Meet the brain behind AND Global’s artificial intelligence systems

How did we do it?

AND Global team members get this question all the time. How did our microloan app LendMN manage to be so successful handing out instant loans with no collateral, no lengthy background check, and such low interest rates? It seemed like a recipe for disaster, but we pulled it off with aplomb. And it’s all thanks to the secret weapons in our arsenal: Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

LendMN does a quick check on a new customers’ social media and online presence, and then uses AI to rapidly analyze the probability of timely loan repayment based on a number of factors. The whole process takes but a few seconds and can be done on your smartphone, making microloan applications more convenient than ever.

But of course, behind every great app is an even greater dev team, and it is largely due to the direction of our Head of AI Otgonbayar Uuye that AND Global is so successful today. We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to one of Mongolia’s brightest minds in mathematics, the brain behind AND Global’s artificial intelligence:

Otgonbayar Uuye is a gifted Mongolian mathematician who has trained and performed research at the world’s top institutions. He did his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Tokyo, and earned a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University with research in Noncommutative Geometry and Noncommutative Algebraic Topology. He was also a researcher at the Centre for Symmetry and Deformation in Copenhagen, Denmark and the Mathematical Physics group of the Cardiff University in the UK. He has won several grants and awards in his field, including grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Uuye returned to his native Mongolia in 2014 to teach mathematics at the National University of Mongolia, and has been the Director of the Institute of Mathematics at NUM since 2016. He has a passion for helping his country’s talented students and scientists break out onto the global stage, and aims to set a good example for Mongolia’s youth.

Although Uuye does not use programming in his mathematics research, he has long been using programming languages and techniques for his mathematics teaching. Machine learning systems came to him quite naturally and he finds them fascinating. He came onboard to lead the AND Global AI team and started deep research into machine learning in 2015.

“I joined AND Global early on because I wanted to show Mongolian youth that mathematics can be useful outside the classroom and a degree in mathematics can be a versatile tool. And I believe we are succeeding because, since the appearance of AND Global, many local companies, big and small, have created data analysis and machine learning departments.”
— Otgonbayar Uuye, Head of AI at AND Global and Director of the Institute of Mathematics at the National University of Mongolia

Without Otgonbayar Uuye’s direction, AND Global may never have become the FinTech powerhouse it is today. Meaning our 75K+ monthly customers may never have been granted access to low interest microloans. We hope that this serves as a compelling example for younger generations of how important mathematics and science research is in our modern world: Through modern technology, we are enabling financial access to millions of unbanked and underbanked people, causing real change in people’s lives.

We have some exciting news coming up soon! Stay informed about developments with AND Global and LendMN by joining our Facebook and Twitter pages.