Sunday June 12, 2011

Beyond the numbers

In a quiet corner of a large building in a university campus in Melbourne, Australia, Malaysian student Fan Jie Yen is working on a series of equations that may help avert another global financial crisis.

The responsibility of helping to uphold the world’s financial system armed with nothing more than pen, notepad and brain does not seem to daunt Jie Yen — and now she has the backing of the state government.

As one of the seven international students awarded with the Victorian International Research Scholarship, Jie Yen, who is pursuing her PhD in mathematical sciences at Monash University will receive A$20,000 (RM64,572) per year for three years.

Jie Yen is one of seven international students awarded with the scholarship.

The scholarship, which is awarded to students conducting specialised doctorate-level research in universities in Victoria, is part of the state government’s “Victoria – Leader in Learning” initiative to support high performing international scholars.

“The scholarships are a key component of the ‘Victoria – Leader in Learning’ initiative to support high calibre students to make the most of their educational experience in Victoria,” said Innovation, Services and Small Business Minister Louise Asher at the award ceremony.

“These recipients are the first to benefit from the A$1.2mil (RM3.9mil) Victorian International Research Scholarship programme which acknowledges the strength of Victorian universities in a variety of research fields,” said Asher, adding that Victoria’s international students made a significant contribution to the state’s diverse multicultural society and create the foundation for future global research, business and community links.

Jie Yen said her research aims to develop a new family of complex mathematical proof models that could shed light on the behaviour of financial systems.

“Hopefully the outcomes can be applied in finance, but in the meantime, the PhD is an opportunity to contribute to our knowledge and understanding of fundamental maths,” she said.

It was Dr Kais Hamza and Prof Fima Klebaner who introduced Jie Yen to the power and challenge of stochastic processes in mathematics when she was an undergraduate, and are now joint supervisors for her PhD.

“Stochastic models are used to model random things, such as stock prices,” Prof Klebaner explained.

“The aim of Jie Yen’s research is to come up with a family of new models which will allow us to examine different variables in financial markets.

“This is fundamental research that could be applied in the finance sector, but many people will use the solutions she finds in other areas of maths as well,” she added.

With the Victorian International Research Scholarship, Jie Yen can start her journey on what she hopes will be a lifetime of exploring the rarefied realms of fundamental mathematics.

“It’s quite difficult to explain what I do to friends who are not in the maths area, but I just love it – I could never imagine leaving maths behind,” Jie Yen said.

More News