Yin (Jenny) Cheung
Senior Business Analyst, Provident Insurance Corporation Limited
Master of Computer and Information Sciences with Honours (First Class)
Studying at AUT is about much more than reading, assignments and exams, and getting good grades, says Yin (Jenny) Cheung who came to AUT as an international student from China to study a Master of Computer and Information Sciences.
“AUT offers students plenty of help in various disciplines. While I was studying at AUT, I received employability training, attended networking events and learned to understand the New Zealand labour market.
“AUT has a lot of workshops, seminars and resources to help new students get used to university life. You won’t be left unsure of what to do. AUT also encourages students to volunteer, which is a great way to be exposed to the world outside of the university. As an international student this really helped me get to know Auckland and New Zealand better.”
After completing her Master of Computer and Information Sciences in 2019, Jenny decided to stay in New Zealand and now enjoys working as a senior business analyst at Provident Insurance Corporation Limited.
“In this role I’m responsible for conducting analyses and investigations of business processes and requirements for our insurance system and data warehouse. This involves designing and conducting technical system testing, and presenting solutions and system designs.”
The right university environment
She was drawn to AUT’s Master of Computer and Information Sciences because she wanted to learn about the latest technologies, says Jenny who is from Longyan in China’s Fujian province.
“AUT’s computer sciences programmes offer many choices and cover various technologies. When I was exploring my study options, I approached the AUT Student Hub to help me find a suitable programme, and the staff were very nice, patient and helpful. They understood my situation and explained what courses were suitable, what applications and documents I had to submit and where I could obtain more information.”
She still has fond memories of her time at AUT.
“The AUT campus is equipped with good facilities, and while I was studying at AUT I made many friends from different parts of the world. I’m especially proud of achieving an A grade in the courses Artificial Intelligence and IT Strategies & Policies, and an A+ grade in the courses Data Warehousing & Big Data and Research Methods.
“While I was at AUT, I also completed the AUT Edge Award, received a dean’s award, was the events lead for the AUT STEM Women club and completed the Auckland Global Leader Experience; an opportunity I was nominated for by AUT.”
Feeling inspired
For her master’s degree research, Jenny conducted an investigation of infants’ learning, applying computational models to this important stage of human development.
“My research analysed and interpreted psychological evidence of occlusion to investigate how an object could be represented and learned to give rise to infants' responses to the immediate environment from a computational point of view.”
She was impressed by her thesis supervisor, Professor Albert Yeap from AUT’s School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences.
“Professor Albert Yeap completely erased my fears of coding. I still remember being in my bachelor’s degree and struggling with learning to code, but he used simple language to allow us to focus on thinking about algorithms. He inspired me to think from an abstraction level and enabled me to think critically, which is essential for my work as a business analyst now.”
