News & Views

As actuaries, we often come at programming tasks with a very practical mindset, but there is a lot of theory out there that can be extremely useful to know about when weighing up potential solutions. In this article Joseph Barnett takes a look at functional programming, gives a brief overview of its history and discusses how it differs from other types of programming.

Following on from their inaugural meeting in November, APR’s Actureads book club reunited to discuss The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye. In this article, Curtis Anderson gives his key takeaways from the book and a selection of additional resources for anyone interested in exploring the topic further.

Ross Gordon discusses the key current drivers of demand for APR’s services, as well as touching on some that have the potential to be key drivers in the near future.

Awareness of cognitive bias has grown in recent years. They are errors in our judgement or thinking that occur frequently. In this article Mujtaba Syed introduces some of the types of cognitive bias, gives a fictional case study from an actuarial setting where cognitive biases were likely at play, and ends with some brief tips for preventing cognitive bias.

Chess has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity since the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit was released in October 2020. In this article, Michael Lausch gives an overview of the recent APR chess league and introduces a number of key chess tactics

The outstanding training provided to each intake of APR’s Graduate Actuarial Associate scheme is an important selling point for new staff. In this article Aidan O’Boyle reviews his experience of APR’s induction training and its potential applications in the workplace.

In this article Chaofan Sun explains some of the terminology involved within this rapidly evolving field and considers some of the possible applications – and challenges – of neural networks.

In recent years, many countries have brought in regulation around differential pricing. In this article, Adam Finn takes a look at what the practice involves, and the conclusions of a recent review published by the Central Bank of Ireland

In this article Caroline Blackley considers what the future might hold for cash, and discusses the risks and benefits of moving to a cashless society.

In this article we consider an optimisation problem relating to blood donation. Amar Gorania investigates the proportion of the population required to give blood in order to ensure there are adequate supplies for those who need it without any excess going to waste.