The 2019 2nd International Quant Championship (IQC) had over 20,000 participants form 130 countries and over 2000 universities. 14 teams made it to the finals in Singapore, and School of Statistics graduate student, Zhang Haobo, won the championship.

Competition Intro

The International Quant Championship is a world-wide quant competition put on by WorldQuant and is one of the biggest quant competitions in the world. Teams of 1 to 6 people are formed to represent a university, country or region to take part in the competition.

The 2019 IQC had three parts: From March 20th to May 20th 2019 teams from the same country or region compete to move on to the next round; from June 1st to July 7th was the China national competition where the top ten teams moved on to the finals; from July 8th to Sep 6th was the international final competition in Singapore with China as one of the 14 countries.

Thoughts From The Champion

I never thought I would be able to win first place in the IQC. This entire competition was a very big challenge and a great practice from beginning to end.

I must thank RUC for my great undergraduate education. In the national and global competition the judges were most impressed with my “biased statistics” methods and ability to solve finical problems with data science. This had a lot to do with the statistical habits and thinking process I gained in my undergrad.

RUC’s School of Statistics always stresses statistical theory basics and the developments between different fields of study, and our school always broadens the field of statistics. In calculation education, our school really stresses on becoming more international and while teaching students on their own major also gives students a good platform for discussion to broaden student’s knowledge.