This year’s winter camp attracted 31 excellent students from key universities nationwide, including Nankai University, Tianjin University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Central University of Finance and Economics, etc. 10 qualified instructors  and lecturers participated in the camp, including scholars and practitioners from New York University, Australia National University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, PHBS and so on. A full schedule of 12-day intensive training in Python programming and its applications in economics is designed to inspire students to reach new levels of both python programming and economics research.
 

 

In the evening of January 22, participants attended the welcome ceremony, where PHBS Dean Wen Hai briefed on the history and principle of PHBS. Dean Hai pointed out that PHBS UK Campus will officially opens in 2018, a year marking the 120 th anniversary of Peking University.  Not only is this new investment a milestone for PKU but also for the development of China’s higher education. He also introduced PHBS student training in ability, knowledge, well-being and morality, student organizations and so on. 

The next day marked the opening ceremony of this winter camp. Dean Hai gave an opening speech to welcome this group of talented students. He suggested students to work hard in machine learning and big data, to work smart in getting as much knowledge within very limited time and to live healthily like Professor Sargent does. 

Professor Sargent gives remarks on python and economics
 

Professor Sargent gave remarks on python and economics, this genial professor briefly introduced python as a “beautiful language, it could express ideas in an accessible way. it’s basically typing math and the computer will answer for it ”. As the students will simultaneously learn some python programming and economics, he suggested students to learn the knowledge in one step at a time, do not skip any steps. He also said economics was very romantic, just like a marriage means two utility functions and two interacting constrains, economics and python fit each other well,which means using python can do a lot of favor to economics research. 

 

Professor Jiao Shi introduces this winter camp briefly
 

Professor Jiao Shi then gave a brief introduction about the winter camp : it provides a 10-day intensive training in Python programming and its applications in economics. Roughly, in the first 5 days, students will focus on handing out tools, and in the later 5 days, instructors will teach economics-related topics. She hoped students could strengthen their knowledge in python programming and economics, and at the same time, keep themselves in optimistic attitude.

 
Finally, students gave short self-introductions one after another: they expressed their zeal for economics and appreciation for this winter camp as it provided them a rare chance to present their research in English and engage in face-to-face academic discussions with so many  qualified professors. Many students said that it was a mutual learning process and of great help to their future academic research. 
 

Students express their zeal for economics 

 
Such winter camp is designed to take students into the heart of the China’s most internationalized and renowned business school. Located in Shenzhen, China's first Special Economic Zone, and adjacent to the Asian financial hub of Hong Kong, Peking University HSBC Business School is at the cutting-edge of China’s economic reform and management practices, provides the ideal setting for studying advances in finance, economics and management.
 

 Group photo of 2018 PHBS Winter Camp

By Sophie Wu
Edited by Annie Jin