Emerging Topics Community: Anders vs. Shea, Part 1: Setting the Stage
Shea Parkes, FSA, MAAA, and Anders Larson, FSA, MAAA, are are joined by the organizers of the 2021 Milliman Health Practice Hackathon: Riley Heckel, FSA, MAAA, Austin Barrington, FSA, MAAA, and Phil Ellenberg.
In the fall of 2021, long-time SOA podcast hosts (and also Actuaries) Anders Larson and Shea Parkes were pitted against one another in a predictive modeling competition in what some have referred to as “the battle of the century.” In today’s episode, Anders and Shea are joined by the architects of that competition: Riley Heckel, FSA, MAAA, Austin Barrington, FSA, MAAA, and Phil Ellenberg. This trio organized the 2021 Milliman Health Practice Hackathon, the third iteration of the event, but the first to feature Anders and Shea as competitors. The hosts discuss what goes into setting up a hackathon, how the competition has evolved over the years, what they might do differently in the future, and why the title of this episode is kind of clickbait.
