Description: This article is about the emergence of the financial modeling process in the actuarial tool kit.

Description: This article explains the importance of centralizing modeling departments. It goes further and explains the importance of making all aspects of modeling reusable. It explains the consequences of decentralization.

Description: The article discusses the use of R in prototyping automation procedures. It offers general pros and cons for R and walks through a specific use case, which involves scraping and summarizing data stored in Microsoft Excel.

Description: Letter fron the Chairman.

Description: A personal account of how humor in the workplace improved productivity.

Description: As any international traveler who has tried to plug in an electronic device knows, the human race is great at devising many different ways to accomplish the same task. Predictive modeling is no different. Data scientists can choose from a wide variety of languages to prepare data, fit models, and verify results. The Rosetta Stone, which showed writing composed in three languages side by side, was instrumental in translating unfamiliar Egyptian hieroglyphics into the more common Greek language. This presentation follows a similar approach by showing the same predictive model implemented in the following languages: R, Python, Spark, MatLab, and SAS. Participants will compare and contrast each of these languages and, by doing so, build a greater understanding of those languages less familiar to them.

Description: The barrier between humans and machines continues to blur, but curiously, this may have been prediction thousands of years ago in ancient myths. This article looks to how some of the early legends are becoming manifest in modern technology, particularly in the area of elder care. From automation, to humanoid assistants, to mind clones will the age of technology bring a new utopia?