On October 31st, the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Department of Statistics and the Academic Forum on "Frontiers, Intersections, and Future of Statistics and Data Science" at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics were held in the lecture hall on the first floor of the university's research laboratory building. Statisticians from Shangcai gathered together to review the history of the Eight Ranks School, focus on the forefront of disciplines, and jointly seek high-quality development of the college.
Huang Xiangfeng, Secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Zhou Guoliang, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Liu Lanjuan, Director of the Department of Digital Science and Engineering, Liu Jun, Member of the National Academy of Sciences and Director of the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Tsinghua University, Xu Xianchun, a well-known statistician, Zhu Jinglei, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Shanghai Bureau of Statistics, Wang Xueqin, Chairman of the China On site Statistics Research Association, Chen Min, President of the National Industrial Statistics Teaching and Research Association, Ai Chunrong, Founding Dean of the College and Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), Jin Wenzhong, Council Member and Chairman of the Alumni Branch of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, attended the event. Experts, scholars, faculty and student representatives from more than 30 sister universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, senior leaders and relevant department heads of the school, former leaders and teacher representatives of the college, as well as alumni who have returned to their alma mater from home and abroad, participated in the event.
Looking Back at the Eighty Year History of Education
This event is divided into two stages: a commemorative conference and an academic forum. At the commemorative conference, all attendees watched the 80th anniversary special film of the college and took a group photo as a souvenir; School leaders, special guests, representatives of national societies, former deans, and alumni representatives delivered speeches successively, and Dean Feng Xingdong gave a report on the development work of the college. The conference was presided over by Yang Hui, the Secretary of the Party Committee of the college.
For eighty years, the torch has been passed down from generation to generation, and the Eight Rank Hua Zhang was written from this. The statistics education of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics can be traced back to the 1920s at Shanghai University of Commerce. In 1921, Shanghai University of Commerce established a statistics course, and in 1925, it hired American scholar Modi to teach at the university, marking the beginning of international exchanges in statistics education; In 1933, Mr. Jin Guobao came to the school to teach, and his book "Outline of Statistics" became the first academic monograph in the National Shanghai Business School series. In July 1946, the National Shanghai Business School was approved to establish a Department of Statistics, with Professor Zou Yiren serving as the first department head, becoming one of the few universities in China at that time to have a Department of Statistics. Subsequently, renowned scholars such as Chu Fengyi, Zhu Junyi, Xue Zhongsan, Chen Shanlin, and Zhang Yaoting gathered one after another, making important contributions to the development of the discipline of statistics at the school and even nationwide. From establishing an independent department to renaming the School of Statistics and Management in 2009, and then to renaming the School of Statistics and Data Science in 2024, the discipline of statistics at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics has always been in line with the country and resonated with the times.
A New Chapter in the Development of Co painting Disciplines
Huang Xiangfeng, Secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, congratulated the 80th birthday of the Department of Statistics on behalf of the university. He pointed out that for 80 years, the name of the college has undergone several changes, but the fundamental principles of seeking truth through numbers, learning from history, and being open and inclusive have remained unchanged, accumulating a tradition of "emphasizing both theory and practice" in education. He emphasized that statistics is the study of uncertainty - in the face of uncertainty, human methods have never avoided it, but measured it, understood it, and controlled it. He stated that statistics is an important support for the school to promote the "Digital Intelligence New Finance and Economics" strategy. The school will continue to support the college in meeting major national strategic needs, promoting interdisciplinary integration, and striving to build the college into an academic hub and talent cradle with distinctive financial and economic characteristics and significant influence at home and abroad.
Renowned statistician Xu Xianchun stated in his speech that in the past 80 years, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Statistics has delivered remarkable achievements in talent cultivation, discipline construction, academic research, and social services, and has trained tens of thousands of statistical professionals for the country. He put forward three suggestions for the future development of the college: aligning with major national development strategies and refining actionable policy recommendations; To address major practical issues in economic and social development, and to explore in-depth theories and methods for solving these problems; To connect with international cutting-edge fields and seize the historical opportunity of statistical issues becoming international cutting-edge problems. He believes that the college can continue to cultivate compound statistical talents with patriotism, profound theoretical foundation, and innovative ability.
Wang Xueqin, Chairman of the China On site Statistical Research Association and Professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, delivered a speech on behalf of the research association. He stated that the establishment of the Department of Statistics at the National Shanghai Business School paved the way for independent establishment of statistical education in China's financial and economic colleges; Over the past 80 years, the academy has always resonated with the times and moved forward with determination. What impressed colleagues in the academic community the most was the consistent pragmatic background and academic perseverance of the statisticians at Shangcai. He emphasized that in the face of the noise of massive data and the black box dilemma of large models, without rigorous statistical thinking, even the strongest computing power is prone to overfitting; Causal inference, uncertainty measurement, and credible verification are the irreplaceable core values of modern statistics. He looks forward to deepening cooperation with the college and tackling high-level applied basic research projects based on real-life scenarios.
Chen Min, President of the National Industrial Statistics Teaching and Research Association, delivered a speech on behalf of the association. He stated that in the past 80 years, the college has gone through initial exploration, adjustment and development, and revitalization, entering a new stage of digital intelligence leap, adhering to the academic philosophy of "emphasizing theory, strengthening practice, and internationalization", and insisting on the dual empowerment of economic statistics and mathematical statistics. It has embarked on a distinctive path of running schools that combines theoretical depth and application breadth, and is a key town and benchmark for financial and statistical education in China. He pointed out that traditional statistics are currently undergoing a transformation towards data science, intelligent analysis, and global empowerment. The discipline should adhere to its original intention, build a solid foundation, embrace the transformation of digital intelligence, adhere to positive innovation, embrace the greater good of the country, and serve the overall development. He stated that the research association will continue to work together with the college to promote statistical teaching reform and talent cultivation.
Ai Chunrong, former dean of the college and professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), reviewed his nearly ten years of experience as department head and dean, stating that this return to school was "the best fitting return in my life". He highly praised the vigorous vitality demonstrated by the college in its 80 year development process, believing that in the era of big data and artificial intelligence, statistics has been pushed to the forefront and ushered in unprecedented development opportunities. He used statistical language to express his hope that the college will have a higher mean, smaller variance, and a wider distribution of influence in the future, and that the college will inherit its excellent traditions, bravely shoulder its mission in the times, and continuously climb academic peaks.
Jin Wenzhong, a member of the board of directors of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, chairman of the alumni branch of the college, and a 1985 alumnus, spoke as an alumni representative. He deeply reminisces about his past academic years and is grateful to his teachers for planting the seeds of "seeking truth and being pragmatic" in the hearts of his students. He lamented that in recent years, the college has achieved leapfrog development under the guidance of the "Digital Intelligence and New Finance" strategy, actively embracing change, promoting the deep integration of statistics and artificial intelligence, and steadily moving towards the goal of being first-class domestically and influential internationally. On behalf of all alumni, he extends high respect to the hardworking teachers and warm greetings to alumni who have made contributions in various industries. He wishes the college continued glory and a new chapter in the era of digital intelligence.
Subsequently, Dean Feng Xingdong presented a report on the development of the college. He summarized the era orientation of the discipline of statistics with "cornerstone and bridge": data records facts, statistics provides methods for inference, causal analysis, and uncertainty quantification, AI provides generation and calculation, financial scenarios pose real problems, and statistics is the core bridge that connects them and transforms technical capabilities into social value. He pointed out that AI is reshaping the way knowledge production, scientific research collaboration, and talent cultivation are carried out, making computing and generation more convenient, while problem awareness, evidence judgment, and value selection are more important. Facing the "15th Five Year Plan", the college will aim at the forefront of world data science, the main battlefield of the economy, and major national needs, build a first-class statistical discipline that supports the digital economy, digital society, and digital government, and promote five key actions: enrollment and training coordination, faculty introduction and capacity improvement, teaching reform adapted to AI, organized scientific research, and international cooperation and exchange.
Yao Ting's Lecture - On Statistics and Artificial Intelligence
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the department, the college has launched the "Yaoting Lecture Hall" academic activity brand named after Mr. Zhang Yaoting, inviting top scholars from home and abroad to speak on stage and promote the tradition of open learning and practical application of the statistics discipline in Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. This lecture invites Liu Jun, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and head of the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Tsinghua University, to give a report titled "The Development and Implementation of Artificial Intelligence from the Perspective of Statistics". He examined the development of artificial intelligence from a statistical perspective and pointed out the logical loopholes in the recursive self-improvement of artificial intelligence; He emphasized that statistics and data science are the "most critical keys" to the development of AI. Bayesian networks, causal inference, high-dimensional statistics constitute the underlying logic of AI, and the next word prediction of big language models, as well as the addition and removal of noise in diffusion models, are essentially derived from classical statistical ideas. He proposed that the statistical community should actively embrace AI, participate in the development and definition of the next generation of AI, and play a positive role in algorithm design, model interpretation, and risk control.
Discussing the Way of Separation - Focusing on Frontier Cross Innovation
In the afternoon, four parallel sub forums focused on the cutting-edge intersection of statistics and data science, research paradigms and teaching system changes in the AI era, alumni work and collaborative education, and innovative graduate training models for exchange and discussion.
The sub forum on "Eight rank Statistics for Intelligent Innovation in the Future" was held in the 1114 Lecture Hall of the college. Professor Huang Jian, former dean of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Professor Zhou Yong, and Professor Zhu Liping from Renmin University of China respectively gave presentations on topics such as big model driven statistical analysis, multi-source data fusion and causal inference, correlation coefficient and predictive ability, exploring the profound changes brought by artificial intelligence technology to statistical research, practice, and education. Associate Professor Liu Hua from Xi'an Jiaotong University, Professor Song Shanshan from Tongji University, and Professor Zhou Yeqing from Tongji University have reported the latest progress in network data modeling, generative regression, high-dimensional independence testing, and other fields.
The sub forum on "Innovative Development of Eight Rank Statistics" was held in Conference Room 1208 of the college. Professor Zhou Xiaohua from Peking University gave a report on the development of modern biostatistics in the AI era, explaining the discipline's existence logic, cognitive paradigm, and value landing point from six dimensions: discipline mission, core principles, development engine, method innovation, value transformation, and ultimate goal; Professor Meng Deyu from Xi'an Jiaotong University uses vivid cases to illustrate how future basic research can break through the boundaries of application, theory, intersection, and methodology. The attending guests had in-depth exchanges and shared insights on topics such as subject infrastructure construction, interdisciplinary research, and education and teaching reform.
The alumni symposium on "Unifying the Eight Ranks and Embarking on a New Journey" was held in Conference Room 1316 of the college. Yang Hui, the Secretary of the Party Committee of the College, gave a report on the topic of "Unity and Strength - Review and Prospect of Alumni Work in the College", proposing to establish an efficient alumni information management and demand matching mechanism, promote the "Alumni Leading Mentor Plan", gather alumni wisdom, and jointly seek new development of the College. Zhuang Mei, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the College, gave a report titled "Collaborative Education - Practice and Reflection on Student Work in the College", introducing the practice of relying on the "one-stop" student community and part-time homeroom teacher team to consolidate the foundation of daily education, and promoting talent cultivation and industry demand docking through visits to enterprises and joint construction between schools and enterprises. The attending alumni discussed their friendship and provided suggestions around the high-quality development of the college.
The sub forum on the development of graduate education under the theme of "New Journey of Digital Intelligence Inheritance and Talent Cultivation" was held in Conference Room 1312 of the college. Professor Huang Tao delivered a report titled "Inheritance and Innovation: The Current Status, Challenges, and Prospects of Graduate Education in Finance and Statistics", systematically reviewing the existing foundations and challenges of graduate education in the college, and proposing prospects for training programs in the era of digital intelligence. The attendees discussed topics such as innovative training models and collaborative education between industry and education.
Eighty years of continuous string music, the new journey continues to write a brilliant chapter. Standing at a new starting point, the School of Statistics and Data Science at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics will continue to deepen its study and implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the Party's education policy, fulfill the fundamental task of cultivating virtue and talent, and promote education development, technological innovation, and talent cultivation as a whole. It will actively connect with major national strategic needs and the construction of Shanghai's "Five Centers", deepen the cross integration of statistics with disciplines such as economics, management, mathematics, and computer science, and strive to build an academic hub and talent cradle with distinctive financial and economic characteristics and important influence at home and abroad. With 80 years of accumulation, it will rush to the new future of digital intelligence, and contribute more statistical wisdom and strength to leading China's modernization with the support of an educational power.
Source | School of Statistics and Data Science
Picture | Duan Haijiao, Duan Bufang, Wang Shenghai
Review | Yang Hui
