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Global zinc production set to recover in 2021 – Global Mining Review

Zinc mines are recovering from the impacts of COVID-19, according to GlobalData, with production expected to recover by 5.2% in 2021 to reach 12.8 million t.

The data and analytics company notes that production declined by approximately 5.9% to 12.1 million t in 2020, mainly due to COVID-19 related lockdowns and restrictions. However, looking ahead, the company suggests that zinc production over the forecast period (2021 2025) is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.1% to reach 13.9 million t in 2025.

Vinneth Bajaj, Mining Analyst at GlobalData, comments:

Bolivias zinc was particularly affected by the pandemic in 2020, but production is now expected to recover. Mines in the region such as the Colquiri, Cerro Rico, and San Cristobal sites are now reopening. Similarly, the re-opening of Perus Chungar Mining Unit, and El Porvenir and Cerro Lindo mines is expected to increase production in the country by 9.4%, to reach 1.5 million t in 2021.

However, production is not recovering in all regions, as declines are expected in Canada (-5.8%) and Brazil (-19.2%) mainly due to scheduled zinc mine closures and planned maintenance shutdowns.

The US, India, Australia, and Mexico will be the key contributors to zinc production growth in 2021 2025. Combined production in these countries is expected to increase from a forecasted 3.6 million t in 2021 to 4.2 million t in 2025.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/17092021/global-zinc-production-set-to-recover-in-2021/

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Top 5 International Gold Mining Companies Reduced Productions, Amid Pandemic – Goodreturns

Classroom

oi-Kuntala Sarkar

Gold is a popular precious metal, used mostly for jewellery and crafts purposes, but this metal is also used partially in the electronics and manufacturing industries, as it has high electrical and heat conductivity. According to the US Geological Survey, there are about 53,000 tonnes of gold reserves, across the globe. Major gold mining companies have gained profits with historically high margins, since the last year, as the gold prices rallied up due to the pandemic. At the present time, Newmont, Barrick, Polyus, AngloGold, and Gold Fields stayed at the top 5 statuses in Q2, 2021 considering gold productions. In the last year, 2020, Newmont, Barrick, Polyus, AngloGold, and Kinross Gold were at the top positions.

Gold mining companies had decreased their productions in the last year, marginally as the demand for physical gold declined due to the pandemic. Now, the prices in the international gold markets have dropped consistently in the last few weeks. This will impact the miners profits. In this quarter (Q2, 2021), top mining companies have again reduced their gold mining, but much larger rather than the last year's reductions. In the present situation, the demand for digital gold, gold ETF, and Sovereign gold bonds have increased in considerable amount, and zeal for physical gold is subdued. Also, in lockdown, people could not go out more to buy gold jewelleries that impacted the demands negatively. Additionally, the storage of gold jewellery and worries about safety are pushing investors to queue after virtual golds.

Newmont, the top gold miner globally has only increased its gold production by 15% to 1,449 koz in Q2 2021, rather than an almost 9% y-o-y production decline in 2020. In the same period of 2021, Barrick, Polyus, AngloGold and Gold Fields, and Newcrest, every top miner had a production cut. Barrick's Q2 2021 gold production was lower 9% y-o-y. Polyus has a 3% lower y-o-y productions 672 koz, AngloGold decreased productions by 12% at 613 koz. on the other hand, Gold Fields has increased by 2% to 563 koz.

Top 5 companies mostly declined productions due to reduced operations and subdued physical gold demand in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The other 5 five companies in the top 10 list were Newcrest at 542 koz (5% lower productions), Kinross at 538 koz (5% lower productions), Agnico Eagle at 526 koz (9% production increase), Northern Star at 451 koz (695 growth), and Harmony Gold at 411 koz (82% production increase).

Data source: Kitco

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MOOCs: What are they and why are they so popular? – ZDNet

When recent graduates start job-searching they often realize that college didn't properly prepare them for the job market. Lacking skills required to land a job in their industry, some turn to massive open online courses (MOOCs) to fill in the gaps.

MOOCs are most popular with younger generations. Almost two-thirds of students taking MOOCs are under 35 years old. However, people of all ages join the classes.

So what is a MOOC? It's an online course anyone can take. MOOCs often enroll large numbers of students from all over the world.

Since MOOC classes are online, students can take coursesoffered by universities and countries in another part of the world. Individuals who would otherwise not be able to attend prestigious universities can learn from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.

Enrollees use MOOCs to learn skills that will help them advance their careers, change their careers, or get more enjoyment out of life. For example, a computer programmer might use a MOOC to learn a new programming language. If you can demonstrate a skill, your employer may not care whether you learned it through a MOOC or a more traditional educational path.

The biggest advantage to taking a MOOC is that most are completely free. Many MOOCs are self-paced as well, making them flexible options for busy professionals. MOOC classes are best for self-motivated individuals who will progress without anyone keeping them accountable.

Most MOOCs provide an estimate of course length based on a suggested weekly time commitment. MOOCs typically take between one and 16 weeks to complete.

One downside of MOOC courses: In most cases, you receive no proof of completion. You don't get a certificate to show your employer or a degree to add to your wall. Some MOOC providers do offer completion certificates for a fee.

Free MOOCs attract students who either can't afford a college education or aren't interested in one. Other attendees are people who want to learn more about a hobby or topic of interest.

MOOCs are also popular with computer professionals -- even those with college degrees -- because they provide a convenient way to learn new languages and skills. These professionals can then add those skills to their resumes.

The popularity of MOOCs surged during the pandemic. Perhaps new students were unable to attend in-person schools and sought an alternative. Or maybe people who lost their jobs turned to MOOCs to learn new skills and increase their employability.

The most popular MOOC courses are often created by universities. Free courses from prestigious universities such as Harvard and Princeton attract many students.

Here are five of the most popular MOOC courses.

Over four million people have enrolled in Stanford University's machine learning course, offered via Coursera. Machine learning fuels web search, speech recognition, and self-driving cars. Students get introduced to machine learning techniques, datamining, and statistical pattern recognition.

More than three million people have enrolled in CS50's introduction to computer science, offered via edX. This 12-week Harvard University course teaches the art of programming and requires no prior programming experience. Students learn to solve problems efficiently with algorithms.

The University of Michigan offers programming for everybody (getting started with Python) through Coursera. The course teaches Python programming basics. This class targets students with moderate programming experience.

Analyzing and visualizing data with Exceltakes about six weeks to complete. Offered by Microsoft via edX, this self-paced data science course introduces tools for analyzing data in Excel. Students should understand how to use pivot tables and slicers before taking this course.

Princeton University offers algorithms, part one through Coursera. This free course covers algorithms and data structures, including scientific performance analysis of Java implementations. Students learn searching and sorting algorithms and elementary data structures.

If you want to advance your career without returning to college, a MOOC might help. Taking MOOCs demonstrates a commitment to self-improvement. You can provide your employer with a list of the MOOCs you have taken next time you're up for a promotion. Your additional education might give you an edge.

The skills you learn through MOOCs can help you improve your job performance. For example, a course on negotiation skills may come in handy if you work in sales, leading to higher commissions. In addition, taking MOOCs can increase your job prospects by giving you more skills for your resume.

You may even be able to change careers completely by taking MOOCs. This is especially true if you want to launch a career in technology, where skills are often more important than a degree.

Although MOOCs are by definition "open," some MOOC providers now charge for some of their courses. On Udemy, the list price typically ranges from $69.99 to $139.99 per course. The site often runs sales, reducing prices to about $14.99 to $25.99.

Many free online courses are still available through MOOC providers such as Coursera, edX, FutureLearn, and Udacity. For example, Coursera offers free courses from Yale University on the science of well-being and financial markets, as well as a course on successful negotiation strategies and skills from the University of Michigan.

Since most MOOC courses are free, the only question is whether they are worth your time. Is it worth it to you to spend 21 hours taking Peking University's Chinese for beginners course? If you're planning a trip to China, it might be. Likewise, a course on the strategy of content marketing could be useful if you work in marketing.

For MOOC classes that aren't free, you must consider the cost as well. Only you can decide how much a particular skill is worth to you. Consider how learning that skill will affect your work and bolster your resume. If a skill will help you land a better job, the class mayl be worth the cost.

A recent study asked employers how MOOC credentials compared to traditional postsecondary credentials. They also asked whether MOOC credentials on a freelancer's profile influence their decision to hire the freelancer.

The researchers found that employers prefer a bachelor of arts, associate of arts, or even a certificate from a community college to a MOOC credential. However, for candidates with no other educational experience, respondents preferred candidates with MOOC credentials over those with no MOOC credentials.

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Leveraging Machine Learning to Optimize CO2 Adsorption – Techiexpert.com – TechiExpert.com

Scientists employ artificial intelligence to guide the design of biomass waste-derived novel materials for CO2capture

Biomass waste can be used to produce porous carbons capable of sequestering CO2gas emitted from large point sources (e.g., power plants, cement industries). However, there are no general guidelines on how such high-quality porous carbons should be synthesized or their optimal operational conditions. In a recent study, scientists employed machine learning-based method to determine which core factors should be prioritized in biomass waste-derived porous carbons to achieve the best CO2adsorption performance, paving the way to a circular economy.

If we are to mitigate climate change, we must find cost-effective and sustainable ways to reduce industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Unfortunately, most well-established methods for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in industrial post-combustion sources bear significant downsides, such as a high cost, environmental toxicity, or durability issues. Against this backdrop, many researchers have focused on what may be our best bet for next-generation CCS systems: CO2adsorption using solid porous carbon materials.

One notorious advantage of using porous carbons for CO2sequestration is that they can be produced from biomass waste, such as agricultural waste, food waste, animal waste, and forest debris. This makes biomass waste-derived porous carbons (BWDPCs) attractive not only due to their low cost, but also because they provide an alternative way to put biomass waste to good use. Although BWDPCs could definitely bring us closer to a circular economy, this field of study is relatively young, and no clear guidelines or consensus exist between scientists as to how BWDPCs should be synthesized or what material properties and compositions they should strive for.

Could artificial intelligence (AI) help us out in this conundrum? In a recent studypublished inEnvironmental Science and Technology, a collaborative research team from Korea University and the National University of Singapore employed a machine learning-based approach that may guide the development of future porous carbon synthesis strategies. The scientists noted that there are three core factors influencing the CO2adsorption properties in BWDPCs: the elemental composition of the porous solid, its textural properties, and the adsorption parameters at which it operates, such as temperature and pressure. However, how these core factors should be prioritized when developing BWDPCs has remained unclear, until now.

To help settle this matter, the team first conducted a literature review and selected 76 publications describing both the synthesis and performance of various BWDPCs. After curation, these papers provided over 500 datapoints that were used to train and test three tree-based models. The main purpose of our work was to elucidate how machine learning tools can be leveraged for predictive analytics and used to draw valuable insights into the process of CO2adsorption using BWDPCs, explains Professor Yong Sik Ok from Korea University, who led the study.

The input features of the models were the three core factors, whereas the output was the level of CO2adsorption. Although the models themselves become essentially black boxes after the training process, they can be used to make accurate predictions on the performance of BWDPCs based solely on the core factors considered. Most importantly, through feature analyses, the research team determined the relative importance of each of the input features for making accurate predictions. In other words, they established which of the core factors is the most important to achieve high CO2adsorption. The results indicate that the adsorption parameters contributed much more than the other two core factors for the models to make correct predictions, underlining the importance of optimizing operational conditions first. The textural properties of the BWDPCs, such as their pore size and surface area, came in second place, and their elemental composition came last.

Worth noting, the predictions of the models and the results of the feature importance analyses were backed by existing literature and our current understanding of the mechanisms behind the CO2capture process. This cemented the real-world applicability of this data-driven strategy not only for BWDPCs, but for other types of materials, as Prof. Ok explains, Our modeling approach is cross-deployable and can be used to investigate other types of porous carbons for CO2adsorption, such as zeolites and metalorganic frameworks, and not just those derived from biomass waste.

The team now plans to devise a synthesis strategy for BWDPCs by focusing on optimizing the two most important core factors. Moreover, they will keep adding experimental data points to the database used in this study and make it open source so that the research community may also benefit from it.

Let us hope that all these efforts lead us to truly sustainable societies that can stop climate change and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, such asGoal 13: Climate Action.

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Leveraging digital innovation to work smarter and streamline business – Crain’s Cleveland Business

When the pandemic thrust the world into a work-from-home reality, many businesses were unprepared to take their operations virtual. From paper-based payroll to manual collections, automation and digitization of operations could have alleviated many pain points, streamlined operations and increased efficiencies to keep business moving.The financial services industry is among those harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to help customers reduce fraud exposure, execute faster payments and provide data-driven business insights.

Though artificial intelligence and machine learning sound futuristic, the capabilities are widely available now and can enable significant improvement in business operations, said Pat Pastore, PNC regional president of Cleveland.Chris Ward, PNCs executive vice president and head of data, digital and innovations for PNC Treasury Management, said artificial intelligence and machine learning drive the three important Is of the economy immediacy; interconnectivity; and interruption.

To that end, digital innovation, he said, helps companies make decisions faster, create integrated experiences and interrupt their own business or that of their competitors.

CASH FORECASTING

Until now, the cash forecasting process has been a manual, labor intensive, time-consuming process.

PNCs Cash Forecasting solution, for example, leverages artificial intelligence, machine learning and a companys historical data to produce a 31-day rolling cash forecast.

The module can help treasurers predict future cash flow, reduce version control issues, plan for a gap or surplus, and ultimately, provide better insights on current and future cash positions. Ward said the solution can be tailored, integrating with a companys existing systems as a standalone offering, or combined with PNCs PINACLE corporate online and mobile banking platform.

REAL-TIME PAYMENTS

In the business-to-business payments space, Ward said more than half of payments are still made by check. That can be a problem under crisis conditions.

The RTP network from The Clearing House, the first new payment system in 40 years, is a real-time payments platform for account-to-account transactions. What sets RTP apart from other payment systems, Ward said, is that it delivers payments 24/7/365, providing immediacy and interconnectedness.

AI and machine learning-enabled technologies are crucial for monitoring and analyzing transactions in the fraction of a second necessary to facilitate real-time payments, Ward said.

RECEIVABLES AUTOMATION

Receivables automation enables companies to streamline the receipt of payments from customers, reduce costs and maximize cash flow. Ward noted that as the pace of business increases and companies continue to embrace efficiencies, automating the often complex receivables process allows companies to consolidate traditional checks and all electronic payment formats into a single remittance stream.

With access to virtual batching, integrated remote deposit capture and workflow management, companies can minimize exceptions and operate with greater efficiency.

THE FUTURE

Pastore said competition is increasing every day and businesses are searching for ways to improve operations. This has only been compounded by the pandemic.

PNC has advanced technology to help companies become more efficient and, in turn, competitive.

From an industry perspective, Pastore and Ward said to expect increased adoption in the coming years as more businesses leverage advanced technology to make decisions and resolve problems.

This technology is so important, because even without AI and machine learning, people would still be trying to find ways to move money faster, Ward said.

PNC and PINACLE are registered marks of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (PNC). RTP is a registered trademark of The Clearing House Payments Company, LLC.

2021 The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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WhatsApp to offer encryption on cloud backups: Heres all you need to know – India Today

The most popular instant messaging platform in the world, WhatsApp, will now let its users encrypt the backups of their messages. It is the first global messaging service on this scale to offer end-to-end encrypted messaging and backups.

Talking about the new feature, Mark Zuckerberg said, 'Getting there was a really hard technical challenge that required an entirely new framework for key storage and cloud storage across operating systems.' (sic)

End-to-end encryption is a system of communication where only the communicating users can read the messages. It usually refers to the data in motion being transferred from one users device to another users device.

It means that only you will be given the option to back up your chats to Apple iCloud or Google Drive, depending on whether you are using an iPhone or an Android phone.

No one but only you will have the encryption key to unlock your stored backup.

This will make the backups unreadable without an encryption key. All users who opt into encrypted backups will be asked to save a 64-digit encryption key or create a password that is tied to the key.

When a user creates a password to their accounts encryption key, WhatsApp will back up the associated key in a physical hardware security module, and can be unlocked only when the correct password is entered on WhatsApp.

The hardware security module (HSM) provides the encryption key that in turn decrypts the accounts backup that is stored on either Apple or Googles servers. A key stores in WhatsApps HSM vaults will become permanently inaccessible if repeated password attempts are made.

HSM will act like a safety deposit box for encrypting and decrypting digital keys.

Click here for IndiaToday.ins complete coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

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WhatsApp boosts end-to-end encryption – BusinessTech

Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said the company is expanding end-to-end encryption on its WhatsApp messaging service.

Texts sent on WhatsApp are already protected so that they can only be seen by the sender and recipient. People have been able to back up their messages in the cloud, using Alphabet Incs Google Drive and Apple Incs icloud. But, while WhatsApp doesnt have access to those backups, Apple and Google potentially do.

Now, Facebook will allow users to choose to enable end-to-end encryption on their backups as well, meaning neither WhatsApp nor the cloud-service providers will be able to access them.

Were adding another layer of privacy and security, Zuckerberg said in a blog post Friday. WhatsApp is the first global messaging service at this scale to offer end-to-end encrypted messaging and backups, and getting there was a really hard technical challenge.

The move arrives as Facebook faces scrutiny over its privacy policies for the messaging service. Earlier this week, ProPublica published a report highlighting how contract workers sift through millions of private messages that have been flagged by users as potentially abusive. The nonprofit investigative organization subsequently made clear that WhatsApp doesnt break the end-to-end encryption.

Meanwhile, government officials have been encouraging Facebook and other tech companies to roll back encryption of messaging products to make investigating crimes easier.

Read: WhatsApp testing feature to transcribe voice notes to text

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London’s Top Cop Says ‘Big Tech,’ Encryption Are Letting The Terrorists Win – Techdirt

from the applying-excessive-force-to-a-horse's-corpse dept

Dame Cressida Dick -- the former National Policing Lead for Counter-Terrorism -- has had an op-ed published by The Telegraph that leverages the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to advocate for less privacy and security for routine targets of terrorist attacks: everyday people without powerful government positions.

Writing from her latest official position -- that of Metropolitan Police Commissioner -- Dame Dick says the War on Terror can be won sort of. (Paywalled but here's an alternate link.)

The future, as ever, is uncertain - as exemplified by the situation in Afghanistan as we wait to see how events there might once again impact on the terrorism landscape. But as I reflect on what has passed since 9/11, I am confident that we continue to develop the exceptional tools and capabilities that will give our counter-terrorism officers the best chance of successfully confronting the threats that will emerge over the next 20 years.

That's just a small part of it. It's headlined by this declaration by the Police Commissioner:

Terrorists seek to divide us -- they won't win

Not so fast, Cressida. Right in the middle of your own op-ed is an admission the terrorists have won, at least using these metrics.

The threat of sophisticated terrorist cells being directed from overseas has been added to by that of the individuals carrying out rudimentary attacks with very little planning or warning. The current focus on encryption by many big tech companies is only serving to make our job to identify and stop these people even harder, if not impossible in some cases.

And there it is: the thing that divides us. Government officials continue to insist that if encryption can be used by terrorists and criminals, then it really shouldn't be accessible to all the non-terrorists who use it to secure their personal information and communications. If the end goal of terrorist attacks is to drive a wedge between the public and their public servants, mission accomplished.

The public would like to have actual security. The government would prefer the illusion of security: a nonexistent form of encryption that only allows good guys to peek in on "secure" communications. And, on the flip side, these officials believe the only people who really "need" encrypted communications are criminals and terrorists since they have the most to hide. If that's the only real market for encryption, then non-terrorists should be happy using insecure communications options because they have nothing to hide and nothing to fear from their governments.

And while we're on the subject of reasoning that's mostly circular, The Telegraph manages to close its own loop by dropping a link in Dame Cressida Dick's op-ed. That link takes you to this article ("Tech giants are making it impossible to stop terrorists, says Dame Cressida Dick"), which opens with this:

Tech giants are making it impossible to identify and stop terrorists carrying out deadly attacks, Dame Cressida Dick warns on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 atrocity.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner - who was granted a two-year extension on her contract on Friday - said the introduction of end-to-end encryption, which allows users to message one another in complete secrecy, was giving terrorists an advantage over law enforcement.

Companies such as Facebook have argued that introducing encryption will improve privacy for their customers.

But writing in The Telegraph, Dame Cressida warns that terrorists are exploiting such technological advances to radicalise people and direct attacks around the world.

That last link takes you back to Cressida's op-ed, which contains one paragraph about Big Tech and encryption -- a paragraph that is quoted in its entirety further down the page in this separate article. The op-ed links to the article which links to the op-ed which links to the article. It's a neat trick, one that makes one hand clapping sound like applause. One could theoretically spend hours opening each self-referential link, allowing Dick's single argument to become a groundswell movement that gradually consumes every last bit of available RAM (mainly looking at you, Chrome).

And that's as good a metaphor as any for the anti-encryption agitation of officials like the Dame. Like other law enforcement officials who would like to see encryption backdoored if not eliminated completely, the Dame's attacks on encryption appear to operate under the theory that if someone says something often enough, and authoritatively enough, then some people are going to believe these assertions are true.

And at the end of all of this, it must be pointed out that the split between law enforcement officials and security experts continues to increase. But the terrorists didn't cause this split. The War on Terror did. The response to the 9/11 attacks was a power grab by the government, which suddenly had the justification it needed to curtail rights and liberties it often found inconvenient. And now it's Big Government complaining about Big Tech, using terrorism as an excuse to undermine security for everyone.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyones attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

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While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise and every little bit helps. Thank you.

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Filed Under: cressida dick, encryption, london, metropolitan police, terrorism

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Business Analytics Lecture Series Kicks Off with Janssen Pharmaceutical’s Jeffery Headd – Seton Hall University News & Events

Jeffery Headd

Presented by the Stillman School of Business, the second annual Executive Lessons Learned in Analytics and Advanced Technologies lecture series will return with virtual sessions. This year's focus is on leveraging analytics and associated applications to improve business impact and financial outcomes.

The first lecture in the second annual Executive Lessons Learned in Analytics and Advanced Technologies series will feature Jeffrey J Headd, Ph.D., senior director of Commercial Data Sciences at The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Headd's lecture titled, "Driving Measurable Business Impact Through Data Science at Scale" will be presented virtually on Thursday, September 23 at 6:30 p.m.

During the presentation, attendees will learn how Janssen Pharmaceuticals has matured its data science capabilities from early proof of concept projects to a cornerstone capability enabling critical business initiatives.

As the leader of the Janssen Business Technology Commercial Data Sciences and Data Management team, Headd partners with commercial leadership across business functions to identify and tackle critical challenges with novel data-driven solutions. His multidisciplinary team applies expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data integration, and other modern analytical methods to address these challenges and generate measurable business value.

Headd holds a Ph.D. in computational biology and bioinformatics from Duke University. In addition to his current position in Janssen, he has also worked in J&J's Medical Devices sector as a member of the R&D Technology Data Sciences team, following his initial J&J role as a data scientist in the Janssen Business Technology Data Sciences team. Prior to joining J&J, he worked in methods development for macromolecular crystallography as a member of the Phenix team at both Duke University and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

Jay Liebowitz, D.Sc., M.S. in Business Analytics (MSBA) program co-director in the Stillman School of Business, will moderate the series. Liebowitz is one of the world's leading knowledge management researchers and practitioners. Moreover, a Stanford University study recognized Liebowitz as being among the world's top 2 percentmost-cited scientists in the field of AI, with a secondary discipline in Business.

To learn more about the series and to register for one or more of the lectures, click here.

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How is data science changing the way we get insured for the better? – BOSS Magazine

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Data is everywhere. While we consume a lot of data every day, we also give away loads of information to the internet during our interaction, no matter how small a time frame. And while we see active use of data science and related technology in fields such as targeted marketing, personalization of technology, customer support, and more, it is now slowly reaching the insurance industry.

The insurance industry runs on statistics and logic as it involves risk management, competition, and event prediction daily. With the integration of big data, IoT, and data science, things are taking a turn for the better, for the customers and the companies.

The power of AI and data science is now used to predict risks and outcomes in the industry to cut as much gross loss as possible. The prediction, or assessment, of risk is really just identifying the type and reasons of risk to help the industry avoid them with as big a margin as possible. This is all done with the help of data analytics.

The information about the customer (could be a person, a group of people, or an entire company) is acquired and fed into a model. The model, designed using algorithms that combine and understand data, then assesses the risks nature, type, and result in a given objective statement. For evaluation, the risk is cast as a result fit for the audiences consumption, such as a visually descriptive graph, table, etc., thus, ensuring the customers profitability.

While an increase in profitability sounds like the ultimate requirement for data science in the insurance industry, something a bit more concerning requires expert attention.

Insurance frauds are quite the talk of the town everywhere, all the time. Not only does it bring a great loss to individuals, but it also brings financial loss to the insurance companies. The leading causes of fraudulent activities are suspicious links, malware, phishing, etc. Thankfully, data science platforms have made it easier for everyone to detect and fight these using various techniques, often AI-driven.

The insurance companies constantly run their history of data into statistical models using algorithms designed to detect fraud. These are conditioned using previous cases of fraudulent activities to understand the same. Using the newly gained intelligence, the algorithm analyzes the ongoing stream of data to filter out even the most subtle instance of fraud that might have gone unnoticed otherwise.

But the integration of data science into the insurance industry isnt an isolated event of cross-industry advancement. With data analysis techniques, we often see IoT tunneling into the health and finance sector.

We live in an age and world that connects us to a vast network through multiple channels. Health insurance companies know that the best. They seek out and collect data from wearable body sensors, such as smartwatches and phones; transactions such as payments made at fast-food joints; data from exercise monitoring systems at gyms; social media content posted by individuals to evaluate their mental health. This endless sea of data we all provide to insurance companies falls into the algorithm that studies us, our behavior, and our history.

This acquired intelligence is used to then provide us with personalized, structured healthcare plans, services, etc., by the companies.

If you can use data science to learn more about better healthcare schemes, can you do the same for automobiles? Yes, we can.

Risk assessment is as big a part of the automobile industry as any other. Data about various automobiles runs through a centralized database constantly to help customers learn what they need from their insurance company to cover them with the least amount of risk and maximum benefits.

Thankfully, platforms like Salty do the trick. They seamlessly simplify AI for you, understand you and your needs, and provide you with a customized plan to help you stay insured always.

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