Young Zhan Heng

3rd Year Data Science and Economics Undergraduate

Who am I?

Hi! My name is Zhan Heng, and I am a year 3 student pursuing Data Science and Economics in the National University of Singapore (NUS). I am part of the first cohort of NUS DSE-XDP students.

I am a current varsity athlete, and was the table tennis team's vice-captain. I was a national youth athlete.

I've also appeared for a promotional video, representing my course in a Channel NewsAsia documentary!

What can I offer?

With experience in both print and data journalism, I strive to make a direct impact on the lives around me through my work. In this data-driven world, I believe that we need to rely on data to make rational decisions, and this will be translated through my news articles.

I have strong competency in Python and R. I am proficient in SQL, Excel, Dashboarding, and Git.

I am currently a Data Analyst Intern at LightBlue Environmental Consulting in Bangkok, as part of the NUS Global Internship Programme

I am also a SPH Midterm Journalism Scholarship recipient.

DATA ANALYST INTERN

LIGHTBLUE ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING

I am currently doing my internship stint at LightBlue Environmental Consulting.

We use Python's Flask framework to create a dashboard for our internal consultants usage.

DATA VISUALISATION JOURNALIST INTERN

THE STRAITS TIMES

Husband and Wives Income

Worked with a team of data visualisation developers and illustrators to produce my piece on more wives outearning their husbands.

My team and I analysed 3 sets of data comparing husband and wives' income. Following which, we conceptualised creative visualisation ideas, such as allowing readers to guess the spouse's income.

I am proud to share that this piece was one of the most read interactive news pieces in ST for 2023!

Analysing National Sprinter Shanti Pereira

I've also dabbled with sports analytics, and analysed data provided by the coaching team of Singapore national sprinter Shanti Pereira.

Working with a team of developers and designers, we created a groundbreaking piece analysing her technique using technical analysis.

The article was awarded The Straits Times cross media award of the quarter!

On top of that, our piece was awarded 3 Bronze prizes and 2 Award of Excellence in the Society of News and Design awards 2024, outdoing other sports pieces from NYT, Washington Post, and SCMP. Only the top 5% of all entries will be awarded Bronze medals and above.

JOURNALIST INTERN

THE STRAITS TIMES

On top of data analysis and digital journalism, I have also exhibited competency in writing and producing my own news articles. During my time at the Singapore newsdesk, I covered a wide range of social affairs in Singapore, including passport collection, the chicken shortage, and multiple fire incidents.

My self-pitch, data-centric piece about the increasing maximum temperature in Singapore was chosen to be The Big Story on ST. It was chosen to be on page A3 and was selected as the editor's pick that day.

Projects

HDB Machine Learning

Using decision trees and linear regression techniques, I was able to determine the key factors that lead to heightened public housing pricing in Singapore.

This project was done under the guidance of my professors and was done using R.

Project repository can be found here.

Econometrics Financial Modelling

Collaborated with a team of four and applied financial engineering techniques such as autoregression, autoregressive distribution lag, and regression forest to FED data to make a 4-step ahead prediction for GDP.

Took the team lead for frontend web development using Python Dash framework.

Project website can be found here and the repository can be found here.

Optimised Profits Of Firm Using Simulation

Implemented simulation theory to raw data and identified the most suitable car model for a large-scale car rental company, coupled with a detailed five-page findings and methodology report.

Although the results of the project were not released, I was awarded an A for the module, most likely because of the project.