Students of the Undergraduate Program in Actuarial Science, FMIPA UI, class of 2018 who are members of the Triple C Team have successfully achieved an achievement in the international competition “2021 Student Research Case Study Challenge” organized by The Society of Actuaries (SOA). This was announced on the official SOA website a few days ago right after the final round on Thursday (8/4/2021). SOA is a leading actuarial association based in the United States.

The FMIPA UI team consisting of Adrianus Jan Felix, Frederick Arga Jetro, Justine Kael Tanady, Kevin Harijanto, and Vincent Phandiarta brought the name of Universitas Indonesia to enter as a winning submission finalist after qualifying as one of 17 teams in the semi-final round. In this research-based competition, teams are required to design a proposal containing new ideas that refer to current problems or issues that occur in the insurance world to find solutions to these problems through the development of parametric insurance.

In parametric insurance, the payment to the insured is not dependent on the sufferer’s loss, but rather on the occurrence of one or more “trigger events” of measurable health conditions.

One of the team members, Frederic Arga Jetro, revealed the Triple C team in its idea of ​​offering an insurance product to people with Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X). Metabolic syndrome is a collection of risks caused by at least three of the following five diseases: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Metabolic syndrome can lead to type II diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease.

“In this product, we provide payments based on the number of diseases affected by the risk group. The selection of this idea is based on two reasons. First, seeing the high demand for this disease in the world and the countries referenced in the triggers of this competition problem. Second, there is the involvement of certain risks in determining the syndrome, which is in accordance with the theme raised this year,” said Arga to the FMIPA UI public relations team.

Regarding the preparation for the competition, Arga and his team were given approximately two months until the deadline for uploading proposals. During the preparation, his team solidly carried out various activities including case study research, conducting identification, developing models with appropriate accuracy metrics, selecting and analyzing potential data sources, formulating solutions, and providing recommendations.

All of these ideas were packaged in an insurance product proposal that they would offer to the jury. The struggle did not stop there. When his team was declared to have passed to advance to the next stage, they immediately prepared the final stage presentation in just three days. According to him, the very short time was the most felt challenge because he and his team still had to divide their time between preparing for the competition with their college schedule and other activities.

“The challenges faced in participating in the competition are of course our time which still has to go to college and do other activities, the preparation of a fairly complicated proposal, and also working while learning to get new things. That is an interesting challenge for us,” he said.

Although not yet in the top position, the Triple C team is quite proud of its achievement. For him, the most important thing is that the motivation to participate in the activity must be realized as proof that the competence of UI actuarial science students is equal to students from other universities in the international arena.

“Our motivation to join this competition is to prove that Actuarial Science students can apply the knowledge gained in class and excel in international events. We want to show that Actuarial Science students in Indonesia, especially at the University of Indonesia, have the same quality as students around the world. Second, we want to develop our potential and gain new knowledge to be a provision in preparing for a career as an actuary in the future,” Arga added.

Dr. Rokhmatuloh, M.Eng. Acting Dean of FMIPA UI gave his highest appreciation to his students. He said that students majoring in actuarial science FMIPA UI must be critical and sensitive to things that happen and issues that develop both nationally and internationally that allow changes to the needs and business processes of the insurance industry in the future.

Moreover, currently, said Dr. Rokhmatuloh, M.Eng., actuarial science is multidisciplinary, meaning it can be synergized and collaborated with other relevant fields of science to provide solutions to problems that occur in the industry globally. He also ensured that FMIPA UI continues to encourage the achievements of its students both in academic and non-academic fields by providing the best facilities and more appreciation.

“This achievement is extraordinary for us, the triple c team has gone through a fairly complex process. Although it has not reached the top 3, this is a very good start, considering that this is the first participation for the FMIPA UI team. We highly appreciate the achievement of the triple C team to be an encouragement for the next teams”. Said Dr. Rokhmatuloh, M. Eng