hands as we quickly slid towards one of the VIP

tables that had not yet been occupied. Ordering a bottle of vodka made sure we were moved to another table as soon as the actual owners appeared. Slowly but surely the club started getting more and more crowded as the night progressed and at 2 AM the party had completely broken loose. Loud music and many dancers enjoyed the crowd of party animals, including us. We still hadn’t given up on our table, where at least two members of the board were present at all times as the rest dispersed to join the party. We enjoyed a great night and ventured back without Bob Muijs, who had an hour before suddenly decided it was time for him to go home, alone (he tends to do this sometimes). As we got back to the hotel, I found out I had for some reason packed a large tube of shaving foam. Thus far we had only been battling with peanuts, so it seemed like a good idea to include this new weapon in our “war”. As you can probably

imagine, this turned out to be great fun and Felix, Diederik and I decided to try and include the other room (we had two hostel rooms), consisting of Mats, Bob Maks and Suus in our brawl. Unfortunately they had already fallen asleep, though their neighbor came out in the middle of the night and not so kindly asked us to leave. Oh did I mention he did this completely naked? All in all Antwerp was an amazing weekend, despite the heavy Sunday morning of cleaning up shower gel, peanuts and shaving foam from just about anything there was to find in our hostel room. On behalf of all members of our board I’d like to thank you for your enthusiasm and I’d like to invite you to all of our upcoming activities! Lars van Kempen

ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION

Alumn

Alumni Drink Felix On Friday the 6th of February the RECNET drink took place in cafe Divoza. For the ones who do not know RECNET. RECNET is the association for students who graduated in When you are graduated, you will spread your wings and you and your friends will probably go separate ways. Some people will stay in Rotterdam, but the most will probably go working in another city, maybe even in a different country. The danger is then to lose sight of each other. RECNET organizes (in cooperation with FAECTOR) several activities like drinks and company visits throughout the year. In this way you can stay in contact with your former student mates. It is great to drink a beer in the pub with your fellows like in old times and to bring back the memories of your period as a student

Econometrics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are so many

different people, they do different work, live in different cities and are from various age. However they have one thing certainly in common, they all studied Econometrics.â&#x20AC;? The drink on Friday started at 18:00. Some of the first

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Econometrics at the Erasmus School of Economics as well current and former members of the Econometric Institute. After your graduation you can become a member of RECNET. attendees came from their work and started directly with a nice cold beer. More RECNET members came in and it soon turned out that this was the best visited RECNET drink in years. The great thing of the FAECTOR drinks is that beer is only 50 cents. However RECNET members get their beer for free! A nice thing of these drinks and other RECNET activities is that there are so many different people, they do different work, live in different cities and are from various age. However they have one thing certainly in common, they all studied

Econometrics at our Erasmus University. It is great to have a talk with these people, to hear their experiences and how they get where they are now. It was a very nice evening and we would like to thank all the RECNET members who were present. Keep an eye on the posts at the LinkedIn group and see you at the next RECNET activity! Felix Mourer

FAECTOR

ASSOCIATION

Study Section

Education Board Dear students, Currently, we are already halfway the fourth block of the academic year 2014/2015. Just a few weeks left before you can enjoy the class-free week between block 4 and 5! Hopefully, your year is going well so far. I would like to mention that after every block, the results of the course evaluations are published together with the newsletter. If you are curious about the results of the courses you followed, you can find the course averages in the newsletter for students. If you feel like you can do something extra, the new double degree programme might be interesting for you. The Erasmus School of Economics has joined hands with the Faculty of Philosophy and developed a unique double degree in Econometrics (or another programme of the Erasmus School of Economics) and Philosophy. If you take this opportunity, you can obtain two bachelor degrees in four years: a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Econometrics (or one of the other degrees) and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Philosophy. You can apply for this programme if you have successfully completed your first year. This February, the First-Year Cum Laude Award ceremony took place in the Erasmus Paviljoen. For all students of the Erasmus School of Economics who completed their first Bachelor year with outstanding results (an average grade of 8.25), a ceremony was organised to draw attention to this great achievement. More than half of the participating students was an econometrician: this year, 60 excellent students received the Cum Laude award of which 31 econometricians! This short column will be my last one, as my employment as First Ambassador lasts until March 6th because I am leaving the

Netherlands for an internship abroad. By the time this Estimator is printed, my successor, Floor Wolfhagen, will have already started. She will introduce herself in the next issue of the Estimator. The position remains the same and the new First Ambassador is still located at H6-25 (Tinbergen building), so you can always drop by the office with any questions or remarks regarding Education Management. I would like to stress that questions and remarks of students are very important and useful and therefore very welcome. Note that emails after March 9th regarding Education Management will be forwarded to the new First ambassador. On behalf of the Education Management I wish you all best for the rest of the academic year. Also, if you applied for the Erasmus Charity Run: good luck! Kind regards, Margot Wolters Student member of the Education Board & First Ambassador Econometrics R: H 6-25 (Tinbergen building) T: +31 10 408 2978 E: wolters@ese.eur.nl

ASSOCIATION

Study Section

Educational Committee Dear fellow students, We hope that all of you have succeeded the past exam-period and we wish you all good luck with the second to last block of this academic year with a nice prospect at the end. This is the first academic year in which the Erasmus School of Economics has given us a week off between the fourth and fifth block, which will give you the possibility to recharge your energy for the last block of the year!

remind the lecturers and keep an attentive ear for this. In this way, both international as well as Dutch students will be able to follow the explanations. If you feel that there are any other systematic problems, please inform us or the student representatives. With kind regards,

As members of the Education Committee, we are always very happy to receive any feedback concerning positive and negative aspects of the programme. Your valuable remarks are always considered and extensively discussed during our meetings and we try our very best to resolve any issues. Without your input the committee cannot function as it is doing now and we hope you will keep informing us. You can always speak to us personally or send a message. Besides us, as members of the Education Committee, first years students are also very welcome to contact the four enthusiastic students-representatives (two for the international programmes and also two for the Dutch program) for any feedback or comments. The four students have been helping us and you by evaluating the first-year courses. These evaluations are always scheduled during the third week and all input from you will be discussed with the principal lecturer of the course, but your comments in later week remain still very welcome and we encourage you to share your opinions with your student representatives.

Student members of the Education Committee Econometrics & Operational Research Mechteld Ferment Bas Monsewije Tobias Polak Krishna Vyas Staff members of the Education Committee Econometrics & Operational Research Dr. C. Heij Dr. W. van den Heuvel Dr. R. Spliet Dr. M. van der Wel Contact: oceconometrie@gmail.com

Recently, first years students in the international programs have informed us that there has been a mixed usage of Dutch and English in some lectures and tutorials. We have taken this complaint very seriously and we have informed the lecturers of blocks 4 and 5 to make sure all communication is in English. If, at any time, Dutch is being spoken in the lectures or tutorials, please

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Study Section

Congratulations to all graduates! 22-Oct-2014 Arno de Wolf

19-Nov-2014 John Brouwer

04-Dec-2014 Jorrit Hendriksma

18-Dec-2014 Joost van der Sluis

An integer programming approach to the hierarchical workforce scheduling problem with mobile employees and flexible breaks

New ways to handle sourcing volume constraints in vehicle routing problems

Historical Expected Shortfall for varying horizons

Dynamic Risk Factor Analysis

22-Oct-2014 Jantijn Kromwijk

19-Nov-2014 Lotte Snoek

04-Dec-2014 Danielle Nativ

18-Dec-2014 Merel Tilmans

Long Term Risk Parity

The optimal clustering of maintenance jobs with uncertainty

Customer Demand Forecasting and Production Planning

Influencing Utility Estimates from Conjoint Analysis through Sales Data Augmentation

23-Oct-2014 Ruben van Wylick

19-Nov-2014 Rafe Murray

11-Dec-2014 Sacha Roggeveen

14-Jan-2015 Furqaan Khaliq

The layoffs of financial analysts and the associated impact on the market

Project Portfolio Optimisation with Uncertainty

Can Online Visitor Data be Related with Online Sales?

PERFORMANCE OF AN ANALYTICAL MODEL FOR INTERNET TRAFFIC ANALYSIS

23-Oct-2014 Rex Wang

03-Dec-2014 Renco Don

11-Dec-2014 Jelle Huisman

14-Jan-2015 Rick Rijkse

Insider trading before private placement announcements: evidence from option trading volume

Incorporate Maturity Risk to the Default Probability of Interest-only Mortgage Loans

Project Performance in an EPC environment

Modeling heterogeneous consumer preferences given partly observed brand perceptions

23-Oct-2014 Bart Mooij

03-Dec-2014 Peter R端hrup

17-Dec-2014 Ahmed Fadallah

14-Jan-2015 Joris-Jan Kraak

Ball Possession Classification using Clustering Algorithms

Intellectual Property Management

A Construction and Improvement Heuristic for the Split-Pickup, Split-Delivery Maritime Inventory Routing Problem

A heuristic method for the activation and clustering of nodes in a Fibre to the Cabinet/Curb roll-out

19-Nov-2014 Christian de Groot

04-Dec-2014 Matthijs Aantjes

17-Dec-2014 Sjoerd Borst

14-Jan-2015 Mathijs Udo

The Goddess of Fortune

Correcting for Sample Selection in a Sales Prediction Model

Predicting Individual Behaviour: an Empirical Approach in Online Marketing

Redesigning the mailbox network of PostNL

ASSOCIATION

Study Section

15-Jan-2015 Duy Nguyen

19-Feb-15 Wouter Knecht

Comparing estimation methods for Expected Shortfall

Integration of interest rate models and the Black-Scholes model within the Economic Scenario Generator

15-Jan-2015 Pim Stohr

19-Feb-15 Khee Fung Wong

The impact of Interest Rates on Credit in the Banking Book

Model Averaging in Dynamic Panel Data Models

15-Jan-2015 Laurynas Jurevicius

19-Feb-15 Rens Borsje

Evaluation of Combined Technical Trading Strategies: comparison with individual and buy-and-hold rules.

Convolutions of log-normal and other random variables / a comparison of Monte Carlo and Numerical Integration

15-Jan-2015 Tijmen Paasen

19-Feb-15 Ronald van Bezu

Expiration day Eects in Equity Index Futures

Explaining Online Conversion Behaviour with Web Clickstream Data in a Segmented Binary Logit Model

05-Feb-15 Lizzy Veldt

19-Feb-15 Mark de Jong

The influence of state probabilities in an MS-VAR model on the term structure of the risk-return trade-off

Improved Hedging of interest rate volatility

05-Feb-15 Stefan van Rest Optimal Consumption, Labor Supply and Portfolio Choice over the Life Cycle of Dutch Individuals 05-Feb-15 Jack Fuo End-to-end Supply Chain Optimization, Improving the LAS model in HEINEKEN

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