Research Project that is offered as an elective subject to Year 3 BSc (Hons) for Actuarial Studies students aims at enriching students’ research experience. Working together with a supervisor, the students would apply scientific and sound research methodologies in synthesising information, proposing new methods, performing numerical experiments, analysing results, and reporting the main results, supported by a literature review.

This write-up features prominent research works that have been published in academic journals or conference proceedings. These include works in the application areas ranging from insurance marketing, product development, and Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC), to mortality rates modelling and forecasting.

• Chang Wen Teng on “A Neural Network-Based Approach in Predicting Consumers’ Intentions of Purchasing Insurance Policies”: Employed neural network models and feature selection algorithms in predicting the propensity of consumers in purchasing an insurance product. The results obtained were found to be comparable with the top entries of those submitted to the Computational Intelligence and Learning Challenge, which demonstrated the robustness and efficiency of the proposed model. The work was presented at the 12th International Conference on Information Technology in Asia 2021, and was subsequently published in the journal “Acta Informatica Pragensia”. 
• Liew Kar Ming on flood hazard maps of the city of Kota Bahru using a Geographic Information System (GIS): He also further simulated a flood hazard under the climate change scenario when more rainfall is expected in the future. More areas were found to be exposed to high flood risk under this scenario and as such, appropriate mitigation actions were deemed imperative in assisting the residents in that area to prevent future flood losses. The study has been extended by including a new subsection on the proposed flood insurance and the work was presented at the 27th National Symposium on Mathematical Sciences (SKSM27). 
• Saidatul Anisah Binti Abdul Rashid, on the other hand, conducted research work on the Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC): This research was to determine the transition probabilities under a multistate transition model based on U.S. data. The pattern of the transition probabilities of this CCRC model was examined and its relevancy in the context and case study in Malaysia was discussed. The study was presented at the International Conference on Mathematical Sciences and Technology 2020 (MathTech2020).
• Ng Qian Yun on the modelling and forecasting of mortality rates in Malaysia based on genders and the three main ethnic groups, namely Malay, Chinese, and Indian: Three stochastic mortality models were applied in the study; namely, the Lee-Carter model, the Hyndman-Ullah model, and the Augmented Common Factor model. It was found that the forecasted mortality rates of all six subpopulations ages 60 and above were expected to decrease from the years 2021 to 2040, resulting in significant growth in the ageing population of elderly people in the near future. Part of the results was presented at the 4th International Conference on Mathematical Sciences and Statistics (ICMSS 2022) and the work won a Silver award in the ICMSS 2022 poster competition. 

Dr Lai Kee Huong and Chan Lay Guat
School of Mathematical Sciences
Emails: @email and @email