About 50 Ann Arbor residents 
and University of Michigan 
students gathered in the Ann 
Arbor District Library to learn 
about the future of artificial 
intelligence on Friday night. 
The talk, titled “Artificial 
Intelligence 
and 
Finance,” 
featured Engineering professors 
Rada Mihalcea and Michael 
Wellman, who discussed how 
AI will affect trading in the 
financial world. 
Mihalcea 
started 
the 
conversation by asking Wellman 
about his interest in AI and what 

keeps him in the field. 
“Even in the 1980s, it was 
clear to me that the future of 
the world was going to be the 
future of intelligent machines,” 
Wellman said. “It was pretty 
inevitable that computers would 
eventually be able to do some of 
the things that people do, and 
maybe even do it better.” 
According 
to 
Wellman, 
the 
2008 
financial 
crisis 
demonstrates 
why 
AI 
is 
important when it comes to 
finance. He said AI would 
not repeat the same problems 
experienced a little more than a 
decade ago because algorithms 
can forego human error. 

“We know what happens 
when a financial system does 
not work,” Wellman said. “In 
2008, we experienced that when 
things don’t quite match up in 
the financial system, the whole 
economy goes for a tailspin. 
The financial crisis of 2008 
— we lost trillions of dollars 
of productivity, even though 
there was no natural disaster, 
no resources were destroyed … 
it was just a miscoordination 
of decisions that people were 
making.” 
Wellman 
said 
many 
companies may have already 
started 
algorithmic 
trading, 
which is when an automated 

trading system uses computer 
programs hardwired with a 
specific 
set 
of 
instructions 
to place a trade. During this 
process, decisions are made very 
quickly. 
“We talk about decisions being 
made in the blink of an eye,” 
Wellman said. “Well, the blink 
of an eye is 300 milliseconds, so 
computers can make dozens or 
hundreds of decisions back and 
forth in that time per trade and 
that is a key reason why it’s been 
inevitable that computers would 
take over a lot of activity because 
they can react to information so 
much faster than people can.” 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Monday, January 27, 2020

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

The second annual Women 
Who 
Launch 
symposium, 
held Friday morning in the 
Ross 
School 
of 
Business, 
focused on women working 
in venture capital who have 
founded their own successful 
companies. 
Women Who Launch is 
an 
organization 
founded 
at the Business School that 
focuses 
on 
equal 
gender 
representation and promoting 
an equitable environment at 
the University of Michigan, 
particularly for those who 
have moved into their own 
business fields. 
The 
symposium 
was 
comprised of several events 
with the second half of the 
day featuring four female 
venture capitalists. 
The first to speak was 
Natalie Fratto, vice president 
of 
firmwide 
strategy 
at 
Goldman Sachs. She also 

delivered a prominent TED 
Talk on the importance of 
adaptability in July 2019. 
Fratto is in the process of 
building 
the 
organization 
“Launch with GS,” Goldman 
Sachs’s 
$500 
million 
investment strategy which 
aims 
to 
create 
success 
through diversity.
“Through 
Launch 
With 
GS, Goldman Sachs aims to 
increase access to capital 
and facilitate connections for 
women, Blacks, Latinos and 
other diverse entrepreneurs 
and investors,” Fratto said.
Fratto said founders should 
be able to stand out when 
describing their company and 
pitching it to others. 
“I think great founders 
have the ability to have an 
answer and get their talking 
points out no matter what the 
question is,” Fratto said.

CAMPUS LIFE

Around 1,200 celebrate new campus space for offices, resources and study

ALYSSA MCMURTRY
Daily Staff Reporter

Raenaurd Turpin, executive 
chief 
engineer 
of 
Boeing 
Space Systems, spoke to about 
50 
aerospace 
engineering 
students at the Bob and Betty 
Beyster Building on Friday 
afternoon. 
Turpin spoke to students 
about what a career in the 
aerospace engineering field 
looks like, and highlighted 
current Boeing projects.
George F. Halow, visiting 
professor 
of 
aerospace 
engineering, set up the event 
as part of a program in which 
a guest lecturer visits the 
classroom every Friday. In 
addition to his own students, 
the event was also open to 
Davis 
Aerospace 
Technical 
High 
School 
students 
interested in gaining exposure 
to the field.
Turpin told students there 
is no one path to becoming 
an aerospace engineer, noting 
that he had previously been a 
mechanical engineer before 
his work at Boeing.
He 
also 
discussed 
the 
projects Boeing Space Systems 
is currently working on. 

Aerospace 
expert talks 
career with
undergrads 

RESEARCH 

Chief engineer Raenaurd 
Turpin shares newest
Boeing projects, goals

JENNA SITEMAN
Daily Staff Reporter

About 200 people attended the 
South Asian Awareness Network’s 
“Electrify” conference at the 
Michigan League on Saturday 
to discuss pressing social issues, 
create innovative solutions and 
understand existing movements 
for social change in various South 
Asian communities.
The 
SAAN 
conference 
consisted of a combination of 
small discussion sessions and 
speaker events. Many prominent 
figures fighting for social change 
in the South Asian community 
came 
to 
speak 
about 
their 
experiences with marginalized 
groups, 
immigration 
and 
solidarity 
movements. 
These 
speakers 
included 
journalist 
Tania 
Rashid, 
entrepreneur 
Ani Sanyal and Michigan State 
University psychiatry professor 
Farha Abbasi. 
LSA sophomore Saachi Mittal 
served as a facilitator at the 
SAAN conference by leading 
small-group discussions about 
various social issues, including 
ethnocentrism, colorism, sexual 
health stigma and barriers in 
cross-cultural marriages. 

South Asian students 
hope to create community, 
encourage positive change

NEETI BHUTADA
Daily Staff Reporter

2nd annual ‘Women Who Launch’ 
event highlights venture capitalists

DELANEY DAHLSTROM
Daily Staff Reporter

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INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 57
©2019 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A

OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4A

CROSSWORD................6A

M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit
Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

Conference 
 
brings about 
 
dialogue on 
social issues

In celebration of its opening 
earlier this month, the College 
of Literature, Science and the 
Arts building hosted the LSA 
Homewarming Party for LSA 
students Friday afternoon. The 
event, attended by about 1,200 
students, featured Reggie the 
Campus Corgi, as well as free food 
and Michigan gear. 

Some of the changes to the 
building included a new second 
floor with desks and conference 
rooms. The first floor has additional 
space for studying and student 
collaboration. LSA senior Cassidy 
Guros, sociology and women’s 
studies major, is in the LSA 
building often because it houses 
the Department of Sociology. 
Guros 
noted 
the 
differences 
between the building before and 
after it underwent renovations.

“(The change) is like night and 
day,” Guros said. “It makes me feel 
like I’m even more appreciated as 
a student because I have a space 
that’s dedicated to me and my 
studies.”
LSA Dean Anne Curzan, whose 
office has been in the LSA building 
throughout the renovation, also 
attended the event, taking the 
opportunity to speak to students in 
a more informal setting. 
“We hope this space will be 

a home base for LSA students,” 
Curzan said in an interview with 
The Daily. “When you ask students 
‘Where is LSA?’ they will often say 
it’s kind of everywhere, which is 
true. We also wanted students to 
feel like there was a center, there 
was a home base for them to go, 
so this space is designed to be a 
center for some key resources for 
students.”

‘Homewarming’ party welcomes 
student body to new LSA building

DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily
Professors Michael Wellman and Rada Mihalcea discuss the role of artificial intelligence in finance at Friday Night Al series in the Ann Arbor Downtown Library Friday evening.

See LSA, Page 2A

Symposium at 
Ross features 
work of female 
entrepreneurs 

‘U’ professors discuss impact of 
artificial intelligence in finance
Community members ask about effect on employment, developing countries

IULIA DOBRIN
Daily Staff Reporter

See AI, Page 2A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

SOPHIA AFENDOULIS/Daily
Students and faculty celebrate the new renovations of the LSA Building with a Homewarming Party at the LSA Building Friday afternoon.

See BOEING, Page 2A

Gut punch

Isaiah Livers goes down in return from 
injury, and Michigan proceeds to lose a 
key game to Illinois at the tail end.
» Page 1B
SPORTSMONDAY

