The Insider - November 2017

THE

THE STUDENT ASSOCIATION OF SSE RIGA

NOVEMBER 2017 #150

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GENERAL PARTNERS

Special thanks: Morten Hansen, Yuri Romanenkov, Inga Gleizdane, Heidi Reinson, Marius Raugalas, Evita & Toms, Anta & Jānis, Dace & Kristaps, Inga & Edgars, Anders Paalzow Cover art: Galina Pozdnyakova

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CONTENTS

08 14 18 28 Then

Start-ups in SSER SSE Riga Couples Lecturers as Students University Life - Then

Now

12 22 24 25 26 30

Current Businesses in SSER Data Science Lab A Halloween Horror Story Real Horror University Life - Now Gossip

Forever

07 16 20

Morten: 20 Years in SSE Riga POSTER: Anders and the Stocholm book

Art in SSE Riga

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Dear all, The autumn brings cold, rain and tougher subjects, but it also is the time of Homecoming, which means a special edition of the Insider. It is thicker than what we are used to, so you can enjoy even more quality content. With this issue we have tried to cater for all kinds of SSE Riga students, including those who graduated many years ago. We have tried to help some memories resurface by having some of the lecturers in the school describe their student days at SSER, finding some of the couples that got married after graduating the school, as well as our beloved rector posing with the “Stocholm” book we all remember from our first day. Homecoming is also a great time to awaken some school pride in SSE Riga, which is why we have highlighted some of the most interesting and successful start-ups that have

emerged from the school, as well as have tried to make the amazing contemporary art collection displayed in the building a little less foreign for everyone. Other things that help us realize that alumni and current students are not really that far apart are Morten, who describes the not so many changes he has noticed over his 20 years in SSER, as well as an introduction of the businesses created by the current students. We also could not resist sprinkling in some Halloween themed content, as well as sharing a great current opportunity that Data Science Lab presents to students. All of this content, coupled with University Life – Then and Now and the Gossip page, is sure to warm you up in the cold and bring you closer to the school not just by staying longer to study.

Follow us!

/SSERigaInsider

/TheInsiderSSER

Forever yours, The Insider

Elizabete Fleismane Chief editor

Gabija Laura Gundega Amanda Vilkaite Daudaraviciute Kristapsone Editor Editor Editor

Nicoleta Barba Editor

Roberts Pauls Eglitis Graphic designer

Marta Metuzale Junior editor

Jelizaveta Lebedeva Junior editor

Sorina-Sofia Solonaru Junior editor

Daria Orz Junior graphic designer

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Felicia Istrati Junior editor

Oskars Aivars Simpsons Moore Junior editor

Morten Hansen

20 years down the road

I

came to Latvia in 1993 and joined SSE Riga in 1997.

What has changed since then, The Insider asks?!? At first I should say that when I was at the school in September 1997 for an interview, meeting with Rector Leif Muten and his dean (our current Rector) I thought it was a one-off. The school quite desperately needed someone to do the microeconomics course and I don’t think either of us thought that it was supposed to be for more than one time. I had a full-time job at EuroFaculty, University of Latvia at that time.

But I was invited back the next year and from 1999 also ran the macro course and the rest is history, as they say.

In the early days, in micro, I could use examples from Soviet times to show the difference between a market economy and a planned economy. I can still do that but

then the students had a recollection of Soviet times. Today, all of you are born in independent Estonia or Belarus or Moldova or… I also remember sometimes asking “do some of you have a laptop?”. A few years later that would be “do some of you NOT have a laptop?”.

Similarly for bank cards and mobile phones. Silly me if I should ask if someone has a Smartphone….

In macro we had a problem in the early days: What can you do with 5-6 years of macro data? Sometimes not so much (think econometrics….). Much easier today!

Soros is the same, except for the modern gadgets such as the projector and the flat-screens and that old, proven technology, the blackboard, still works wonders!

Lots have changed since 1997 but in many ways surprisingly little.

And I feel very comfortable with that.

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Elizabete Fleismane Anna Andersone, Co-founder of Be-with - a clothing brand of specially designed touchthrough clothing created to improve relationships.

When and how did you decide to do this, to become an entrepreneur?

When I was studying in SSE there was no such thing as startups, but entrepreneurship, along with marketing and IT, was already very interesting to me. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but there was just one small problem – I didn’t know what I wanted to do as an entrepreneur. So, accidentally, I ended up in advertising at first and from that came my first business. I started working on my first startup idea, I just didn’t know it was a startup. We made a product that got very popular and used all over Europe and realized we could make money off it.

What about Be-with then, how did you come up with the idea?

Be-with is different from my first endeavors, because here the idea and the product came first. Everything started with me reading a Harvard research on human happiness. It was discovered that the main thing that brings us happiness, health and wealth are our closest relationships, and that physical contact is one of the most important factors when maintaining our relationships, which is something nobody really tells us. I immediately felt like it was my mission to bring this message to the world and clothing for touching and hugs was a means to do that.

What do you feel like is the most important thing to focus on when you’re going into entrepreneurship?

I believe it’s most important to focus on your idea and not to scatter your attention and energy across many different things.

This is probably nothing new, everyone is saying that, in order to build something, you must put all of your energy into doing so.

But when you go into entrepre8

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SSER Start-ups

neurship there are a lot of things to balance within that one idea and I can’t say that I’ve figured out what the most important one is. For me it’s very important that what I make is high quality and there is meaning behind what I do. But there are many entrepreneurs that don’t care much about these things. There are just different mindsets.

What are the best and worst things about entrepreneurship?

I guess they’re one and the same – everything depends on you. So, if you succeed, it’s an amazing feeling, you feel like you own it. However, if something is not working or going as planned, it becomes your biggest pain. You’re thinking: “Oh no, everything is my fault, be-

cause it’s my thing.” You can’t blame anybody.

When it comes to picking your team, is it more important to have the best professionals or the most trustworthy friends?

Actually, come to think of it, I guess the most important thing in entrepreneurship is the team.

And trust in this case is the number one requirement. If there is a lack of trust, nothing will work.

Professionalism is also incredibly important, but, if you have someone whom you can trust and who is willing to learn and admit mistakes and learn from them, that’s enough. Nowadays everything can be learned. If you’re really interested in a subject and dedicated enough, you can learn whatever you may need. It may be more

Marta Metuzale expensive, and you might make more mistakes along the way, but trust is more important.

How do you stay true to who you are and your principles when it isn’t to your advantage?

Principles are very important to maintain in entrepreneurship, so, when it comes to choosing a team, you have to make sure that your values are aligned from the very beginning. If that’s not there, it becomes very difficult to work together, and it also undermines trust between you. And when it comes to individuality, you simply have to realize that you’ll never be liked by everyone. It’s important to understand that, if you want to be visible and be noticed, there will definitely be people who will be against you and what you’re doing. That is great, and it means that you’re making an impact.

You’ve been involved with Riga TechGirls and obviously care about girls going into the industry. Are there any challenges you have faced because you’re a woman?

I think the biggest challenge we all face as women in any field or area of life is our inner barriers.

I became quite successful in my first job in a short amount of time and during my last year someone called me an “iron lady with an angel’s eyes”, which didn’t make much sense to me. And it took a while to be ok with it and get over the fact that me being slightly more demanding makes me an “iron lady”. Especially, since all of the guys in the industry are much more demanding and nobody feels the need to specifically point it out.

Another thing that I see with women is that they are simply afraid.

That is one of the reasons why I joined forces with Riga TechGirls, because there’s nothing to be afraid of. Technology is the future whether we want it to be or not, so we must learn how to work with it.

Girls and women, we should not be afraid to learn about tech, just like we shouldn’t be afraid of looking like “iron ladies”.

Raimonds Kulbergs, CEO and founder of Funderful.

Funderful is a fundraising platform for universities, which helps to get scholarships for students, and it has cooperated with such universities as Stanford University and Harvard University, and many more.

How did you come up with the idea for Funderful?

I was volunteering at that time (2010-2012) as the President of the SSER Alumni association, and we needed more scholarships. We had reached our limit, using the traditional means of fundraising, so we came up with something totally novel that nobody had tried before, something very transparent. I compared our system to the one of Stanford University, I looked up their metrics, and I saw that the biggest difference was in the Alumni participation rate: we had 11-12% of participation, and we decided to triple that amount to beat Stanford, which had 34%.

We did it, I lead the campaign, it was time-consuming, but energizing at the same time. That’s when universities started to reach out to us, asking for help. I decided that I wanted to try this idea out as a business, because even Stanford was doing it like in the 20th century. So, I decided to quit my job and started to develop this idea.

What is Funderful up to now?

Right now, we are essentially working with universities and getting more donations from their alumni by reaching them in the first place which is a challenge for many of the US universities. We are working with Oxford University, Cambridge University, London Business School.. We just signed a contract with Georgetown University, and we are on track to launch the first campaign with Stanford University. One of the other accomplishments we have made is that we have managed to hire someone from the USA, and that is not an easy thing to do – there are so many examples of failures when people try to

work long distance, and it is hard to find the right fit. Also, we have just established our office in Boston, next Monday I am going there for a few weeks. In the nearest future we also want to help universities replace their email system with messaging to engage millennials.

What did you want to do for a living while you were still studying?

At that time there was no such thing as startups, they were not popular in SSE Riga. I knew that I wanted to build my own business, I didn’t know what exactly my business would be, but the main idea was already in my head. I knew I wanted it to be global, but I didn’t know anything about startups at all. I was absolutely sure that I wanted to learn and study first, and do a corporate job, and it proved to be useful later when we were negotiating contracts and deals.

How has your strong education and work background in finance helped you in entrepreneurship?

I think SSE Riga gives a certain powerful foundation that will be useful for the rest of my life. It has been one of the most life-changing things that has happened to me, and I believe that I speak for most of the alumni. It is not only the knowledge of how finances or macroeconomics work, it is the way of thinking, the drive and discipline towards work, the ability to analyze and the improvement of independent thinking.

All of these elements are priceless and important also outside of the business world.

Funderful has also gained experience in “500 Startups”, an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator. How did you get there and how does the accelerator work? What opportunities did it provide for Funderful?

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Jelizaveta Lebedeva Martins Sulte, CEO and co-founder of Mintos.

Mintos is one of the most successful startup companies in Latvia. It is a technology-enabled peer-to-peer lending marketplace that was launched two years ago, in January 2015.

market. We figured out that we had to be a part of the biggest US accelerator, and “500 Startups” is the best accelerator for startups in the seed stage, it is the most active investor in the world. Eventually we, thanks to taking part in the Digital Freedom Festival, got noticed by the “500 Startups” team, and got a chance to present the company in the final 10-minute interviews. Three weeks later we got the news that we had been accepted, and my family moved to San Francisco. That was quite an experience, because it provided us with a mentorship program and growth frameworks, and we got to learn from the best startups in the Silicon Valley. We had four months of time to make it work, achieve big growth for the company, and then there was the moment when we had 500 top investors from Silicon Valley watching us for three minutes. We managed to get funding from Silicon Valley, and now that has made us sort of a “next level” company.

Is there such a thing as a typical workday for you?

I think in startup life there is a lot of chaos, and the chaos does not disappear even if you are making 40000 euros per month, it is just a different number of zeros.

You also have to not worry about it and just live with it if you want to live ambitiously. For me, having two kids also forces me to be 10

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disciplined, so you have no other choice but make a well-structured daily schedule.

What advice would you give to a student who wants to develop their own startup someday?

I think you should look at how your life is likely to play out. At some point you are likely to establish a family and it does not allow you to make crazy mistakes.

Making it big and being ambitious goes hand-in-hand with making mistakes and being fine with making big mistakes. You don’t actually have that much time – when you think about it, how old are you, 21, 22? So, you have to think – when do you want to be married? 30? 27? Maybe before that you already want to have a stable career. So, you only really have two to three years to try crazy things, go across the globe and do whatever you want and not think of the consequences!

That is the only way how you can open up your mind. It is easier if you don’t yet have those great responsibilities, for example, right now, wherever I go, I take my family with me. Not having the knowledge and being naïve at your age is actually an advantage, you don’t automatically see around the corner all the ways it could go wrong, how you could possibly fail miserably.

What is Mintos and how does it work?

Mintos is a marketplace lending platform, the main goal of which is to bring together investors and borrowers, who need a loan funding. Investors can invest in small business loans, secured car loans, mortgage loans. Loan originators get information from our platform about investors who are willing to purchase loans. Before, loan originators needed to organize their own platforms, but now everything is united in a single platform – Mintos.

How did you come up with the idea to start Mintos?

I have to admit that entrepreneurship was always very interesting for me and building my own business was on my to-do list for the future. I had a lot of ideas in my mind and was constantly searching for new ones, but the idea about Mintos came when I was reading a Techcrunch article. At the time, peer-to-peer lending had just started to develop and was not very popular in the Baltic states, therefore I came up with an idea to establish a similar platform here in Latvia.

It seems like many sharing economy companies and also fintech companies often face big challenges in terms of regulation and legislation. Has Mintos also encountered these problems?

In my opinion, innovation precedes regulation, which can be seen in many industries and our service was not an exception.

Therefore, it was very important for us to inform the society, regulators and policymakers how exactly do marketplace lending and our platform work, and we are

very happy that regulators have started to introduce the legal framework needed for the peerto-peer lending industry in Latvia.

What is the startup environment like in Latvia?

When we started our business in 2014 things were beginning to change already but in the last 2-3 years everything has developed very quickly - the government passed the “Startup law�, many businesses were founded, there have been multiple exits, which are very important for the startup ecosystem, the startup community has grown, there are different meet-ups, accelerators and more funds which invest in startups, so funding a business has become easier than it was a couple of years ago.

Are there similar businesses in Latvia or somewhere else around the world?

Our startup was an innovation both in Latvia and in other countries, but if we are talking about competitors, then there are some;

however, it is not our main goal to compete with each other, we are focusing on the successful development of our startup.

Are you working more in Latvia or on a global scale?

We are based here, in Latvia, and it is one of the best places where to work, however, the market in Latvia is not so big, therefore we are concentrating and working on an international level, which has been one of the biggest achievements for us.

So, what else have you achieved so far?

Our greatest achievement was getting from level zero to level one. From my point of view, it is an achievement for us to do something new that was not done before and to see that it is needed for the society and is getting more and more popular. Today we are providing workplaces for 35 people who can work in Latvia and on globally at the same time.

What are your goals for the nearest future?

As I already mentioned, we got

from level zero to level one and our next challenge is deciding how to get to the level ten or level hundred. What we are working on right now is planning how to make our product the best on a global scale.

What advice would you give to a student who wants to develop his/her own startup someday?

I think they should listen to successful startup stories that motivate them. Of course, it is very hard to develop your own startup from the very beginning, therefore I would suggest starting to work and getting experience in a startup which already exists and has reached some level of success, because in companies people are working in a well-known environment, as opposed to startups, where products and clients are new.

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Student Businesses

Nicoleta Barba & Sorina-Sofia Solonaru

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Emils Pauls Eglitis Current year: Year 1

Bars in Riga

Matejs Balodis Current year: Year 3

Bars in Riga is simply a site where you can find any necessary information for your night out. The site was created due to two reasons first being the fact that there just were no happy hour charts for bars in Riga and the second being that large sites (like Tripadvisor) usually featured only couple of bars and the vast majority just got dismissed. I decided that this had to change; and decided to make a site where every bar has equal exposure and the reader can decide for himself where to spend his night. In addition to that I created informative charts, interviewed owners and created a route which leads to most popular spots in Old Town - so it became barsinriga.com.

What is your vision regarding the future of your business?

Bars in Riga is a very new organization and is in very early stage of development. Plans for near future include finding like-minded people and expanding our content. In the following year, I hope to create an application where everyone could just enter their preferences and it would suggest bars to go to. Time will tell!

Rocknight Studios Rocknight Studios is a video game development company consisting of talented people from Latvia and Estonia. We are still working on our first game Rough Rush, a 3D platformer where you have to fight robots with weaponized cars, while avoiding obstacles on the road.

An alpha version is available for free on Gamejolt for PC, Mac and Linux. Rough Rush will be released next year on Steam.

What is your vision regarding the future of your business?

The vision for the next few years is to build up a community through Twitch development and gameplay streams and keep creating quality games. Long-term vision for Rocknight Studios is to be recognized worldwide; to be the Baltic equivalent of Poland’s CD Projekt Red (Witcher series) and create AAA title video games.

Arseniy Sergeyev Current year: Year 1 Eduards Lapiņš Current year: Year 2

The Words Of Latvian Our goal is to spread knowledge about the latvian language across the world - as currently only 0.1% of the world speak latvian. More than 600 people have already joined our collective cause, by purchasing clothing with designs that highlight fun and interesting words of the language, including some sarcastic editions.

What is your vision regarding the future of your business?

Our ultimate goal is to have at least one latvian word in each country and have fun doing it!

Plans already have been made to create different products to achieve this.

Brownie Kings Brownie Kings provide the freshest brownies in Riga. Currently available for orders only for SSE Riga students (and their friends/ relatives). To order, people sign up via the Facebook group, I deliver on the next day. 99.5% rate of satisfaction, for the other 0.5% it wasn’t quite sweet enough.

What is your vision regarding the future of your business?

I’d love to have my own cafeteria one day (serving just brownies of different kinds), but for the foreseeable future – it would be great to have distributors in different schools in Riga, as well as on small markets like “Kalnciema tirgus”. Also, I’d like to keep the exclusivity by making it possible to order only for those who have special coupons, which could be received only through people who ordered on the spot.

Kristiāns Lancmanis Current year: Year 2

Simple + Simple+ was founded in December, 2014 as a student company producing mobile clothes hangers. We offer a design product which is perfectly created and upgraded according to customer recommendations. In the first 7 months, we managed to sell over 150 cover bags (including international customers), reduced costs with outsourcing, competed successfully in various trade fairs and became the best student company in Latvia for 2015.

What is your vision regarding the future of your business?

Our biggest aim for the near future is to successfully participate in Latvia’s Song and Dance Festival 2018 with a stand. This event would serve as a significant distribution channel as well as a powerful marketing tool. However it is not all, our yearly target is to increase revenue by 50% and in 2-3 year future, be not only the biggest player in Latvia (in garment bag production for dancers and singers), but also in the Baltics.

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SSE Riga Couples Evita & Toms My husband Toms and I were classmates at SSE Riga and started dating in Year 2 (in 2005). We distantly knew each other since secondary school, but became friends only after the first year parties at SSE Riga. During Year 2 Summer Symposium a friend of Toms suggested that Toms and I belong together, at which point we said that we were “just friends”, but then started dating a few weeks later. Coincidentally, 12 years later the same friend from SSE Riga married my younger sister (also SSE Riga graduate) without knowing about her back in 2005 :)

Anta & Jānis I have always been a bit in love with Paris. In 2006 L’Oreal came to the school to present ESTRATA – a business simulation game.

The top 3 teams could go to Paris for finals and that was all I needed to seek the best team. I asked a guy form Y3 to participate with me and to choose the smartest classmate as the third team member. He chose Jānis, who (as I later found out) agreed to participate just to meet me. In the first team meeting we were left alone for hours, while the third team member tried to fix many technical problems with school’s printers. It was not love at first sight – we both thought that 14

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the other is attractive, but otherwise we were total opposites.

However, when the project was over (around Finance and Valentine’s day time) there was already a sparkle and we took a chance.

For the first official date on Valentine’s day Jānis took me to Paris (all right, it was the movie Paris I love you, but close enough :) ) We didn’t win the game, but we were the best from Latvia. After Y2 I got an internship in L’Oreal and next autumn we went to Paris together (I bought my ticket from my internship salary).

Dace & Kristaps And indeed, since this August there is another SSE Riga married couple - me and my husband Kristaps. Although we never studied together (he had already graduated when I entered SSE Riga), we still managed to get to know each other during some school and other events. Moreover, he is a good friend of my sister and her husband (another two married SSE Riga graduates), thus our paths crossed even more often than just a couple of alumni events. And so it all began...

A funny story about us is how we went skiing to Italy some years ago. Rented a car, counted on our GPS, took a road which was closed during winter time, ended up in Switzerland at midnight in almost the very top of a mountain with only one hotel on the way. Not to mention during a snow storm and without winter tires. Luckily, the hotel had a vacant room for us to stay

the night. The next morning, we parked the rented car in the next village, took a bus and picked up the car a week later. And had a wonderful holiday. Didn’t seem funny that night, but it is nice to look back at such powerful memories now. It made us closer.

Inga & Edgars We were assigned in the same team during the Orientation week and thus also in the team working together for the first projects. Throughout the studies we were part of a group of friends (around 15 people) and also a closer group of 5 best friends. Finally, a year after the graduation we felt that we could become a couple, and got married after 4 more years.

The fun was the surprise in the eyes of our friends and acquaintances when after the many years as friends we became a couple.

And we were quite different personalities at that time :) At present the greatest fun and challenge at the same time is having two smart and strong daughters. And we are sharing our passion for travelling – we have traveled together several times each year and continued it also throughout the time of expecting and having small kids.

Just recently we went to Florida when our small one was just 2,5 months old, adjusted the trip to fit the interests of a 3-year-old and truly enjoyed the trip and the experiences although in a very different way than when we were travelling just the two of us.

Dace & Kristaps

Anta & Jānis

Inga & Edgars

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Anders Paalzow, SSE Riga Rector 16 THE INSIDER • NOVEMBER 2017

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Alumni Lecturers

Heidi Reinson

I

have only the fondest memories of my time at SSE Riga! Even the not so great moments were actually fantastic. Like the rice we bought for 19 santims at Rimi’s “Mammoth Sales” that tasted funny but saved us some money for partying. And the time the neighbors wanted to call the police because they thought we were partying while in fact we were discussing the Finance articles! Looking back, 3 girls living in one room and 7 of us in the apart-

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ment (3 Estonians, 4 Lithuanians) seems more like an endless pyjama party and not just a cheap way to get by in the city centre.

We all know that the education at SSE Riga is great and it really did prepare me for my career but the true value of my years in Riga is more evident in my personal life – that’s where I met some of my dearest friends and that’s where I fell in love with my future husband (thank you, club Pulkvedis and the Estonian-Lithuanian tequila parties!)

Yuri Romanenkov

I

was a student at SSE Riga pre-global-financial-crisis when (a little bit like today) everyone seemed to believe continuous double-digit GDP growth in the Baltics and thought that real estate and equities can only go one way. My best memories of SSE Riga range from travelling the world with the brilliant SSE Riga debaters to writing an FE report on Norwegian banks using Data Envelopment Analysis methodology (which I am confident only 50% of our team really understood and I won’t disclose whether I was part of that 50%). What I am most grateful for over those years is spending time with and getting to know people smarter and more talented than myself who now remain some of my closest friends.

Marius Raugalas

Inga Gleizdane

F

ew memories from SSE Riga student life – definitely parties. Do you still have fun parties in Lithuanian and Estonian apartments? :) We also had a “party house” in Pinķi – typically the bunch of friends moved in there on Friday eve and moved out on Sunday eve on even Monday :) Then nightlife in Old Riga - fellow students, which was your favourite - ZupZup, PupuLounge, Pulkvedis, Nautilus, Light.. ? And how man philosophical talks do you remember with your friends?

I still remember a warm evening and night in school yard (smoking there was still allowed then) with guitar playing in the background and having a fundamental “meaning of life” talk with my still best friend. And it was 1 day before an exam :) During the weekends before the exams we basically moved into

school for “studying” together – a fun and an efficient study approach. Once for a course requiring lots of fact learning, few of our gang prepared summary and taught few guys that were basically on level 0 on Friday evening.

When it turned out that all of the “0 guys” got more points than the ones who prepared and taught.. :D That’s how true friendship lasting for more than a decade was forged.

Parties, friends, little sleep and lots of experience – very valuable and intense years indeed!

Enjoy the SSE Riga time, expose yourself to challenges and experience, learn and develop, create friendship for lifetime and get acquainted with as many people as you can - the years of graduation and likes/dislikes during studies lose importance – SSE Rigans are truly glad to meet each other later throughout the life.

I

loved my time at SSE Riga.

From the the overcrowded Ganu 4 flats (how did we ever survive the mornings with just one shower for 6 people??) and the crazy school parties to the amazing events such as Peak Time and the Days of Opportunities, it was always up to us to make the most of each opportunity. The studies themselves often seemed like the least important part, although I now appreciate how useful they have been as well.

I wish every current student to find their own work-life harmony as it can be a tough juggling act not only during studies but throughout your career.

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Elizabete Fleismane

“What even is this?” – The SSE Riga contemporary art collection The vast majority of SSER students have asked this question at one point or another, looking at an ambiguous velvet-covered niche and wondering whether something used to be displayed there and is now just missing. A couple of years ago the school released a brochure that describes some of the artwork that can be seen in the school. We doubt that many students have gotten their hands on the brochure, so here is a short breakdown of what it all really is.

1. “The Place of Delay” by Oļegs Tillbergs, a.k.a. “That Massive Bone in the Lobby” (Lobby) What is it? An actual whale bone on a zinc wall.

What does it mean? It symbolizes the relationship between the natural and the man-made.

2. “Flag” by Andris Breže, a.k.a.

“They Put a Tree Inside a Tree?”

(2nd floor) What is it? A felt log with a deep cut covered in red velvet, with a trunk of a birch tree inside.

What does it mean? Symbolizes the Latvian flag, as well as how the state preserves its values.

3. “Chameleon” by Juris Artūrs Putrāms, a.k.a. “That Metal Mask Thing” (3rd floor) What is it? A flat, totemic mosaic made from several layers of various metals.

What does it mean? It is a “chameleon of meaning”, which is to say that we have no idea.

4. “Sweet Dream” by Barbara Gaile, a.k.a. “A Yellow Rectangle” (4th floor) What is it? A painting covered entirely by the color yellow.

What does it mean? Gives a warm and serene vibe.

5. “Blackboard” & “Blackboard 20

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No.2” by Ieva Iltnere, a.k.a. “Two White Paintings. One Has Number on It.” (4th floor) What is it? A white painting with barely visible numbers on it and a white painting with some texture.

What does it mean? Minimalist aesthetic, shows off how the color changes depending on light and texture.

6. “Virtual” & “Software” by Kristaps Ģelzis, a.k.a. “An Empty Stand and an Empty Niche” (5th floor) What is it? A dark velvet niche and a stylized green velvet computer screen on a red velvet background.

What does it mean? They symbolize a computer (Software) and the inner space of it (Virtual).

7. “Orange Entrance” by Ojārs Pētersons, a.k.a. “Not Functional Orange Furniture” (6th floor) What is it? A stylized orange bookcase and a decorative orange, textured door.

What does it mean? Shows a play on light and shadow that is reflected on the orange surfaces.

8. “The Angel” by Aija Zariņa, a.k.a. “The Doodle in the Window” (6th floor) What is it? An image engraved in glass, represents an angel.

What does it mean? Presents a hope for a society where being yourself is the ideal.

Art and the way we see it is very personal and can mean different things to you than to someone else. Not being straightforward or simple, however, doesn’t make it foreign or scary. We hope this helps you feel more at ease with the impressive collection displayed in our school and perhaps adopt a sense of pride for these pieces.

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Nicoleta Barba & Felicia Istrati

Data Science Lab Could you describe your team and your professional background?

Our team is comprised of four people. Myself, I have been working in FMCG and retail industries for around two and a half years in different analytical functions. Currently, I am working as a Data Analytics Manager at Rimi Baltic.

Elchin Jafarov is currently working at CBL Asset Management as a Senior Portfolio Manager. He has also been heavily involved in different educational initiatives, leading a variety of courses in universities.

Then there is Rihards Garančs. He has also been working in FMCG, but for about 6 years. Now he is employed at Carlsberg Group in Switzerland as Supply Chain Finance Business Partner. You might know Rihards as the “Excel Guy”, since he has been doing electives related to Excel here at SSE Riga since 2014.

Alex Timofeyev is an SSE Riga alumnus from the first intake (Class 1996) and he has been working in IT and data analysis fields for most of his career. He is currently holding the position of CEO at a business intelligence company Claviz, and has also led the “Introduction to Big Data” elective course last year here at SSE Riga.

Why did you and your team decide to create the Data Science Lab platform?

First of all, after meeting each other through different ways, we realized that we are all passionate about data analytics. Secondly, we all had some ties to SSE Riga studying or lecturing here, or even both. We understood that despite very strong preparation in Economics, Business and Finance that SSE Riga provides, there is a certain gap between the knowledge and skill set that graduates currently possess, and what is very often required from them in the job market. We wanted to develop 22

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the technical skills absent in the core SSE Riga curriculum or the available electives to a sufficient extent and do it in an structured manner. By doing some pre-work, talking to alumni and current students, we found out whether it would be indeed be something interesting to them. Thus we joined our forces and decided to create the Data Science Lab. What are the benefits that one might expect to gain after signing-up?

The key benefit is gaining the knowledge and skills in data analysis and the ecosystem surrounding it - from databases to analytical techniques which are directly applicable in many of the roles that SSE Riga alumni tend to take on: financial analyst, business analysts, data analysts and many others, as well as when performing research while still studying.

The second benefit is that even if one ends up in a position or industry that doesn’t appear to deal with data directly – being a general manager, a marketing person or an HR expert, it’s very valuable to understand the possibilities that data provides in the 21st century.

Globally, all industries – you name it - are moving to data-driven processes and automation – a trend extensively covered by the media. It is crucial to be in line with these trends as they are source for a strong and lasting competitive advantage.

These two benefits can be summed up in as follows: you get to know which parts of your business can be replaced with a “robot” and take full advantage of it, or you are in fact the one who makes that happen. Often in the long-term, you get to do both.

Could you please provide a short description of each of the course that DSL offers?

We split the Data Science Lab learning path into seven modules.

The first module, Data Science Orientation, is not exactly a course.

Rather, it is a series of brief meetings with the Data Lab participants, where we will provide a more detailed background on why this field is important, what are the use cases and applications of data science, as well as perspectives in the field. We will also cover fundamentals of the knowledge and concepts that are used in data science. For instance, basic statistics, analytical methods that you can apply on data to achieve desired outcomes.

This module will consist of 4 meetings and they will take place in the second half of November. We have already started planning the classes and inviting interesting guests.

The second module is a brief Excel recap. Even though in the present, Excel is rarely used (read: shouldn’t be used) in enterprise-scale data science tasks, it still remains a heavily utilized tool for data analytics. We know that by now all current SSE students studied Excel as one of the compulsory courses in the curriculum, but for some the knowledge might have worn out, thus we offer a short recap on how to work with its key functions that can be useful in analytics.

The third module is actually an elective course that was scheduled before the start of this academic year, called Business Intelligence, now being part of Data Science Lab umbrella. To sum it up, it is a course that will allow you to translate raw data into very useful and interactive reports and dashboards, thus providing insight into that data – in an automated manner. There you will learn how to combine data from different sources and turn it into dynamic visualisations that can impress your future managers even from the early days. In this course, we will use a tool which might be familiar to some of the students – Microsoft Power BI. In its short existence the tool managed to gain

very high usage rates and publicity in the analytics community, and starts to appear in many job ads both in Baltics and overseas.

The fourth module will start in 2018 and it’s called Database Fundamentals. Basically, all of the usable data in business and elsewhere is stored in some sort of databases.

And before you get into data analysis or building predictive models, you need to know how to extract the data from those sources. There is a variety of databases that exist out there, so in this module we will learn in what forms data exists and how to extract it both in a basic way and advanced way, making sure your data is prepared for business-driven analysis – using SQL (Structured Query Language).

The fifth module will start in April – Applied R Programming and Modelling in R. This is where actually get to the most fun part: handson programming in, probably, the most popular statistical analysis language called R. The language has existed for over 20 years, but only now, when we have got access to so many different sources of data it has unleashed its full power for all sorts of predictive and analytical use cases. So in this module we will learn the basics of R environment, its syntax, and try to develop a number of predictive models using R together with the students.

The course will have 10-12 classes.

After we have covered the basics of R, we would like to provide the students with an opportunity to specialise in different areas of advanced data analytics, which will be R for Finance and R for Market-

ing & Retail. R has a very rich set of functions that are developed and freely available for specific industries. For example, if we talk about finance, there is a set of functions that will help you optimise your investment portfolio. For marketing, there are functions that will help you predict customer churn. In these 2 tracks, we will cover specific use-cases for finance and marketing, using R and real data. These two modules will go in parallel. We will do our best to schedule the module in such a way that students can attend both if they really wish to, but we suggest focusing on one of them, depending on individual career preferences.

The seventh module is conditional upon the interest of students. Depending on that interest, we plan to organise a series of meetings to share very specific use-cases of machine-learning and artificial intelligence, which are – coincidentally - fully based on both classic and modern data analysis techniques. Also, we intend to develop a little machine learning project of our own, together with the students, using aforementioned R. There will be exams for ECTS-compliant modules (all except the first two). We do not intend to fail students, rather we want to make sure that they have understood the concepts and acquired all of the needed skills.

How do the courses offered by Data Lab tie in with a degree in Business and Economics?

If you think about it, Economics is still a data-driven science. Despite the fact that economic theo-

ries can be developed using solely logic and language, real-life economics is essentially billions of transactions that take place in various contexts in different parts of the world. These days, both those transactions and their contexts become traceable in the digital world. For instance, we are capable of tracking what product was promoted to which customer, where the customer was located when exposed to that promotion and what did he or she do before and after that.

When aggregated, all that data helps us explain, prove or disprove certain economic theories, and especially interestingly these days – assertions of behavioural economics. Both practical and academic economics is heavily dependent on statistical analysis. To accept or reject a certain hypothesis about an economic theory, one needs to apply statistics and/or data analytics techniques at least to some extent. The modules of Data Science Lab will help students to both understand these methods and empower with the toolset to apply them.

Moreover, the degree SSE students obtain is not just about Economics, but also Business. And that’s where it gets even more relevant. As stated before, the modules provided will be useful both managers, analysts, specialists, consultants and the likes – it is no secret that data analysis is becoming a cornerstone of all successful organizations.

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Horror Story

Oskars Aivars Simpsons Moore & Felicia Istrati

Once again, Tom Bagge was running late. He had forgotten that in the evening, when driving to SSER, traffic tended to be slower than a Lada full of elephants going uphill. While sitting in his blue Bentley he could actually feel himself aging. He would miss the grand opening of the Homecoming, attracting everyone’s attention and disapproval, again. Yet, as much as Tom would like to, fate can’t be cheated.

Entering the lobby, Tom grabbed a glass of champagne and tried to blend into the crowd unnoticed. However, this failed completely when he walked into a pillar, spilling his drink down the dress of an ex-course mate.

She gasped in agony, screaming:” This is a limited edition Dolce & Gabbana $10,000 dress and YOU RUINED IT!” and slapped him with a sound that echoed off the walls. After a brief moment of complete silence, the party resumed.

Rubbing his cheek, Tom retreated from the lobby to the leisure room. To wind down, he made himself a cup of coffee and watched the Y1’s playing beer pong against a few Y2’s. When the game ended, one of the top scorers - a lusty, voluptuous blondasked Tom if he would like to join her for a game. Her partner, who had been the one who drank the most, couldn’t focus on the ball anymore and kept staring at her 24

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chest. It looked like fortune had finally smiled on Tom: the evening might not be a disaster after all. Tom finished his coffee and joined Lenna at the table. Then Lenna reached up to her face and popped out her left eye, handing it to Tom. “You can start” she said.

Tom rolled the eye-ball around his palm. It looked like an eyeball, it even FELT like an eye-ball, at least, what an eye-ball should feel like. “I’m probably just hallucinating,” thought Tom, “must have been something in the coffee.” He tossed the ball in the air, caught it and sunk the first shot perfectly, “It feels good to be back in the game. Let’s show them how it’s done!”

The Y1’s did not see it coming: a shot here, a shot there and they were already ahead by two cups. In a flash the game was over, Lenna and Tom – the victors. As Y1’s hadn’t yet learned to accept failure, they offered to play for the best of three, which the winners kindly accepted. By the end of it they had their own celebration move, where Tom jumps onto Lenna’s back (since she was surprisingly strong) and they run around the table, while Lenna shouts “You’re the King of the jungle, monkey boy!”

Things were fantastic. He was feeling the beer nicely and so was Lenna. It seemed like they really had a good connection, like sseriga-public-on-a-holi-

day good. When Lenna suggested they go somewhere a bit quieter, Tom’s heart skipped a beat, it was love at first pong.

Tom and Lenna are in each other’s arms, standing at the edge of the balcony, their figures bathed in pale moonlight. Below them, down in the courtyard, people are laughing and dancing, spirits are high, it’s a magical night - their night. The lovers’ eyes lock, their faces slowly move towards each other, Tom reaches for the silky gleaming ripples of her hair, their lips are on the verge of attachment and then… her hair gently slides off her head. Tom pulls away in shock, unsure if this is another hallucination. “What does this mean, Lenna?” he asks. Lenna turns away, tears streaming down her cheeks. She replies in a deeper, manlier voice: “I thought you understood, I thought you saw me for who I am, I thought that maybe you were different! But just like everyone else, you thought I was a lusty, voluptuous blond!!”

Tom, not knowing whether he was dreaming, decided to find out for himself. He tried to wave his hand through Lenna, but his arm ended up colliding with her shoulder. Lenna wobbled precariously and, letting out a wail of anguish, fell off the balcony.

After peering over the railing, Tom started to realise what he had just done. He quickly

Amanda Daudaraviciute turned around and started running down the fire escape, three steps at a time and accelerating.

Approaching the ground floor, he could barely keep upright from the sheer inertia of his speed. As we all know, life at SSE is hard, but at that moment, Tom’s life was even harder; he lost his footing, tumbled down the last flight of stairs and flew into the door, leaving his mark on RGSL, which is nice, since he didn’t succeed at doing so at SSE.

Tom regained consciousness. Above him he could already hear shouting and rushing feet. Failure was not an option.

He struggled to the door handle and, using the last dredges of his strength, pushed through, out into the freezing night. Now, how to get to his car? Oh, it seems like it’s just across the street. “That’s weird,” Tom thought. He remembered having to walk from his car.” Oh, well. Tom stood up and his muscles screamed, yet he had to keep going. He limped to his car, opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat. Funny, he thought he had locked the car. Oh well. It’s still there, isn’t it?

He reached down to press the ignition button, but nothing happened. He tried again. Silence.

Then he heard a voice from behind his ear: “Well, there we are, Mr T.Bagge. We do not accept late submissions. And by the way, nice Bentley.” ***

Tom woke up with a start.

“How long have I been asleep?

Where am I? What year is it?” Still feeling a bit drowsy, he gradually became aware of his surroundings. Then realisation dawned.

Instantly, he checked his watch and glanced at his empty exam paper. He felt a jolt of panic.

Slowly lifting his head, he noticed that Morten was standing right in front of him, holding a piece of chalk on his thumb with his forefinger curled behind it…

“Oh, F—” Bullseye. ●

REAL LIFE SSER HORROR STORIES “It is 12:02PM. You are walking out of your Financial Accounting exam, content. Until you realize you handed the draft papers and your actual answers are still in your hand.”

“You are in a deep, peaceful sleep. Perhaps dreaming of better days or Rated R things, drools included. You feel a punch in your arm and you open your eyes to reveal the great Soros Auditorium, everyone staring at you, lecturer included.”

“Edurio.”

“It is 1:14 AM and you are trying to ignore the strange noises as you are studying in 411. You are alone. Or at least you think so, until you realize it is one of the couples at it again. “ “It’s the International Finance exam. You’re on Question 2 but it is already 11:00AM.” “It’s coming to the end of Financial Economics and all your notes just got stolen.”

“The elevator stopped working and your seminar is on the 5th floor.”

“You are sitting an exam, nervous. You hear everyone asking for extra draft papers and flicking to the next questions but you’re still trying to figure out what the hell is the first question.”

“You want to go on an exchange semester. You have too many debts.”

“It is 9:00AM. You are set and ready to sit a DigiExam. Your laptop is on 13%. You realize you forgot your charger at home.”

“It is 8:45 AM, 15 minutes before the report deadline. You are speed-writing your Microeconomics report, hoping to make it in time. You realize that your clock has been stuck at this hour for the last day.”

“It is just another spring day. Your stomach has been growling for the last hour and you are on your way to buy something from Daily. But it’s not there. Almost like it never was.”

“You have asked your friend to sign the sign-up sheet for you, as you normally do, and went to sleep with a peace of mind. The next morning you wake up to the shattering news that people were called to the front to sign it individually.”

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University life

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Back in the Days

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They say that...

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…someone already broke one of the lobby heaters. …some Y2s can only concentrate on Kostja’s ill-fitting blazer during Econometrics lectures. …A.S. (Y1) has been to about 10% of the lectures since August… …the requirement for publishing exam grades was extended to 4 weeks this year for Y2 students …Belarusian girls give hot performances every evening in the dorms’ kitchen. …Blumental is a master shashlik’er …someone has been farting in the lobby pillows …there has been an outbreak of crabs withing the dorm swinger community …there is a secret sex dungeon in the rgsl side of the school …oleg has been doing some lines...recently to improve his study performance …kitchen 4 in dormitories is haunted! …Y1s have a super cute couple in the dorms. …Oskars D. ir straight g with some crazy math skills …once Chuch Norris challenge Nikoko to a poster duel...we haven’t heard of him since…

…Roberts has been drowning in some serious pussy since the purchase of that sweet ass BMW …Ludmila: 28639441- Thai Massages 25e (with happy ending extra 10e) …It is immoral to write “Waffles” in the menu, ask 3 euros for it and in the end put one sad little waffle on the plate …some Y1s look like cloned mutated versions of some Y2s …there is no way Y2s will survive this semester without shedding a few tears …Mu, by the looks of it, you might go bankrupt by the beginning of the next semester! #MerryChristmas …being Morten - is calling Y1 students toilet cleaners, and everyone is okay with that. …IE or “who voted tor Trump?” …Danielius K. is a nightmare of lecturers. …“Mu” is a complete disaster, they have to learn economics , high prices for poor students(( …Maksims Sics favourite word is “thingy”. …Oleg Y2 tapped Julia’s Y1 claret on the Boat Trip, because she said that Oleg’s hairstyle was ugly …During the boat trip Diana

K.(Y2) saved many people by providing food to them. Isn’t she an angel? …A lot of dirty dancing happened during the boat trip 2017 …Oskars D. is the star of the boat trip …They say that Gytis (Y2) had been talking to the wall during the boat trip 17 …Quite a few closets were opened during the Boat Trip this year …During the Boat Trip, a new drinking game was invented. However, be careful, kids - some say that this game can end not in a very pleasant way… …David (y1I guess..?), as a very professional doctor, can easily and quickly handle large amounts of spirit …Oskars-the-hawk managed to fly into the wrong house during the boat trip. Unfortunately, the strength of our bird was not perceived positively by the security and the mighty flyer had to spend the night in a cage :( …the absence of a driver’s licence doesn’t stop a BMW owner from providing “rides” for some Y1 girls… …Kriss (Y2) is not a jerk only when he is drunk or hungover. …Gytis (Y2) is the only one from the squad who can handle his liquor

…More than 20 couples were formed during the boat trip …While the rest of the family were having fun on the ship, Lasha and 35+ aged mother enjoyed themselves in her cabin …Mu is a total disaster !Failed open before deadline and failed to satisfy the needs of its customers/ students, to have fast affordable lunches!!Why prices are 2 times higher ?

…It seems like Genadij Y1 has not still decided what is better: Vodka or Hektors. …Vakhtang Y2 was such a great TA in ITC that almost all of his seminarsparticipants will meet at the Excel re-exam. …Mareks Y1 said that some Estonian girl was VERY CLOSE to him during the boat trip

…Many Y1’s can’t handle alcohol very well

…a group of 8 shirtless young men from Y1 were all pushing and squatting in one cabin

…Roksolana’s (year 1) eyebrows sometimes control her mind, and then she can’t live without saying something in the lecture

…sausages boiled in an eletric kettle is just the thing needed to start off the day after a hard night of playing the recorder

…Gerda (year 1) got lost on the ship and walked in circles for couple of hours

…Z. (Y2) draws hearts in his copybook at all K.B. lectures

…A steamy love triangle between D.B. (Y2), T.J. (Y1) and E.L. (Y1) set the cold October night on fire …Eduard (Y2) would rather choose caries over blend-amet …Eglītis is the spirit of the party#trueG …Arseniy Y1 and his BF Edward Y1 decided that the best way how to make friends with beautiful girls during the boat trip is to treat them with several liters of vodka. …Our Lonely Boy, Anton Tesliuk, is still in search of a perfect and the only one girl...poor Anton.

…Belarusian girls (Y1) are lost in their love intrigues …too many love triangles have been created in the last 2 weeks …Belarusians have very CLOSE connections between each other this year …Belarusian exchanges (maybe not Belarusian actually) are very hot …T.J(Y1) and D.B(Y2) have finally set themselves free …Tallink’s security was impressed by Oskars’ Y2 rugby skills …There was a guy who drunk half a litre of vodka in 2 minutes THE INSIDER • NOVEMBER

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