An interview with Linda Kreitzman and Dan Stefanica

We are proud to present an interview with Dr. Kreitzman (UCB MFE) and Dr. Stefanica (Baruch MFE) who have been executive directors of their respective programs since inception. The interview was joined by several alumni of the programs (Cindy Liu/Nikos Rachmanis of Baruch MFE and Trivedi Himani/Yang Guo of UCB MFE) who shared their experiences during their study as well as memorable milestones in their careers.

The interview celebrates the long tenure of Dr. Kreitzman who moved into the private sector at the end of 2021, after two decades plus time as executive director of the UC Berkeley MFE program. For many prospective students and alumni, she is the face and voice of the UCB MFE program.

We'd like to thank all participants who generously shared their time and personal stories with our QuantNet audience. The interview was a great way to learn the personal sides of two of the most well-known directors from two of the top-ranked MFE programs in the US.

[GALLERY=media, 242][/GALLERY] ​

 

[Alston Gui]

The Interview is very information-heavy, thank you for sharing.

I have one additional question about this forum's web page design. I hope my question doesn't seem to be offensive or picky.
I noticed that the video content of the forum is often loaded as a full mp4 file. For long videos (such as this interview with a file size of 1.4 GB), it takes a long time to load before playing, especially for some Asian users(I've tried several VPNs and it was smooth when browsing Youtube). So, considering that it has a strong impact outside the US as well, will QuantNet consider using streaming protocols such as HLS, RTSP, RTMP in the future? Thank you, Andy.

 

[Qui-Gon]

Thank you so much for posting this, Andy! I'm almost tempted to send this to the directors of my program lol. This is what it takes to run truly top-notch MFE programs.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Thank you so much for posting this, Andy! I'm almost tempted to send this to the directors of my program lol. This is what it takes to run truly top-notch MFE programs.

Go right ahead. It is really good interview so the more people get to watch it, the better.

 

[Chacinluis]

The way Yang Guo stresses the importance of quants having strong coding skills further highlights the value of completing the Quantnet certificates.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Although the neural networks for computer vision models were written in Python, he added, the Tesla team would need people with excellent coding skills, especially in C and C++.
C/C++ for building self-driving cars might sound weird, but Musk’s tweet does raise some doubts regarding the hype around Python.

Is Tesla Dumping Python For This Programming Language

Although the neural networks for vision models were written in Python, the Tesla team would need people with excellent coding skills in C++.

analyticsindiamag.com

@APalley
@dstefan

 

[Daniel Duffy]

What are the strong points of C++? Here is my_personal_initial_bullet_list that I find/found important:

1. Mature, continuously being developed, yuge user base (calll it legacy if you want).
2. Multiparadigm (procedural (aka modular), object-oriented, templates (generics), functional style).
3. Close to the hardware and C. Many languages have been written in C/C++.
4. Many Python libraries have "C++/C inside".
5. As a language, C++ is infinitely customisable.
6. Knowing C++ means you get a deeper understanding of programming (which is a discipline) and computer science. skill you don;t get with user-level ad-hoc coding languages.
7. Writing maths is natural in C++. With other languages there is a cognitive mismatch to a lesser or greater extent.
8. C++20 is a game changer!

There are obviously more points.

 

[ExSan]

What are the strong points of C++? Here is my_personal_initial_bullet_list that I find/found important:

1. Mature, continuously being developed, yuge user base (calll it legacy if you want).
2. Multiparadigm (procedural (aka modular), object-oriented, templates (generics), functional style).
3. Close to the hardware and C. Many languages have been written in C/C++.
4. Many Python libraries have "C++/C inside".
5. As a language, C++ is infinitely customisable.
6. Knowing C++ means you get a deeper understanding of programming (which is a discipline) and computer science. skill you don;t get with user-level ad-hoc coding languages.
7. Writing maths is natural in C++. With other languages there is a cognitive mismatch to a lesser or greater extent.
8. C++20 is a game changer!

There are obviously more points.

Number 4; I thought all libraries had "C++/C inside"
I couldn't agree more with the rest of your points
A big jump is coming with future versions of C++NN. Python will not be able to catch up the brilliant future of C++

 

[Daniel Duffy]

A number of Python libraries are Fortran wrappers (e.g. QUADPACK).
There is absolutely no point rewriting them in C++ or Python.

https://sites.engineering.ucsb.edu/~shell/che210d/f2py.pdf

f2py

 

[khoatran]

I see Dan, I click, no doubt. There's always something to learn from him. Great video! Thank you for posting @Andy Nguyen

 

[dstefan]

I see Dan, I click, no doubt. There's always something to learn from him. Great video! Thank you for posting @Andy Nguyen

I learned and continue to learn a lot from Linda

 

[khoatran]

I learned and continue to learn a lot from Linda

Indeed Dan! I just got to know Linda from this video. It's hard to come by someone with this much dedication to their program. So I followed her on Linkedin and am waiting to hear more of what she got to say.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Linda and Dan are great ambassadors.

 

[Kanan Azizli]

Any prospective student wanting to give up on applying to one of these top programs must watch this interview. Love the camaraderie between the staff and alumni.

 

[dstefan]

That is a very nice comment, thank you, Kanan. It was a great pleasure doing the interview with Linda and a lot of interesting and lesser known facts were mentioned there.