Guanghua's new business statistics department relies on SAS®

Guanghua School of Management at Peking University founded the department of business statistics and econometrics in June 2002 to satisfy the ever-increasing demand to include statistics in the study of business management and economics in mainland China. Combining the previous statistics and econometrics majors that the school offered, it is one of the first statistics departments in China's business schools. To meet the school's objective of becoming a world-class business school, the department has successfully conducted extensive pioneering work. Education, research and public service were identified as the major focuses. The department is devoted to educating professionals on applying statistics in finance, marketing, government, education, industrial management, etc.

School leaders anticipate that the department will be regarded as an important national and international research institute, as well as contributing to the development of the statistics and econometrics fields in China.

The department offers compulsory statistical courses to the school's undergraduates, master's and doctoral students, as well as its MBA, IMBA and EMBA students, with some courses presented in English. Emphasizing the need for basic training in statistics and econometrics, the department strives to help students to understand the importance of quantitative methods in business and economics and to master statistical thinking that supports rational decision making.

The role of SAS^® in education and research
SAS plays an important role in most courses available to students in statistics, including the graduate students. During the first semester, graduate students are required to learn the basics of SAS, such as how to read various file formats into SAS, how to obtain descriptive statistics, how to perform basic statistical tests and how to do simulations. Another compulsory course trains students in developing statistical models, performing common data analyses using standard statistical software (SAS and S-plus), making presentations and writing professional reports. All homework is based on real data analysis and report writing. Exams consist of a mid-term project with given datasets and a large final project with datasets of the student's choice.

In the compulsory course, Data Mining and Application, students learn methodologies of data mining, such as SEMMA (Sample, Explore, Modify, Model, Assess), developed by SAS, and CRIP-DM (Cross Industry Standard Process for Data Mining), developed by a consortium of companies. They also learn typical statistical methods in data mining, including association rule mining, clustering, decision trees, neural network, etc. The learning process is supported by the usage of the powerful data mining tool, SAS Enterprise Miner™. Students need to complete a major final project consisting of an extensive real data analysis, a presentation and report writing.

The master's program in statistics has also been redesigned. The master's students in statistics are required to take courses that cover both methodology and case studies, such as Advanced Business Data Analysis, Case Studies in Marketing Research, Applied Time Series Analysis and Data Mining and Applications. As part of these courses, the students gain hands-on experience through intensive analysis of real data, which they can directly apply and reinforce when writing their theses.

The course Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis is offered to all postgraduate students of Guanghua School of Management. It addresses ANOVA, multivariate regression, principal component analysis, factor analysis, discriminant analysis, clustering, multidimensional scaling and the application of these methods using SAS.

SAS also serves as the underlying tool in research projects by Guanghua faculty. As a research center, the department develops both methodologies and case studies on the application of statistics in the business world. The department encourages publications in international journals and the study of real-life cases in China. More specifically, the research areas include: time series and finance data analysis, risk management, official statistics, data mining, Six Sigma management, survey sampling, and econometrics models.

Additionally, in support of public service, the department is dedicated to promoting the use of statistics in finance, marketing, industrial management and government decision making. Its goal is to provide companies and government with advisory services based on scientific data and models, and to contribute to the dissemination of knowledge in statistics and econometrics to the public.

The Business Intelligence Research Center
As a joint venture with the department of probability and statistics in the School of Mathematics, the Business Intelligence Research Center (BIRC) in Peking University was recently established, and a Center of Excellence (COE) within the BIRC was created in cooperation with SAS.

The BIRC was established to address the pressing need to give students access to expertise and technology of business intelligence from the commercial world, and to provide professionals in various business disciplines with statistical analysis and data mining skills.

"We have set up this center to raise the profile of data mining, statistics and business intelligence in the academic and commercial worlds. SAS has been an important partner in helping us develop courses and research using analytics to give our students the necessary skills for the business world," says Junni Zhang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Business Statistics and Econometrics.

The center consists of four closely integrated components: academic education, research, professional development and professional services. By participating in the activities at the center, graduate students will gain hands-on experience in research and data analysis. They will also benefit from learning and working with the research fellows and visiting scholars who may not be accessible otherwise in an academic environment. Through professional services, the center will establish close links between the center and the industry, generating important research projects. Professional development services, which will deliver high-quality training opportunities, will enhance the future development of the center through its alumni relationship.

The center of excellence with SAS is hosted within the BIRC. It is expected that the COE will showcase SAS as a major data mining and business intelligence provider to the Chinese business community; the COE will also become one of the major training centers for SAS certified professionals. It will build up the human resource base in business intelligence in China by providing the environment for training, research and advisory services associated with business intelligence within Peking University and externally toward various industries.

"The COE ensures that we bridge the gap between the academic and commercials worlds, as well as promoting the application of data mining and statistics in organizations in China," continues Junni Zhang.

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