SCOPE | Vectum activities committee is a fun and exciting way to contribute to our community. It is especially rewarding when people enjoy the activities you plan and hear the positive feedback. Every couple weeks we would have a meeting with our committee and discuss the activities for the upcoming period. Every time the room would be full of enthusiasm and new ideas for what we could do. Seeing these ideas turn into a real activity, such as the dancing workshop in association with MSVD Let's Dance and the city game is always a delight. Being part of the activities committee was a great way to give back to the SCOPE | Vectum community whilst also being a joy to do.”
This was Alexander’s journey of the Activities committee, are you excited to start yours?
Fred's PR Committee Experience
“PerVectum gave me the opportunity to engage in the SCOPE | Vectum community in ways that have little to do with calculating integrals, for a change. In our small group of students and teachers, there exists an abundance of unique stories that we may not get to hear during a tutorial or after a Tuesday activity. I don't need to prove my last statement, but if you'd like a tangible example, then you can flip through some past editions of the PerVectum to read about alumni-turned-entrepreneurs, the secret chess and ballroom-dancing talents of professors, or students' lives from far away. In essence, the PerVectum documents SCOPE | Vectum's weekly activities, but it's up to you if you want to take the k+1st step and help us get to know each other a bit better.”
This was Fred’s experience with the PR committee last year. What will yours be?
Research Lecture Period 5
With the end of the academic year looming near, a small crowd gathered outside of the SBE on a Tuesday evening for an all-time classic SCOPE | Vectum activity; The Research Lecture! For this lecture we welcomed Tjark Vredeveld, an Associate Professor from the KE department, in the field of Operations Research / Quantitive Economics. Most of us already knew Tjark as the course coordinator of the Second Year Operations Research course. That being said, it was very interesting to gain some insight into the actual research he is conducting. The lecture covered Prophet Inequalities. The classic prophet inequality states that, when faced with a finite sequence of non-negative independent random variables, a gambler who knows their distribution and is allowed to stop the sequence at any time, can obtain in expectation at least half as much reward as an all-knowing prophet who knows the values of each random variable and can choose the largest one. In his lecture, Tjak spoke on some recent developments in this field, as well as highlighting several compelling open problems. Overall, it was a very nice and enjoyable presentation, that provided our members with some very valuable insights.
Thank you once again for the lecture Tjark!
17
A Pre-Departure Checklist for Outgoing Econometricians
Although exchange articles are a widely popular and well appreciated staple of each PerVectum, we decided to take a different approach in this last edition before most second year Econometrics & Operations Research students embark on their journeys beyond the Maas. Whether you’re headed to Aachen or the North Pole, we’ve got you covered! Many senior students who have already enjoyed their semester abroad were kind enough to give us certain location-specific tips, which Dr. Vectum has compiled in a handy guide book below:
If you’re headed to Asia, keep in mind that …
• … as a Dutchie, you may tower over most of the locals in your respective destination. Domestic air travel and public transportation may test your limits of cramming in to seats that may remind you of Gulliver’s Travels.
• In case you may be considered gargantuan by the locals’ standards, be prepared to pose for many pictures. Regardless of whether you abhor or relish the ensuing attention and paparazzi, do not let it get to your head when you come back to Maastricht. :)
• Flourish in the excitement and adventure of not being able to decipher signs written in an entirely different alphabet.
• And last but not least, never forget to be respectful of the local cultural and societal norms that differ from ours in Europe!
If you’re headed somewhere in Europe, remember to…
• … cash in on your Erasmus grant!
• … enjoy those cheap RyanAir and WizzAir flights! While this is possible to do from Maastricht as well, you may find that you finally have more free time to explore all the corners of Europe!
• … have an extremely easy time sorting out your travel documents! While your other friends may be stressing out about visas and permits, you can relax and thank EU laws!
If you’re headed to Australia or New Zealand, be prepared to….
• … hear a lot of German. If you thought SBE was bad, just wait till you meet all the Germans spending their gap years here!
• …. get used to different words and phrases in English. If you make your way down to Australia, be sure to pick up as much local lingo as you can, mate. Not only does it sound awesome, you’ll also be able to show off in front of all your friends when you return!
• … pet koalas, kangaroos, and other cute, exotic animals. Arguably the biggest motivation to go here; all the wildlife! Make sure to enjoy it all while you’re here!
• …. run away from crocodiles, spiders, and other scary, exotic animals. Pack your running shoes and insect spray!
If you’re headed to Central or South America, get ready for …
• … Spanish spoken at the speed of light. No B2 Spanish class will prepare you for the real deal. Just accept it and try to pick up as much Spanish as you can.
• …. the locals’ impeccable moves on the dance floor. Even if you attended the salsa workshop organized by SCOPE | Vectum this year, you may find that a little brush up of all the moves could prove useful.
If you’re headed to North America, get ready to …
• … kiss the metric system good bye. All those years of metric education should be forgotten before arrival. No matter how illogical the system may seem, you will soon find yourself several feet deep in it.
• … go big or go home. This motto will apply to everything during your exchange, from your adventures all the way to your waistline
• … kiss cheap international flights goodbye. No more RyanAir. No more WizzAir. From now on your new best friends are Greyhound busses.
If you keep these few tips in mind, then your exchange is guaranteed to be full of fun and adventures!
SCOPE | Vectum Case Day 2019
In the first week of period five SCOPE | Vectum organized the yearly Case Day in Maastricht again! The Case Day offered a remarkable opportunity to get to know four companies in the fields of Econometrics, Operations Research and Actuarial Sciences. This was the perfect timing for such an event, as many of the students in Vectum had already begun job hunting for once they graduated this year!
For this year’s Case Day, the companies CBS, Districon, Pipple and RiskQuest made their way to the south of the Netherlands to present themselves and challenge the students to try and solve some cases. Early on the Thursday morning the members of Vectum turned up in the SBE, looking both dashing and smart in their formal clothes. The morning started off with everyone picking up a name tag, which would reveal which companies you were assigned to.
With excitement buzzing all around, people started to head to their designated rooms to attend the first two cases of the day. CBS and RiskQuest both hosted morning cases, which commenced once the rooms were filled. During CBS’ case, they showed how they conduct a census which happens every 10 years; and they we were challenged to come up with ways to fill in missing data. Alongside this, RiskQuest presented their case, which dealt with risk models in the financial sector. Each team presented their takes on the problems in short presentations, and after that we headed to a wonderful lunch. We got to have our lunch while talking to the different company representatives; a great opportunity to ask questions about the companies and the working environment.
After lunch, we headed back to the SBE for our second case, which was presented by either Pipple or Districon. Pipple presented a very interesting case on machine learning; having us attempting to create some form of an evolutionary program. While complicated, the actual case was very interesting and had many of us research the field independently later on in the day. Districon presented a case focused more on logistics. The case had everyone highly engaged, with discussions on the problem continuing even past the allocated case day time.
All in all, it was a great day! A big thank you to the External Affairs committee for organising this amazing day!
Econometric Games 2019
SCOPE | Vectum would like to congratulate Master’s students Lea Bottmer and Anne Pieters and PhD candidates Elisa Voisin and Caterina Schiavoni for their remarkable runners-up result at the 2019 Econometrics Games in Amsterdam! You go girls! Your success is a true testament to your hard work, discipline, and talent that your fellow students can look up to. Maastricht University and our Econometrics community are very proud of you!
After submitting their Master’s theses this summer, Lea will cross the Atlantic to pursue a PhD in Economics at Stanford University and Anne will start working for APG. We wish you all the best for your future! You will both surely be missed, especially by your students from the extra tutorials! As for Elisa and Caterina, we wish you both all the best in your PhD studies. Fortunately, we students will still be able to benefit from your sound knowledge at tutorials.
To our readers who would like to know more about Lea, Anne, Elisa, and Caterina’s experience at the 2019 Econometrics Game, we recommend Florian Raith’s well-written article “A numbers game” in the SBE’s latest edition of “Students going the extra mile”.
We recommend giving the girls’ runner-up paper about climate change a close read under https://econometricgame.nl/econometric-game-2019/.
