François Chung, Ph.D.

Tag: 2018

Mines 2018 – Magazine article

Mines 2018 – Magazine article

Publication

François Chung; Une politique énergétique belge à multi-niveaux; Mines Revue des Ingénieurs, 499, pp. 27-29, 2018.

Abstract

Au XIXe siècle, le développement économique de la Belgique fut propulsé par le secteur énergétique grâce aux charbonnages wallons. En effet, dans la 1ère moitié du XIXe siècle, la Belgique était un des seuls pays, avec l’Angleterre, où le charbonnage était à ce point développé. À un tel point que des mines de charbon belges furent les premières entreprises industrielles à entrer en bourse à Paris. Cette époque d’abondance énergétique contraste avec la situation telle que nous la connaissons aujourd’hui : la Belgique dépend désormais de l’étranger pour ses besoins énergétiques, que ce soit pour le pétrole, le gaz naturel ou le charbon lui-même, qui représentent tous trois un peu plus de 70% de sa consommation d’énergie primaire en 2014.

References

Publication

Published version (PDF)
Bibliographic reference (BibTeX)
Online version (Ingénieurs Belges)

PRINCE2 Foundation

PRINCE2 Foundation

B2B Learning training, Belgium (2018). This 3-day accredited training gives a complete introduction to the PRINCE2 project management method and prepares for the certification exam. PRINCE2 is a method for managing projects in a structured way and provides an easily tailored and scalable method for the management of all types of projects, e.g. with a management by stages, by defining roles and responsibilities, learning from experience and focusing on products.

Module 1: Introduction

Main topics:

  • Features and benefits;
  • Definition and characteristics of a project;
  • Six aspects of project performance;
  • Integrated elements of PRINCE2;
  • Customer/supplier context.

Module 2: PRINCE2 principles

Main topics:

  • Continued business justification;
  • Learn from experience;
  • Defined roles and responsibilities;
  • Manage by stages;
  • Manage by exception;
  • Focus on products;
  • Tailor to suit the project.

Module 3: PRINCE2 themes

Main topics:

  • Business case;
  • Organization;
  • Quality;
  • Plans;
  • Risk;
  • Change;
  • Progress.

Module 4: PRINCE2 processes

Main topics:

  • Starting up a project;
  • Directing a project;
  • Initiating a project;
  • Controlling a stage;
  • Managing product delivery;
  • Managing a stage boundary;
  • Closing a project.

References

Training

Certification (PeopleCert)

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Visa Claims Resolution

Visa Claims Resolution

FIS project @Brussels, Belgium (2018). It can take up to 100 days to resolve a chargeback, which means for a merchant over 3 months worrying about the disputed transaction. This is why Visa released in April 2018 its new global dispute resolution process: Visa Claims Resolution (VCR). As a consequence, disputes are now moderated by Visa’s automated tool Visa Resolve Online (VROL). Objective is to cut down on time, cost, and the number of chargebacks.

One of the main features of VCR is that invalid chargebacks are eliminated whenever possible. This means if a customer tries to initiate a chargeback when it is past the time limit, or when minimum criteria are not met, Visa will block the dispute from becoming a chargeback. Requiring this extra information from the beginning reduces unnecessary chargebacks, helps merchants understand why the chargeback occurred, and ultimately saves time for everyone involved.

Here are other important VCR features:

  • Time limit change: merchants have 30 days, instead of 45 days, to respond to a Visa chargeback;
  • Dispute workflows: new workflows are Allocation (fraud and authorization chargebacks) and Collaboration (interaction required between merchants, acquirers and issuers);
  • New reason codes: there are 4 dispute categories:
    • 10 - Fraud;
    • 11 - Authorization;
    • 12 - Processing Errors;
    • 13 - Consumer Disputes.

Within CBK product implementation teams, my role consists in discussing, clarifying and taking note of the VCR requirements expressed during on-site workshops by the clients with respect to their business processes (e.g. business, clearing, IT). These requirements are then analyzed and documented at the office, and finally validated through an agreed scope document.

References

Related article

CBK software (FIS project)

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VCR – Visa Claims Resolution
FIS – Fidelity National Information Services Inc.

Neural networks and deep learning

Neural networks and deep learning

Coursera training, MOOC (2018). Given online by Stanford University (US), this training introduces the foundations of deep learning. Main objectives are to understand the major technology trends driving deep learning, be able to build, train, apply and implement fully connected deep neural networks, and understand their key parameters. The training aims to teach how deep learning actually works, rather than presenting only a surface-level description.

Week 1: Introduction to deep learning

Main topics:

  • What is a neural network?
  • Supervised learning with neural networks;
  • Why is deep learning taking off?

Week 2: Neural networks basics

Main topics:

  • Binary classification;
  • Logistic regression;
  • Gradient descent;
  • Derivatives with a computation graph;
  • Vectorizing logistic regression.

Week 3: Shallow neural networks

Main topics:

  • Neural network representation;
  • Computing a neural network's output;
  • Vectorizing across multiple examples;
  • Activation functions and their derivatives;
  • Gradient descent for neural networks;
  • Random initialization.

Week 4: Deep neural networks

Main topics:

  • Multilayer neural network;
  • Forward and backward propagation;
  • Building blocks of deep neural networks;
  • Parameters vs hyperparameters.

References

Related articles

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