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ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Monday, January 27, 2020

Ann Arbor, Michigan

michigandaily.com

Gut punch

SPORTSMONDAY

Isaiah Livers goes down in return from injury, and Michigan proceeds to lose a key game to Illinois at the tail end.

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Symposium at Ross features work of female entrepreneurs

2nd annual ‘Women Who Launch’ event highlights venture capitalists DELANEY DAHLSTROM Daily Staff Reporter

SOPHIA AFENDOULIS/Daily Students and faculty celebrate the new renovations of the LSA Building with a Homewarming Party at the LSA Building Friday afternoon.

‘Homewarming’ party welcomes student body to new LSA building

Around 1,200 celebrate new campus space for offices, resources and study IULIA DOBRIN

Daily Staff Reporter

In celebration of its opening earlier this month, the College of Literature, Science and the Arts building hosted the LSA Homewarming Party for LSA students Friday afternoon. The event, attended by about 1,200 students, featured Reggie the Campus Corgi, as well as free food and Michigan gear.

Some of the changes to the building included a new second floor with desks and conference rooms. The first floor has additional space for studying and student collaboration. LSA senior Cassidy Guros, sociology and women’s studies major, is in the LSA building often because it houses the Department of Sociology. Guros noted the differences between the building before and after it underwent renovations.

CAMPUS LIFE

Conference brings about dialogue on social issues South Asian students hope to create community, encourage positive change NEETI BHUTADA Daily Staff Reporter

About 200 people attended the South Asian Awareness Network’s “Electrify” conference at the Michigan League on Saturday to discuss pressing social issues, create innovative solutions and understand existing movements for social change in various South Asian communities. The SAAN conference consisted of a combination of small discussion sessions and speaker events. Many prominent figures fighting for social change in the South Asian community came to speak about their experiences with marginalized groups, immigration and solidarity movements. These speakers included journalist Tania Rashid, entrepreneur Ani Sanyal and Michigan State University psychiatry professor Farha Abbasi. LSA sophomore Saachi Mittal served as a facilitator at the SAAN conference by leading small-group discussions about various social issues, including ethnocentrism, colorism, sexual health stigma and barriers in cross-cultural marriages.

“(The change) is like night and day,” Guros said. “It makes me feel like I’m even more appreciated as a student because I have a space that’s dedicated to me and my studies.” LSA Dean Anne Curzan, whose office has been in the LSA building throughout the renovation, also attended the event, taking the opportunity to speak to students in a more informal setting. “We hope this space will be

a home base for LSA students,” Curzan said in an interview with The Daily. “When you ask students ‘Where is LSA?’ they will often say it’s kind of everywhere, which is true. We also wanted students to feel like there was a center, there was a home base for them to go, so this space is designed to be a center for some key resources for students.” See LSA, Page 2A

The second annual Women Who Launch symposium, held Friday morning in the Ross School of Business, focused on women working in venture capital who have founded their own successful companies. Women Who Launch is an organization founded at the Business School that focuses on equal gender representation and promoting an equitable environment at the University of Michigan, particularly for those who have moved into their own business fields. The symposium was comprised of several events with the second half of the day featuring four female venture capitalists. The first to speak was Natalie Fratto, vice president of firmwide strategy at Goldman Sachs. She also

‘U’ professors discuss impact of artificial intelligence in finance Community members ask about effect on employment, developing countries ALYSSA MCMURTRY Daily Staff Reporter

About 50 Ann Arbor residents and University of Michigan students gathered in the Ann Arbor District Library to learn about the future of artificial intelligence on Friday night. The talk, titled “Artificial Intelligence and Finance,” featured Engineering professors Rada Mihalcea and Michael Wellman, who discussed how AI will affect trading in the financial world. Mihalcea started the conversation by asking Wellman about his interest in AI and what

keeps him in the field. “Even in the 1980s, it was clear to me that the future of the world was going to be the future of intelligent machines,” Wellman said. “It was pretty inevitable that computers would eventually be able to do some of the things that people do, and maybe even do it better.” According to Wellman, the 2008 financial crisis demonstrates why AI is important when it comes to finance. He said AI would not repeat the same problems experienced a little more than a decade ago because algorithms can forego human error.

“We know what happens when a financial system does not work,” Wellman said. “In 2008, we experienced that when things don’t quite match up in the financial system, the whole economy goes for a tailspin. The financial crisis of 2008 — we lost trillions of dollars of productivity, even though there was no natural disaster, no resources were destroyed … it was just a miscoordination of decisions that people were making.” Wellman said many companies may have already started algorithmic trading, which is when an automated

trading system uses computer programs hardwired with a specific set of instructions to place a trade. During this process, decisions are made very quickly. “We talk about decisions being made in the blink of an eye,” Wellman said. “Well, the blink of an eye is 300 milliseconds, so computers can make dozens or hundreds of decisions back and forth in that time per trade and that is a key reason why it’s been inevitable that computers would take over a lot of activity because they can react to information so much faster than people can.” See AI, Page 2A

delivered a prominent TED Talk on the importance of adaptability in July 2019. Fratto is in the process of building the organization “Launch with GS,” Goldman Sachs’s $500 million investment strategy which aims to create success through diversity. “Through Launch With GS, Goldman Sachs aims to increase access to capital and facilitate connections for women, Blacks, Latinos and other diverse entrepreneurs and investors,” Fratto said. Fratto said founders should be able to stand out when describing their company and pitching it to others. “I think great founders have the ability to have an answer and get their talking points out no matter what the question is,” Fratto said.