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Editor’s Note October 2016 Hearty greetings to all! With great excitement, team Quantinuum presents “Quriosity” the quant magazine of SIMSR. In this issue, we have the main story by Milcah George on “Project Oxygen: Bringing life back to managers at Google”, which tells us how the technology giant used analytics to get the important characteristics of a manager. The sub article by Amod Kulkarni on “Current Trends in Data Analytics” talks about the various trends in data analytics currently In our Quant guru section, Rupal Doshi writes about Ganesh Prasad, who was a famous Indian mathematician from Uttar Pradesh. The News digest features news related to analytics covered by Maheshwaran Kumar. Curiosity updates by Arunava Dey covers the recent findings about the possibility of existence of water on the Jupiter’s moon and about the findings of NASA’s Curiosity Rover. An android app called Pocket Aptitude which helps you learn basics of quantitative ability and a lot more is covered by Anish Sagar. Further few basic interview question on data analytics to help you for the placement season. So, look around and enjoy reading about the quantitative aspect of world. Happy Learning, Editorial Team!
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Contents 1.
Topics
Page No
Project Oxygen: Bringing life back to managers at Google
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Current Trends in Data Analytics
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Quant Guru
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Event Update
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News Digest
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Quant Application
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Curiosity Updates
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Quant Fun
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Quant Connect
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Cover Story October 2016 Project Oxygen: Bringing life back to managers at Google Those of you with a work-ex would have at least once wondered, what exactly does my manager do apart from pestering people for reports? Is he (she) really adding value to the company? It seems that the folks in Google also had a similar line of thinking. Google, being a primarily product driven is a company built by engineers for engineers and most engineers would rather focus on the Nitti gritties of the task rather than sending updates to their supervisors on the progress. They consider it as a distraction from the real job. In 2002 Google experimented a flat organization by eliminating managers from all levels. This was done to encourage an atmosphere of innovation and creativity without being bogged down by unnecessary red tape. However, this experiment tanked and the leadership at Google soon realized that managers were integral in shaping up a company’s vision and strategy. A people analytics group was set up in order to seek answers from data on the impact of managers in an organization and to answer the probing question “Do managers matter”. As a result, the Project Oxygen was launched which measures key management behaviors and cultivates them through communication and training. Initially, the team reviewed exit-interview data to see if employees cited management issues as a reason for leaving Google. However, this proved inconclusive as in general the company had a low turnover rate and correlation with management was difficult to prove. Then the team reviewed Googlegeist ratings and semi-annual reviews, comparing managers on both satisfaction and performance. By applying multivariate statistical techniques, they could observe that the smallest incremental increases in manager quality were quite powerful. Lower turnover rates were related to higher manager quality. The data also showed a tight connection between managers’ quality and workers’ happiness: Employees with high-scoring bosses consistently reported greater satisfaction in multiple areas, including innovation, work-life balance, and career development. Thus, the team indeed concluded that managers mattered and now they set about the task of finding what the best managers of the company did to outperform others. It conducted several qualitative interviews with managers from different levels, geographies and studied thousands of qualitative comments from Googlegeist surveys, performance reviews, and submissions for the company’s Great Manager Award.
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The eight behaviors shared by high-scoring managers:
Source: https://agenda.weforum.org
We can see that analytics can be applied to the relatively softer areas of an organization and transform its outlook to management and strategy as a whole. Google has incorporated the above findings into their leadership training programs for grooming upcoming leaders. The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight. By Milcah George PGDM Core (2016-18)
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CURRENT TRENDS IN DATA ANALYTICS Data analytics is the science of examining raw data with the purpose of drawing conclusions about that information. Data analytics is used in many industries to allow companies and organizations to make better business decisions and in the sciences to verify or disprove existing models or theories. Data analytics focuses on inference, the process of deriving a conclusion based solely on what is already known by the researcher. From consumer behavior to weather trends to disease propagation, data has become a competitive differentiator in helping both B2B and B2C companies forecast and make strategic decisions to increase revenue, reduce risk and spur growth. Big data analytics examines large amounts of data to uncover hidden patterns, correlations and other insights. With the advent of technology, it is possible to analyze your data and get answers from it almost immediately - an effort that is slower and less efficient with more traditional business intelligence (BI) solutions. Big data analytics helps organizations harness their data and use it to identify new opportunities. This leads to smarter business moves, more efficient operations, higher profits and happier customers.
Source: https://inovancetech.com
An example of how data collection can affect an industry as a whole is that of mobile phones. Mobile providers encourage their users to set up user IDs and profiles that enable them to gather great chunks of user data. Using that data, providers and manufacturers can better understand usage to improve the next generation of an item and entice a user to upgrade products. They can also develop additional, complementary products to sell based on what they learn about usage. The automotive industry is another area that benefits from analytics advancements. Most new cars today essentially have on-board computers that collect massive amounts of data on drivers and how they use their cars. This data can tell manufacturers if there has been an accident, how much freight trucks are hauling and much more, giving them better insight into product usage. In late 2015, Google open-sourced Tensor Flow, its machine learning platform. Just a few weeks later IBM released its machine learning technology, SystemML, into the open source community. These latest projects join a growing plethora of existing open source machine learning. Data scientists and technologists now have the world’s leading algorithms for advanced predictive analytics at their fingertips. This could propel the innovative creation of value from data in ways that we have never previously imagined.
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Out of favor since the 1970s, artificial intelligence (AI) has sprung back into the limelight. Autonomous vehicles, facial recognition, stock trading, and medical diagnosis are exciting the imaginations of the current generation of technologists. Moreover, the power of distributed, parallel computing is more accessible than ever before, making it possible to experiment with many novel ideas. At the same time the rich data needed to feed machine learning algorithms is more prolific, diverse, and readily available than ever before.
Source: http://www.tataelxsi.com/
As technology infrastructures shift to cloud-based platforms to increase business speed and agility, the question arises, “Wouldn’t you want your business intelligence to do the same?� Therefore, 2016 will be the year that the definition for business intelligence shifts, from on-premise solutions delivering insights to solutions that deliver continuous intelligence in real-time. By harnessing the insights inherent in real-time log data analytics, companies will have faster access to operational and customer data that can enable innovation and sustain their competitive edge. Hence, for companies betting their business on software or application platforms, continuous intelligence will be a must-have. In this current era, when the economy is challenging and the business landscapes are changing faster than ever, it is critical for organizations to focus on their critical business issues. For organizations to not waste precious time, money and manpower, there is a need to develop expertise and process of creating small scale prototypes quickly and test them to demonstrate its correctness, matching with business goals. By Amod Kulkarni MMS (2016-18)
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Quant Guru October 2016
GANESH PRASAD Ganesh Prasad was the most distinguished mathematician in India in the beginning of the twentieth century. He was born on November 15, 1876 in the town of Ballia in Uttar Pradesh state. Prasad obtained his M.A. degree in Mathematics both from Allahabad and Calcutta universities. Subsequently, he took the D.Sc. degree from Allahabad University in 1898. After serving as a Professor of Mathematics for a brief period in the KayasthaPathshala, Allahabad, he went to the Christ Church College, Cambridge University in 1899 for further studies as a Government of India scholar. Ganesh Prasad returned to India in 1904. After a brief stint of service at the Muir Central College, Allahabad as an Additional Professor of Mathematics, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the Queen’s College, Banaras in 1904. He occupied this position till 1914, when he was invited by the Calcutta University for becoming a Professor in Applied Mathematics.
Source: www.indianmathsociety.org
Ganesh Prasad’s main interest was in the theory of functions of real variable, and Fourier series. He worked much on the convergence or summability of Fourier series. On the suggestion of David Hilbert, he worked on curvature of surfaces. He also worked on potential theory, where he made many significant contributions. He looked at the expansion of functions in a series of spherical harmonics. Ganesh Prasad was basically a pure mathematician, but he did work on many problems of applied mathematics in detail. It has been approximately a century since the researches of Dr. Ganesh Prasad on the above subjects started appearing in international and national journals. E.W. Hobson of the Cambridge University has referred to the work of Ganesh Prasad in his book The Theory of Spherical and Ellipsoidal Harmonics, first published by the Cambridge University in 1931, and later reprinted in 1955. Hobson referred to the work of Dougall, published in 1913, on the expression for polynomial function of degree n. To be honest to himself, Hobson stated that a similar work has already been published by Ganesh Prasad a year earlier in 1912. He writes: “A somewhat different, but equivalent, form for fn (polynomial function of degree n) had already been given by G. Prasad. By this formula the value of fn over a sphere r = a is expressed as a sum of surface harmonics.”1,2 In 1851, the famous mathematician Reimann presented his Ph.D. dissertation entitled “Foundations of a general theory of functions of a complex variable” to the University of Berlin. This dissertation was much appreciated by Gauss. Reimann constructed an example of a continuous function, which was differentiable at no point. This was a great advance over the notions of Cauchy and
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Dirichlet, both of whom were great mathematicians. Ganesh Prasad went a step ahead of Reimann’s work. He constructed a continuous function which was mean differentiable at no point. In this connection, it is important to remember that if a function is differentiable at some points, then it has a mean differential coefficient at that point also. Ganesh Prasad was very much aware of the fundamental problems of his subject, and drew attention of the mathematical community through his papers. After joining the Calcutta University in 1914 as the Ras Behari Ghosh Professor of Applied Mathematics, Ganesh Prasad delivered the inaugural address entitled “From Fourier to Poincareƒ: A Century of Progress in Applied Mathematics” (Prasad, 1912, pp. 1-4). He divided the address in two parts. In part I, he talked about some researches relating to the logical foundation of applied mathematics from the point of view of the continuous theory of matter as well as that of molecular theory. He was not very happy at the way it was being done in the literature. In part II, he talked about the solution of boundary value problems. This presentation of Dr. Ganesh Prasad was a reflection of his depth of understanding of the subject. Ganesh Prasad delivered six lectures on Fourier series at the Calcutta University, which was later published by the same university in 1928. On one hand Ganesh Prasad was very much appreciative of the new research findings of western scholars, but on the other hand he did not hesitate to criticize the anomalies in their researches as and when noticed by him. For example, Prasad critically examined the findings of Lebsegue on criteria for functions with discontinuities of the second kind, and put forward his own findings on the subject. Ganesh Prasad succeeded in attracting a large number of talented Indians from different parts of the country to carry out research in modern mathematics, in particular the theory of functions of a real variable, under his guidance. Ganesh Prasad breathed his last on 9th March 1935 due to cerebral hemorrhage at Agra, while he was attending a University meeting. The present Indian mathematical community owes a great deal of gratitude to Professor Ganesh Prasad for the initiation of the modern mathematical research in India way back in the early part of the twentieth century. The foundation made by him played an important role in building the present structure of mathematical teaching and research in India. By Rupal Doshi PGDM – FS (2016-18)
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Event Update October 2016 Mock Placements-2 Quantinuum conducted a second mock placement on the placement season for 2016 on 21st October 2016. This was an online mock test which consisted of Logical Reasoning test, Verbal ability test and specialisation based test. We had good number of participants and the participants found this test very useful not only for written round but the specialisation questions were also set keeping interview in mind. Session on Avenue of Quantitative Financial Analyst Quantinuum organised a interactive session on 21st October 2016 with Mr. Ben O' Malley, of Fitch Learning about the certification on quantitative finance and other job opportunities in the same field. Lot of details was shared about this niche field in finance. The audience where very enthusiastic and came up with lot of good questions which helped them understand this field. The guest was also very happy with the response and had shared his contact details with the audience for further queries.
Guest Lecture on MATLAB Quantinuum organised its second guest lecture for the academic year 2016-2017 on 19th October 2016 conducted by MathWorks. The session covered the basics of MatLab and how it can be used in various domains of management. The audience was shown a demo of how the latest tools in MatLab can be helpful in making data analysis and optimisation process easier. The audience able to understand the process through the demos better and found it very useful. Guest Lecture on Insights of Stock market and Mutual Funds Quantinuum conducted its first guest lecture for academic year 2016-2017 on 7 Oct, 2016.The guest speaker of the day was Mr K.V. Ramaswamy CEO & MD of Quadratic financials limited. The session was based on insights of stock market and Mutual Funds.. Event was a huge success because of coordination of all the team members. The session started with introduction to stock markets and different variables affecting markets. It was a very interactive session. The crowd was left mesmerised and had a new outlook towards markets and investment. It was a myth breaker session for many people.
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Quantiz-2016 Quantinuum conducted one of its flagship events – Quantiz during Aug/Sep, 2016. Quantiz is the annual intra – college Quant quiz of SIMSR which basically tests numerical abilities along with logical reasoning. With the aim of providing a platform to test the numerical ability and accuracy in mathematical calculations and critical thinking abilities of the students, the competition was designed with wide range of challenging and interesting questions Winners: Team Name: QuantPro Members: Sai Tejashyam and Rohit Dhanuka Course: MMS B Runners-up: Team Name: Saunak Members: Saurabh Butala and Ronak Shah Course: MMS B Mock Placements-1 Quantinuum conducted its first mock placement test on 22 nd August 2016 so that the students get a practice for the aptitude test for the placements. The test consisted of Quantitative aptitude, Verbal ability and specialisation based section. This was a offline round which was paper and pen based. We wanted to the students to experience the real time placement process. There was lot of students who attended the test and found it very useful. Also, a detailed analysis of the results was given which helped the students prepare accordingly.
By Rishita Shah PGDM-FS (2016-18)
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News Digest October 2016 Book an OYO room using Niki bot OYO has got into next level of customer service. It partners with nikki.ai an artificial intelligence company to introduce a chat bot. They say that this partnership enables OYO and niki.ai’s users to accomplish the task of searching and booking hotels seamlessly through a chat enabled interface. Niki understands complex user filters during the conversation, and comes up with the best hotel recommendations for the user. The interface lets user search, discover, select and pay thereby booking their hotel all within a single chat.
Source: https://e27.co/chatbot-is-the-new-app-ratan-tata-invest-in-ai-based-startup-niki-20160520
Ministry of Commerce and Industry launches a Dashboard for Foreign Trade The Indian Government too acknowledges the importance and benefits of using analytics. The Ministry of Commerce & Industry recently launched a Dashboard for Foreign Trade Data. The data on the dashboard is represented in an analytical format, over time and space. The Foreign Trade Dashboard allows you to see the complete picture of imports, exports, and balance of trade of India in a graphical form. The top commodities and top ports section highlights the top 5 commodities and ports as well as the ones at the bottom.
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CAG uses Data Analytics Analytics has become of utmost importance for every organization in order to be successful. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, Shri Shashi Kant Sharma has recognized the importance of data analytics and the opportunities it presents. The center aims to analyze big data of the government and provide valuable insights to the government. This data analytics center will synthesize and integrate all the appropriate data required for the purpose of auditing. CDMA will be a game changer in the field of public audit. This initiative of using data analytics for auditing purpose has been started with the focus of developing in-house analytics capacity covering the entire workforce under the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.
Samsung acquires Viv, an AI start-up from the makers of Siri Currently AI is witnessing a pan global presence, with customers willing to interact with technology that is conversational, personalized and contextual. Samsung intends not to be left behind and has acquired an AI start-up Viv to give a boost to its business. This could imply that soon your Samsung phones may have something similar to Siri! This deal could allow Samsung to offer newer experience to its customers such as a simplified user interface, understanding the context of the user, offering most appropriate and convenient suggestions to the users and more
Source: https://www.therobotreport.com
By Maheshwaran PGDM Core (2016-18)
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Quant Application October 2016
QuantApp Pocket Aptitude: The application that we look into in this edition, is one that's most sought after for: Campus Placements CAT, MAT, XAT preparation Bank PO, IBPS preparation GATE, CMAT, MBA entrance exams preparation UPSC, CSAT, IAS SSC RRB, Railways NTSE The main highlight of this app is that it has a collection of quantitative aptitude questions and word problems frequently asked in competitive examinations and placement papers. It is designed as a preparation tool for job aspirants and those waiting to crack bank and other entrance exams. Also, for people who're just curious about Maths, this is one app that enriches their knowledge beyond boundaries. Key Features of this app are: • 2400+ Questions • Practice Tests • Quants and Logical Reasoning • Segregated into topics • Important formulas for each topic • Questions of varying difficulty levels • Solution in detail • ScratchPad • Bookmarks Also, the content in this app is properly organized and distinctively classified into the following topics:
Ages Area & Volume Average Boats & Streams Calendar Clock Cubes Fractions HCF & LCM Interest Logarithms Mixtures &Alligations Numbers
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Number Series Partnership Percentage Permutations Probability Profit & Loss Pipes & Cisterns Races & Games Ratio & Proportion Surds & Indices Time & Distance Times & Work Trains
Further, it has 4 modes: Study Training Challenge Quiz A student can explore the app across these 4 modes, based on his comfort level.
Roaring in at a rating of 4.5/5 and with downloads of over 45k, this pp developed by Sasi Dharani, is a must have for all quant enthusiasts. By Anish Saggar PG Core (2016-18)
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Curiosity Updates October 2016
NASA Sets GOES-R/Atlas V Launch Events Coverage The first spacecraft in a new series of NASA-built advanced geostationary weather satellites is set to launch into orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Wednesday, Nov. 16. The two-hour launch window opens at 4:42 p.m. EST. Liftoff will occur from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Source: www.nasa.gov
Astronaut Kate Rubins, Crewmates Safely Return From the Space Station NASA astronaut and Expedition 49 crew member Kate Rubins, who became the first person to sequence DNA in space, returned to Earth Saturday after a successful mission aboard the International Space Station. NASA TV to Broadcast Agency Innovation Mission Day Keynote NASA will host an agency wide event Tuesday, Nov. 1, highlighting innovation by NASA employees. NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman will discuss the importance of encouraging collaboration across the agency, and this keynote presentation will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website at noon EDT. By Arunava Dey PGDM FS (2016-18)
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Quant Fun October 2016
Data Analytics Interview Questions As the placement season is going on full fledge. Here we are with few basic data and financial analytics questions which will be of help. Wish you all the best. What is involved in typical data analysis? Data analysis involves collection and organization of data, correlation between analyzed data and the rest of the company and market, and the ability to then creatively think of solutions to existing problems, or point out problems and initiate preventive measures. How do you define big data? You can start your answer with something fundamental, such as "big data analysis involves the collection and organization of data, and the ability to discover correlations between the data that provide revelations or insights that are actionable." You must be able to explain this in terms that resonate with each interviewer; the best way to do this is to illustrate the definition with an example. Mention what is data cleansing? Data cleaning also referred as data cleansing, deals with identifying and removing errors and inconsistencies from data in order to enhance the quality of data Explain what is logistic regression? Logistic regression is a statistical method for examining a dataset in which there are one or more independent variables that defines an outcome. Explain Financial Modelling Financial modelling is a frequent practice in conducting financial analysis; therefore, some question about this subject is likely to be asked in a financial analyst interview. You should be able to give a brief, succinct answer to the question, such as, "Financial modeling is a quantitative analysis commonly used for either asset pricing or general corporate finance. Essentially, hypothetical variables are used in a formula to determine the likely impact on market behavior, profitability or economic conditions." What Do You Think Is the Single Best Evaluation Metric for Analyzing a Company's Stock? This is another question where there is no specific, single "right" answer. All that is necessary to answer this question well is to provide some reasonable point of evaluation and be able to explain the value of using that specific metric. Answer the question by saying the first point of analysis you use in evaluating a company is its operating profit margin, and you prefer this metric because it provides an indication of not only basic profitability but also gives a solid indication of how well managed the company is overall.
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SU-DOKU
September Issue’s QuantFun Answers 1. A 2. B 3. B 4. A 5. C 6. B 7. C 8. C 9. B 10. B
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Quant Connect October 2016 Quantinuum, the Quant forum of KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research aims to empower students and professionals alike to organize and understand numbers and, in turn, to make good and rational decisions as future managers. The newsletter published monthly consists of a gamut of articles for readers ranging from beginners to advanced learners so as to further enrich the young minds understand the contributions made to the field of mathematics along with a couple of brain- racking sections of Sudoku to tickle the gray cells. For any further queries and feedback, please contact the following address: KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Vidya Nagar, VidyaVihar, Ghatkopar East, Mumbai -400077 Mentor Prof. N.S.Nilakantan (+919820680741) – Email – nilakantan@somaiya.edu
TEAM LEADERS EDITORIAL TEAM
DESIGNING TEAM
Bharat Bhushnam (+91 70457 81029) Vatsal Mehta (+91 98219 87294) Bharat Gupta (+91 98116 13264) Aditi Mehta (+91 97570 99599) Arunava (+917720093053) Anish Sagar (+919981944441) Maheshwar Kumar (+919566173411) Milcah George (+917406186087) Rupal Doshi (+919831427640) Sudeep Kumar Sahoo (+919833056863) Shreyas Kulkarni (+918600106378) Ashish Mohadik (+919819741018)
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