A nearly $18,000 grant from the Casualty Actuarial Society will support Middle Tennessee State University’s Lu Xiong in his research related to the actuarial and insurance industry.
Xiong and David Koegel, a New York-based senior actuary at a major consulting firm and co-principal investigator with the grant submission, received the $17,980 award earlier this year. The agreement allows up to five years, but “we expect to complete the work within two years,” Xiong said.
An associate professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Xiong is associate director of the MTSU Actuarial Science program — one of only 12 worldwide, recognized at the highest levels by both the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries.
This proposal was one of only nine awarded globally, highlighting the continued excellence of MTSU’s program in research, Xiong said. Casualty Actuarial Society Vice President Morgan Bugbee said that “these projects underscore the importance of actuarial science in our ever-changing world.”
Actuarial Science is a special discipline using mathematics, statistics and techniques from computer science and data science to measure the risks that especially apply to the insurance industry and financial investment.
MTSU’s program has another distinction: The Society of Actuaries named it a Center
of Actuarial Excellence — the only one in Tennessee.
“The grant supports my research on developing a secure data collaboration platform
for the actuarial and insurance industry,” Xiong said. “In the insurance field, companies often have valuable data that could improve risk prediction and pricing models, but privacy concerns and regulations make it difficult to share raw data.”
“Our project addresses this by creating a system that allows multiple organizations
to work together on building predictive models without exchanging their original
data,” he added. “Instead, each organization runs the analysis locally and securely
sends only processed results (model updates) to a central server, which combines
them into a more accurate overall model.”
Xiong said this approach uses advanced privacy-preserving technologies, including
federated learning and encryption methods, to ensure that sensitive information
never leaves its original location.
“The system will serve as a proof-of-concept for how secure, collaborative modeling
can improve accuracy while meeting strict privacy and compliance requirements in
actuarial science,” he continued.
Xiong said receiving this grant is “a significant recognition of our research strength
in the actuarial science program. It places MTSU alongside top global programs such
as the University of Waterloo, Michigan State University and University of
Liverpool.”
After being invited to submit a proposal, Xiong said the process “was competitive
and involved substantial effort. I spent much of the December (2024) and January
(2025) winter break drafting and revising the proposal, and the proposal was
selected for funding in March 2025.”
Xiong, who performs research in his office, said this marks the second time “our
program has received this prestigious award, and my first time leading it as
principal investigator. The project aligns closely with my research interest in
combining technology and AI (artificial intelligence) with actuarial applications, and
I plan to build on this work with further grants and student involvement.”
To recruit students into actuarial science, Xiong said he and his colleagues “actively
promote the program through math classes, the actuarial and risk management
clubs, guest speaker events and outreach to local high schools, including math
competitions. We also engage in international recruitment efforts in collaboration
with MTSU’s Office of International Affairs.”
Xiong said their “strong faculty,” including new member Sooie-Hoe Loke,
computational finance expert Abdul Khaliq, program director Vajira Manathunga
and close connections with employers, such as advisory board member Sydney
McIndoo, now teaching one of the courses, ensure students gain both academic and
valuable industry insight.
New Orleans presentation
Along with Loke, Xiong presented at the AMS 2025 Fall Southeastern Sectional
Meeting at Tulane University in New Orleans on Oct. 5. It was a special session on
“Actuarial Mathematics and Actuarial Education.”
Xiong’s topic was titled “Secure Actuarial Data Collaboration Engine using Federated
Learning, Zero Knowledge Proofs, and Encryption Techniques.”
Hundreds of math educators presented during that weekend at the large conference.
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