François Chung, Ph.D.
Accounting and finance for IT professionals

Accounting and finance for IT professionals

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Coursera training, MOOC (2017). Given online by the Indian School of Business (IN), this training presents the basics of financial accounting and finance. The first part focuses on the most important financial statements, financial health and performance of the company. The second part focuses on the basics of finance. The training also introduces the real options and their impact on decision making.

Week 1: Basics of financial statements

Main topics:

  • Balance sheet;
  • Assets and liabilities;
  • Shareholders' equity;
  • Income statement and expenses;
  • Statement of cash flows.

Week 2: Financial statement analysis

Main topics:

  • Profitability ratios;
  • Activity ratios;
  • Solvency and liquidity ratios;
  • DuPont identity;
  • Limitations of ratio analysis.

Week 3: Time value of money

Main topics:

  • Ordinary annuities;
  • Effective annual rate (EAR);
  • Annuity due and perpetuities;
  • Discount rate;
  • Diversification.

Week 4: Capital budgeting

Main topics:

  • Net present value (NPV);
  • Internal rate of return (IRR);
  • Free cash flows;
  • Sensitivity analysis;
  • Uncertainties in projects.

Reference

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Coursera

CBK software

CBK software

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FIS project @Brussels, Belgium (2017). CBK is a chargeback processing software provided by FIS, which resolves disputed transactions while minimizing fraud loss. CBK is implemented at major banks and card processing centers, offers one single interface to cover all types of exception processing problems, cutting down operational costs, ensuring real financial control and relieving users from repetitive and highly time-consuming tasks to focus on decision making.

Key benefits of CBK are:

  • One single solution for both issuer and acquirer exception processing;
  • Support of the whole chargeback cycle (e.g. retrieval requests and miscellaneous);
  • Easy direct access to the original transactions;
  • Easy user interface to all data (e.g. clearing items);
  • Fast and easy generation of reports and statistics.

More precisely, some of the main features of CBK include:

  • International, domestic and on-us dispute management;
  • Multi-currency, multi-bank and multi-platform solution;
  • Fraud reporting and deadline control;
  • EMV compliance and clearing rule validation;
  • Interfaces to card, merchant and document management systems;
  • Interfaces to accounting systems;
  • Business rule automation;
  • Modular architecture and open database system.

Within the CBK team, my tasks are related to business analysis (e.g. product presentation and meeting the client to discuss its business needs), software implementation (e.g. configuration of the solution within the client’s environment and post project support) and project management (e.g. project coordination during the software implementation phase).

References

Related article

Visa Claims Resolution (FIS project)

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FIS – Fidelity National Information Services Inc.

Certified first response

Certified first response

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Red Cross training, Belgium (2017). This classroom training organized by the Belgian Red Cross consolidates the first aid knowledge of the Brevet européen de premiers secours (BEPS). The training aims to provide theoretical and practical knowledge to approach rescue and first aid in case of vital and functional emergency. Role-playing scenarios help to learn how to deal with a victim (e.g. accident, malaise, heat stroke, sunstroke, unconsciousness, bleeding, burn and wound).

Module 1

Main topics:

  • Anatomical landmarks;
  • Basic rules of intervention.

Module 2

Main topics:

  • Unconsciousness;
  • Airway obstruction.

Module 3

Main topics:

  • Bleeding;
  • Wounds.

Module 4

Main topics:

  • Burns;
  • Musculoskeletal system trauma.

Module 5

Main topics:

  • Cranial and vertebral trauma;
  • Malaise.

Module 6

Main topics:

  • Poisoning;
  • Emergency box.

References

Related articles

First aid trainer (Red Cross training)
First aid (Red Cross training)

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BEPS – Brevet européen de premiers secours
Secourisme (certified first response)
Croix-Rouge de Belgique (Belgian Red Cross)

EUE 2017 - Book

EUE 2017 – Book

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Publication

François Chung, Tomás Rodríguez; Multi-focal Image Segmentation, Classification and Authentication: A General Framework applied on Microscope Pollen Images; Éditions universitaires européennes (EUE), Saarbrücken, 2017; ISBN: 978-3841677907.

Abstract

In this book, we propose a general framework for multi-focal image segmentation, classification and authentication, the methodology being demonstrated on microscope pollen images. The framework is meant to be generic and based on a brute force-like approach aimed to be efficient not only on any kind, and any number, of pollen images (regardless of the pollen type), but also on any kind of multi-focal images. All stages of the framework are designed to be used in an automatic fashion. First, the optimal focus is selected using the absolute gradient method. Then, pollen grains are extracted from microscope images, followed by the automatic segmentation of their exine. A coarse-to-fine approach ensures a smooth and accurate segmentation of both structures. Finally, feature extraction and selection are performed on pollen grains using a generalized approach and the pollen classification is tested with four classifiers: Weighted Neighbor Distance, Neural Network, Decision Tree and Random Forest. The latter method, which has shown the best and more robust classification accuracy results (above 97% for any number of pollen types), is finally used for a final authentication stage.

References

Publication

Amazon (book)
MoreBooks (book)
Bibliographic reference (BibTeX)

Related article

APIFRESH (Inspiralia project)

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EUE – Éditions universitaires européennes

Project planning and management

Project planning and management

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Coursera training, MOOC (2017). Given online by the University of Virginia (US), this training introduces the key concepts of planning, executing and managing various types of projects. Every organization runs projects, formally or informally. Project management provides organizations and individuals with the language and methodologies for scoping projects, identifying dependencies, sequencing activities, utilizing resources and minimizing risks.

Week 1: Welcome to the world of projects

Main topics:

  • Organization and stakeholders;
  • Project success and failure;
  • Project life-cycle.

Week 2: The ins and outs of project planning

Main topics:

  • Detailed scoping;
  • Identifying dependencies;
  • Completion date and critical path.

Week 3: It’s a risky world

Main topics:

  • Assessing project risks;
  • Cost risk analysis;
  • Planning for ambiguity.

Week 4: Project execution

Main topics:

  • From plan to action;
  • Earned value;
  • Agile, Scrum and Kanban.

Reference

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Coursera

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