AIMI fellow’s research ‘grounded in what can happen in reality’
Posted on August 14, 2024SCRANTON, Pa. — With more than 25 years of experience in the finance industry and 15-plus years working in academia, Nonna Sorokina, Penn State Center for Applications of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning to Industry (AIMI) fellow, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) associate member and assistant professor of business/finance, works to bridge the gap between the finance industry and academia through research and connections.
Before obtaining her doctorate and joining academia, Sorokina worked in the financial industry in roles related to quantitative analysis, risk management and project management. Her research over the years has focused on banking and quantitative methods in finance, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. Sorokina’s most recent work is related to social responsibility issues including green energy, the opioid epidemic and economic outcomes for underrepresented groups of population.
“My research is very grounded in what can happen in reality,” Sorokina said. “My experiences [in the finance industry] help me create teams, facilitate collaborative projects and bring in connections. I work with professors, industry professionals and staff of different levels. Another key to success is my work with students.”
Sorokina works with six doctoral and masters students on her research and is looking to add more students on as she has received another grant, The Presidential Strategic Initiative on Public Impact Research Award, which aims to foster interdisciplinary research with a high impact on the communities.
“The new grant funds the project that is an extension of my prior published research related to the opioid epidemic. In this new funded initiative, we will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to forecast future problem areas and identify factors that contribute to the probability of developing a substance abuse disorder,” Sorokina said.
Sorokina partners on this project with Dusan Ramljak, assistant professor of information science at Penn State Great Valley.
“It’s a highly competitive grant,” Sorokina said. “We are so proud. [Interdisciplinary research] allows even those new to computational research, still leverage resources from other groups, centers and people. The expertise of various participants comes together like a puzzle and the hopes are to have something beautiful come out of it. They [the grant funding committee] commented on the interdisciplinary aspect of our team and they were excited about it.”
In other accomplishments, Sorokina and her industry colleague Mikhail Samonov, of Two Centuries Investments, published a paper that received a lot of attention reaching top 10 downloads on SSRN Financial Economics Network in its first month. The paper, which looked at asset allocation strategies dating back to 1926, was also invited for a presentation at a joint conference for academicians and practitioners in the United Kingdom.
“That is unusual in my discipline, having an industry person as a co-author [on a paper],” Sorokina said.
Sorokina highlighted AIMI’s aim to connect academic faculty members to industry partners, engineers and graduate students.
“AIMI is well equipped with vast ICDS resources,” Sorokina said. “I have collaborated with the Research Innovations with Scientists and Engineers and the framework that they built makes a solid foundation for several research projects that continue evolving with the help of graduate student research assistants.”
Sorokina, as part of AIMI, has participated and co-sponsored two conferences, the Financial Management Association’s (FMA) 2024 Applied Finance Conference in New York City on May 10, and the AI Eria in Finance Symposium hosted by The Friends of Women in Finance in Greater New York, also in New York City, that will take place on June 6.
The two events were developed to foster collaborations between finance professionals both in academia and industry with panel discussions, research presentations and networking opportunities.
Panelists at the FMA Applied Conference included Sorokina’s colleagues from industry and academia as well as Gretta Kellogg, Penn State ICDS director of strategic initiatives and AIMI assistant sirector.
“It’s important … to architecture a model of collaboration that will bring industry and academia together,” Sorokina said.
Share
Related Posts
- Featured Researcher: Nick Tusay
- Multi-institutional team to use AI to evaluate social, behavioral science claims
- NSF invests in cyberinfrastructure institute to harness cosmic data
- Center for Immersive Experiences set to debut, serving researchers and students
- Distant Suns, Distant Worlds
- CyberScience Seminar: Researcher to discuss how AI can help people avoid adverse drug interactions
- AI could offer warnings about serious side effects of drug-drug interactions
- Taking RTKI drugs during radiotherapy may not aid survival, worsens side effects
- Cost-effective cloud research computing options now available for researchers
- Costs of natural disasters are increasing at the high end
- Model helps choose wind farm locations, predicts output
- Virus may jump species through ‘rock-and-roll’ motion with receptors
- Researchers seek to revolutionize catalyst design with machine learning
- Resilient Resumes team places third in Nittany AI Challenge
- ‘AI in Action’: Machine learning may help scientists explore deep sleep
- Clickbait Secrets Exposed! Humans and AI team up to improve clickbait detection
- Focusing computational power for more accurate, efficient weather forecasts
- How many Earth-like planets are around sun-like stars?
- Professor receives NSF grant to model cell disorder in heart
- SMH! Brains trained on e-devices may struggle to understand scientific info
- Whole genome sequencing may help officials get a handle on disease outbreaks
- New tool could reduce security analysts’ workloads by automating data triage
- Careful analysis of volcano’s plumbing system may give tips on pending eruptions
- Reducing farm greenhouse gas emissions may plant the seed for a cooler planet
- Using artificial intelligence to detect discrimination
- Four ways scholars say we can cut the chances of nasty satellite data surprises
- Game theory shows why stigmatization may not make sense in modern society
- Older adults can serve communities as engines of everyday innovation
- Pig-Pen effect: Mixing skin oil and ozone can produce a personal pollution cloud
- Researchers find genes that could help create more resilient chickens
- Despite dire predictions, levels of social support remain steady in the U.S.
- For many, friends and family, not doctors, serve as a gateway to opioid misuse
- New algorithm may help people store more pictures, share videos faster
- Head named for Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering
- Scientific evidence boosts action for activists, decreases action for scientists
- People explore options, then selectively represent good options to make difficult decisions
- Map reveals that lynching extended far beyond the deep South
- Gravitational forces in protoplanetary disks push super-Earths close to stars
- Supercomputer cluster donation helps turn high school class into climate science research lab
- Believing machines can out-do people may fuel acceptance of self-driving cars
- People more likely to trust machines than humans with their private info
- IBM donates system to Penn State to advance AI research
- ICS Seed Grants to power projects that use AI, machine learning for common good
- Penn State Berks team advances to MVP Phase of Nittany AI Challenge
- Creepy computers or people partners? Working to make AI that enhances humanity
- Sky is clearing for using AI to probe weather variability
- ‘AI will see you now’: Panel to discuss the AI revolution in health and medicine
- Privacy law scholars must address potential for nasty satellite data surprises
- Researchers take aim at hackers trying to attack high-value AI models
- Girls, economically disadvantaged less likely to get parental urging to study computers
- Seed grants awarded to projects using Twitter data
- Researchers find features that shape mechanical force during protein synthesis
- A peek at living room decor suggests how decorations vary around the world
- Interactive websites may cause antismoking messages to backfire
- Changing how government assesses risk may ease fallout from extreme financial events
- Symposium at U.S. Capitol seeks solutions to election security
- ICS co-sponsors Health, Environment Seed Grant Program
- Differences in genes’ geographic origin influence mitochondrial function
- Using social media to solve social problems- study funded by ICS seed grant