New Research Group at SnT: ready for FinTech projects
Radu State, Senior Research Scientist SnT, Head of SEDAN research group
Tell us about yourself
I discovered the world of research during my graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University, in the USA and more specifically working with Professor Steven Salzberg in the area of computational biology. I learnt from Steven the passion for applied research, which can make a difference in the life of normal people. Though computational biology is an exciting topic, I decided to get a PhD in networking and security and therefore moved to France, where I obtained my PhD at INRIA and the University of Lorraine working in the team of Professor Olivier Festor. Following an experience in the industry at Motorola and a permanent researcher position at INRA, I became a professor in Computer Science at the Telecom Nancy and joined the SnT in the team headed by Prof. Engel. Starting this year I head my own research group at SnT and I’m excited and thrilled by the opportunities and challenges offered by fintech.
What is SEDAN?
SEDAN addresses research topics related to data analytics, network and system security. Therefore, SEDAN stands for Service and Data Management in Distributed Systems. The strength of the team is all about having a group of highly motivated and dynamic PhD candidates, research associates and most importantly, the scientific co-operation with our direct project partners. We lead four important SnT partnership projects (Choice, Nexus, Ola Mobile and Telindus) with activities related to cyber-security, fraud detection, mobile advertisement and big data enabled security.
Can you give some examples of partner projects related to/or applicable to FinTech?
We work for example with the leading Luxembourgish telecom operator, Telindus, for which we address SDN (software defined networks) and security monitoring in its cloud services. With OlaMobile, we research into self-learning algorithms, which allow better and more targeted marketing of mobile applications (apps). With an international provider of IT security solutions (Nexus), we co-operate to develop an intelligent development strategy to create a clearly structured portfolio and user-friendly products with the highest security possible. We also have an excellent collaboration with Bell Labs (USA), where we research data analytics for 5G networks.
What is your research strategy?
We mostly aim at impact driven research done jointly with our partners. We call it “embedded” research, where researchers from our partners and our own researchers carry out the work jointly. It’s difficult to do applied research without basic research, while it is equally frustrating to perform pure academic research without the applied component. The important challenge is to get the right mix so that research remains fun, internationally visible and useful for our partners.
How about FinTech?
What can your team offer to partners from the world of Finance? We have proven track records on orchestrating cloud services for Big Data (Spark/ Radu State, Senior Research Scientist SnT, Head of SEDAN research group 5 New Research Group at SnT: ready for FinTech projects Christian Hammerschmidt Beltran Fiz Pontiveros Dr. Lautaro Dolberg Eric Falk Patrick Glauner ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DATA ANALYTICS DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS NETWORK VIRTUALISATION SELFLEARNING ALGORITHMS USER BEHAVIOURS SMART CONTRACTS MACHINE LEARNING SYSTEM BEHAVIOUR NETWORK & SYSTEM SECURITY DEEP LEARNING Mathis Steichen Dr. Radu State Salvatore Signorello Andre Boechat Manxing Du Hadoop) and doing analytics on large datasets. Together with Choice we design and implement solutions for detecting frauds in huge volumes of data that ranges up to hundreds of Terabytes. We can provide the right expertise and skillset in the areas of security and data analytics for fintech businesses with emphasis on Big Data.
What needs does a typical partner seek to address working with SEDAN?
The needs are simple to state and challenging to address. If the addressed problem can’t be solved with state of the art existing technologies and approaches and if the needs require a strong expertise in data analytics and security, then we have a building block for a successful joint research project.
Can Luxembourg FinTech R&D compete with other centers of excellence?
We have a particularly attractive environment in Luxembourg, where strategic decisions can be implemented rapidly. A brain-oriented economy is already in place with a significant number of skilled people both in the academia and the industry. We can easily become a European testbed and innovation centre for Europe in this area.
FinTech Gazette / January 2016