Indiana University Northwest actuarial science students received top honors in the 2018 Society of Actuaries (SOA) Student Research Case Study Challenge, an international competition that drew 70 universities worldwide.

The team, dubbed the RedHawk (Pi)rates, was comprised of Jacob Jakubowicz, Jillian Milicki, Steven Rynne, Yu Zhang, and Anthony Zuccolo, and their faculty sponsors, Alex Xiaofeng Wang and Michelle Yuanying Guan. They were the only U.S. team to make the finals, placing them in the top seven among top research schools such as the University of London, University of Oxford, and University of Toronto.

The competition required students to research a case study, conduct actuarial analysis, formulate solutions, and present recommendations over an eight-week timeframe. As this year’s topic, the students were tasked with analyzing the sustainability of a long-term care social insurance system.

As explained by Jakubowicz, of Schererville, the team had to “conduct simulations in order to determine the expected revenue and expenses that would come from the program. We also had to analyze the impact of income from the taxpayers and how the expenses of the long-term care insurance were going to progress throughout the future.”

Top-ranked program

In 2017, the IU Northwest team placed in the semi-finals. This year’s elevation to the top seven teams required that they present their case to a panel of judges via videoconference.

Rynne, of Dyer, said that having to present their study to the judges was a valuable learning opportunity. The team had to field questions from actuaries, an exercise which forced them to think on their feet and apply their knowledge to a variety of scenarios.

The IU Northwest Actuarial Science program ranks among the nation’s top 30 U.S. programs.