Iranian student is amongst nine other student ambassadors worldwide to present thesis at SAS Global Forum in Seattle, Washington.  

KUALA LUMPUR, 08 April 2010 – 26-year old Somaye Gharibvan will be representing Malaysia at the upcoming SAS Global Forum in Seattle, Washington from April 11th to 14th.  

The second year Masters of Business Administration (MBA) student is amongst just nine (9) other student ambassadors selected from a global basis, as SAS Student Ambassador from their respective countries, to present their research thesis on Analytics at the yearly SAS Global Forum.

This selection is a great milestone for MMU as Somaye’s success proves their capability in grooming and producing students to be of world-class standards and competent in the global arena.  

Dr Wan Fadzilah, Dean, Faculty of Management says, “The mature teaching infrastructure of MMU as a private tertiary institution has contributed to the success where students have good access to excellent business-IT applications and learning facilities. We are very proud of Somaye for her success in the stiff competition to be a SAS Student Ambassador.”  

Tan Siew Ling, Academic Program Manager of SAS Malaysia says, “Actually this is a significant 3-party achievement - for Somaye, MMU and SAS Malaysia, as Somaye’s win distinguished her from the 41 other participants worldwide.”

“It has been an SAS annual tradition for the past 35 years that only 10 students are chosen to present their research thesis at the yearly SAS Global Forum. This program recognizes students’ research leveraging SAS Business Analytics technologies in some of the most innovative ways that can benefit various commercial industries, as well as in the areas of Research and Development.”

Analysing Stock Prices Movements

Somaye spent approximately a year preparing her research dissertation entitled “Financial Analysis Using SAS PROCS”.  

According to her, the motivation for her thesis topic is the interest of the financial services industry in analyzing vast financial data including price trends from worldwide stock exchanges.  
 
“I wanted to show how that SAS analytical and graphical tools are extremely useful to achieve more accurate statistical analysis of vast stock price information and trends – especially the Times Series statistical method. My paper demonstrates how three PROCS (which are advanced SAS features), can be better used to analyze and monitor the stock price movements of certain identified stock counters,” explains Somaye.

She adds, “All my hard works are paid-off. I look forward to SAS Global Forum because I believe this rare opportunity can enhance my experience and share my passion in this field. I thank SAS Institute for sponsoring my trip to Washington.”

Tan shares that one of the criteria imposed by SAS was the presentation of the paper. “The research papers were not just judged based on the on the writing skills and the quality of dissertation, but also on how well the thesis was explained and interpreted.”

“I believe that good support for the local education sector from the corporate world, Malaysian students can better grasp the practical knowledge and skills in preparation for their move into the workforce.

“SAS Malaysia congratulates Somaye, and will continue to promote this SAS Ambassador program so as to inculcate the innovation culture amongst local tertiary students, by giving them the chance to step forward and share their ideas on how business analytics can be deployed in more innovative ways,” ends Tan.