Top-left: Ms. Yvonne Khamala, actuarial science student who won the research category in PDC; Top-right: John Mathu and Erick Kibiru's product won position 3; Bottom-left: Edgar Were receives award for Daystar University for entering the most presentations; Bottom-right: Susan Wamai's product won position 2

On Friday 10th March 2023, three members of Daystar University Actuarial Students Association (DUASA) participated in the Nairobi Region 2023 Product Design Competition (PDC) held at Mt. Kenya University (MKU).  

Five Daystar students presented one research paper and four products, with three emerging winners. 

Under research, Ms. Yvonne Khamala presented a paper on Modelling National Inflation and GDP, emerging winner in that category, with Ms. Susan Wamai taking position for her paper on Automation of Financials in IFRS 17. 

Under the products category, John Mathu and Eric Kibiru  co-presented Minimization of DAS in Pensions, taking position three in this category.   

Other entries by DUASA students included Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in reducing Insurance Fraud (Barret Odhiambo and Daniel Amudavi), and Reputational Crisis Insurance for social media influencers (Valerie Kiprop, Emmanuel Maiyo & Deborah Cherotich). 

Daystar carried the day with three wins, and will be proceeding to the national PDC.

The Product Design Competition began on 8th March in the Department of Science with nine students presenting projects.  The Judges, Dr. Jane Kimathi and Mr. Samuel Kiranga identified five products for progression to the regional level. 

The Product Design Competition is an event of Actuarial Science Students of Kenya (ASSK), a subsidiary of the professional actuarial body, The Actuary Society of Kenya (TASK).  ASSK comprises of all universities that offer Actuarial Science in Kenya. 

Nationally, ASSK has three administrative regions, with the Nairobi region having 12 chapters (Universities). 

ASSK holds a number of activities including and not limited to: 

• ASSK dinner that was held on 17^th February 2023 at Swiss Lenana Mount Hotel. Twenty-two Daystar University students attended this event, and the University was recognized for having the most active Actuarial Club. 
• Product Development Competition. This is an annual event in which students come up with actuarial products and projects aimed at addressing emerging market issues. It is first held at the regional level and the top three products in the two categories advance to the national level.  

We congratulate DUASA and the Department of Science for giving Daystar University’s Actuarial Science programme a competitive edge in the marketplace.