On November 2nd, CUEB Degree Evaluation Committee approved the interdisciplinary discipline of Big Data and Business Intelligence set up by the School of Statistics in conjunction with the School of Business Administration, the School of Finance and the School of International Economics and Management. The new discipline includes five research directions: Big Data Statistics and Intelligent Learning, Big Data and Economic Statistics, Big Data Econometric Analysis and Applications, Financial Technology and Quantitative Finance, and Business Intelligence and Management Innovation, and plans to recruit 20 master students, 8 doctoral students and 2 post-doctoral candidates annually.

This August internal and external experts of CUEB discussed and ratified the establishment of the new discipline. They agreed to its scientific basis for meeting the changes ahead in the new era, blending interdisciplinary models, and promoting the innovative development of the Economics and Management disciplines, and stressed its ability in meeting the needs presented by China’s major strategies such as scientifically enhancing the country’s national livelihood. Meanwhile,, since this discipline is based on  Statistics, Computer Science, and Applied Mathematics, and these are either the traditional predominant disciplines or the first-class disciplines (like Statistics, Applied Economics, and Business Administration ) in CUEB, all of these advantages can give this discipline great momentum, such as multiple theoretical basis, broader research perspectives, and  new applications.

The Off-campus experts include Hong Yongmiao, Dean of UCAS’ School of Economics and Management, Chen Shiyi, Vice Principal of Anhui University, Wu Weixing, Vice Principal of UIBE, Professor Yin Zhihong from Renmin Business School, Fan Ying, Dean of School of Economics and Business of Beihang University, Zhou Yong, Dean of ECNU’s Academy of Statistics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Professor Shi Jianqing from SUSTech’s Department of Statistics and Data Science, Professor Zhang Yuming, BJTU’s School of Economic Management, and Li Tao, Principal Help of CUFE.

[Discipline Introduction]

The interdisciplinary discipline of Big Data and Business Intelligence falls under the three first-class disciplines of the University’s Statistics, Applied Economics, and Business Administration, and involves the fields of Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, and Management. Big data is more about the scientific nature and practicability of data analysis focusing on theories and methodologies of statistics, computational intelligence and machine learning under the overview of big data, with the goal of providing theoretical and methodological support for the analysis and decision of smart economy, smart management, smart finance and so on. Business intelligence, on the other hand, favors the scientificity of economics, management, and decision-making. This is mainly embodied in the following aspects: research on theories and methods in digital economy measurement and metrology based on big data analysis; finance deeply integrated with artificial intelligence technology driven by big data, as well as the research of a new generation of financial technology powered by frontier technologies such as intelligent financial system, algorithm and arithmetic, blockchain and quantum computing, etc.; the research on management decision theory and methods driven by big data. The convergence of the two aspects will certainly provide the discipline with a broader knowledge base and sustainable development prospects.

Up to June 30th , 2020, 24 sub-disciplines relevant to Big Data and Business Intelligence have been independently set up by 36 domestic universities and 12 interdisciplinary disciplines  of Big Data and Business Intelligence have been set up by 11 domestic universities. More than 50 universities including Tsinghua University, Peking University, University of Science and Technology of China, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Jilin University, Nanjing University, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics have established various research institutes such as Big Data Research Institute, Data Science Research Institute, and Data Science and Management Decision Research Institute.