Demo Day Finhacks 2018 #DataChallenge to Bring Forth Indonesian Data Scientists

Jakarta, 14 November 2018 – In the dynamics of development of information technology, digitalization, as well as big data, we encounter general changes in people’s lifestyles and our present workforce. Looking at this phenomenon, PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA) is inspired to continue to contribute to developing quality human resources (HR) who have a set of skills and competencies in their respective fields. BCA manifested its effort by organizing the Finhacks 2018 #DataChallenge, a competition for big data talents in Indonesia in developing innovative solutions to address business problems using data science techniques.

In the competition, participants are to compete for a total prize of Rp480 million provided by BCA. The Finhacks 2018 #DataChallenge becomes a data challenge competition with the highest prize in total in Indonesia.

Attending the Demo Day Finhacks 2018 #DataChallenge, the last leg of the competition, President Director of BCA Jahja Setiaatmadja, Deputy President Director of BCA Armand Wahyudi Hartono, Director of BCA Lianawaty Suwono, Director of BCA Santoso, Senior Executive Vice President of BCA Hermawan Thendean, CEO & CTO GDP of Labs On Lee, CEO of DailySocial Rama Mamuaya, and CEO of Algoritma Nayoko Wicaksono in Jakarta, Wednesday (14/11). In addition, also attending the event was SVP Business Intelligence & Growth of GO-JEK Crystal Widjaja and Head of Growth & Data Science of Bukalapak Tushar Bhatia as keynote speakers at a panel discussion highlighting the theme of “Building a Great Data Culture”.

Jahja said that the Finhacks 2018 #DataChallenge is a form of BCA’s contribution in accommodating the potential of the Indonesian youth in data science and also serves as a forum for collaboraton with the data science community. "Through the Finhacks 2018 #DataChallenge, we believe that we can find the best data scientist in the country, allowing them to perform optimally in utilizing data in order to find solutions for the banking sector," explained Jahja.

The series of Finhacks 2018 #DataChallenge competition has been started since August 2018. Each individual participant or member of a registered team must complete the Online Pre-Assessment Test within a set period of time. Those who passed will advance to the Online Data Challenge. At this stage, participants received a set of competition data as raw material to build a machine learning model. In developing the machine learning model, participants are only allowed to use R and/or Python.

During the registration period, a total of 4.162 registered participants submitted a total of 605 machine learning models in the competition. Welcomed with great enthusiasm, the competition disproves the premise that the Indonesian public interest in data science field is still low. Of the 15 select finalists, which divided into three groups of five, namely the Credit Scoring, Fraud Detection, and ATM Cash Optimization, they will compete for the title of the best team at the grand final, the Demo Day Finhacks 2018 #DataChallenge, held on 14 November 2018 at Soehanna Hall, Jakarta.

Armand said that the three categories represent the major problems in the field of data processing. "The various problems in data processing field must be addressed quickly and thoroughly. Therefore, through the three categories of the competition, namely the fraud detection, credit scoring,andATM cash optimization, we hope that the Finhacks 2018 #DataChallenge is able to solve the problem from the data," explained Armand.

Thereby, as a profession, data scientists have become an increasingly needed vocation by many companies in Indonesia along with the increasing use of big data technology. Director of BCA, Lianawaty Suwono added that the Finhacks 2018 #DataChallenge is expected to help discover new talents in IT and big data field and we also realize that the banking business cannot be separated from two interconnected phenomenons, namely Internet of Things (IoT) dan big data.

"The capability of companies, particularly the banks, to process and utilize data has allowed them to effectively optimize their service and product capacity. In turn, customers are satisfied with fast, precise and accurate services. Through this program, we hope that the participants, who are consisting of students or start up actors, would become a prospective data scientist in the workforce,” Santoso, Director of BCA, concluded.

BCA Announces the Winners of Finhacks #DataChallenge 2018 – President Director of PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA) Jahja Setiaatmadja (third left) accompanied by Deputy President Director of BCA Armand W. Hartono (second left), Director of BCA Santoso (fourth left), and Director of BCA Lianawaty Suwono (left) after handing over the cash prize of Rp80 million to the grand champion of the Finhacks #DataChallenge 2018, Dilan, in Jakarta (14/11). A total cash prize of Rp480 million is divided into three categories; Credit Scoring, Fraud Detection,and ATM Cash Optimization. Through this event, BCA wish to stimulate the best ideas, creativity, and innovations from data scientists in Indonesia so as to be able to allow them to perform optimally in utilizing data in order to find solutions in the digital banking field.