Presenter Profile

Paper 1: The Art and AI of Stock Analyses

Presenter: Sean Cao, University of Maryland

Dr. Cao is an associate professor (with tenure) at Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on AI, FinTech and their implications for capital markets. His research has been received a number of best paper awards from prestigious conferences, and his collaborative studies with PhD students have been published in premier journals in finance, accounting, and computer science. He serves as a guest editor at Management Science. 

Paper 2: Mutual Fund Ratings by Analysts vs. Machine Learning Technique

Presenter: Si Cheng, Syracuse University

Si Cheng is an Associate Professor of Finance at Syracuse University, Whitman School of Management. Her research is in empirical asset pricing, and centers on two main themes: investment and delegated asset management. Si gained her Ph.D. in Finance from the National University of Singapore. Before joining Syracuse, she was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2016-2022) and Queen’s University Belfast (2013-2016). Her papers appear in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Management Science, Review of Finance, and Review of Asset Pricing Studies. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder.

Paper 3: When Markowitz Meets Machine: Optimization of Large Portfolios with High-Dimensional Stock Characteristics 

Presenter: Haifeng You, HKUST

Haifeng You is a Professor of Accounting and Co-Director of the Center for Securities Analysis with Financial Technology at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). His research focuses on the role of financial information and financial technology in equity investment. He has published on leading academic and professional journals such as Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and Financial Analyst Journal. Previously, he served as the Head of Quantitative Equity Research at China Investment Corporation and Quantitative Researcher at Barclays Global Investors.  He has also served as advisors and consultants for investment firms such as GSA capital in the UK and China Pacific Asset Management and Bosera Asset Management in China, helping them to build Asian and global quantitative equity strategies. Professor You holds a PhD degree in Accounting from University of California, Berkeley and a BA degree in Finance from Peking University.

Paper 4: The Fast and the Circuitous: Semantic Progression as a Type of Disclosure Complexity 

Presenter: Jiawen Yan, Cornell University

Jiawen Yan is currently a Ph.D. candidate in accounting at Cornell University. Jiawen's research interests lie in understanding information dissemination in capital market. He has a special focus on unstructured information in financial accounting, such as text, image, and video information in the 10K, analyst reports, and social media. Prior to joining the Cornell Ph.D. program in 2020, Jiawen received his B.S. in economics from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and received his joint M.S. in management from Tsinghua and Columbia University.

Paper 5: Neural Network Translated into Bag-of-Words Using Attentions 

Presenter: Allen H. Huang, HKUST

Allen Huang is the Associate Dean of the School of Business and Management and an Associate Professor in Accounting at HKUST. He is also the Associate Director of the Center of Business and Social Analytics and Faculty Associate at the Institute for Emerging Market Studies and IAS Center for Quantum Technologies. Professor Huang’s research has studied issues related to natural language processing in financial text, earnings management, financial analyst, accounting fraud, and securities litigation. His work has been published in numerous top-tier business journals and featured in various media outlets, including CNBC, Economist, Financial Times, and Harvard Business Review. He is an editor at the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. Professor Huang currently teaches Big Data and AI in Business, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain, and Managerial Accounting at various Executive Education, EMBA, MBA, and undergraduate programs at HKUST. He is also an expert on cryptocurrency and his comments on related issues frequently appear on local and international media including Bloomberg and Financial Times. Prior to pursuing an academic career, he worked as a quantitative equity analyst in Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital. Allen holds a PhD from Duke University and a bachelor’s degree from Peking University.

Paper 6: Machine Learning-Based Financial Statement Analysis 

Presenter: Amir Amel-Zadeh, University of Oxford

Amir Amel-Zadeh is Associate Professor at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, associate member of the Oxford-Man Institute for Quantitative Finance and member of the UK Endorsement Board. Amir’s research broadly investigates the capital market effects of financial and non-financial disclosures. Prior to joining Saïd Business School, Amir held a position as Assistant Professor at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and prior to that worked at Lehman Brothers in London. He received his PhD in Finance from the University of Cambridge. He teaches fundamental analysis on the Oxford MBA and sustainable investing on executive programmes. He has taught or consulted for the financial services industry globally and is currently academic advisor to PanAgora Asset Management.