July 17, 2025

by Lauren Ferguson

A Ramapo College of New Jersey professor is inspiring graduate students 5,000 miles across the world to use highly technical data science on global economic issues.

Dr. Osei Twenboah, assistant professor of data science, supervised two master’s thesis projects through his collaboration with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), Ghana.

The Ghana-based institute is part of the AIMS Global Initiative which also has institutes in South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon, Rwanda and Tanzania, and was formed to provide outstanding education to Africa’s top talents.

“Its unique training program teaches analytical thinking and problem-solving skills, and exposes students to many applied fields which are of relevance to Africa’s development, such as finance, health, food production, climate change, natural resource management, technology and others,” according to AIMS Ghana.

Twenboah, who does research in areas such as stochastic analysis, modeling, artificial intelligence and financial mathematics, conceptualized two potential projects and submitted them to the institute. He was then matched with two graduate students interested in his projects.

He met with the students – Dickson Anokye and Sandtherland Class Katey – virtually over an eight-week period, bridging the gap between continents and advising them on the highly-technical projects.

Dr. Osei Twenboah is an assistant professor of data science at Ramapo.

“Dickson Anokye developed a robust hybrid framework combining Lévy-driven stochastic volatility models with deep learning (LSTM) for high-frequency financial crash prediction, a vital challenge in today’s volatile markets,” he explained.

“Sandtherland Class Katey expanded on this by comparing sequential vs. parallel LSTM integrations, revealing crucial trade-offs between computational cost and forecasting accuracy, especially in high-frequency settings,” he explained.

“Both students demonstrated an impressive blend of mathematical theory, algorithmic insight, and practical relevance, hallmarks of what we strive to cultivate in data science education globally. I’m incredibly proud to have contributed to their journey,” he said. “Their work is a testament to the transformative potential of international academic collaboration and the power of mathematical science to address real-world problems.”

Twenboah said Katey reached out to report that he earned an A+ on his thesis project. And even better, that he plans to apply to PhD programs. One of the PhD programs, at the University of Amsterdam, is for advancing machine learning methods for high-frequency financial time-series data, he said.

“Based on the work that we did, he is trying to extend it by enrolling in the PhD program, so it was very, very impactful,” he said.

Twenboah said the entire experience has been mutually-enriching.

“AIM students get access to global faculty perspectives, and through that, they benefit from high level applied research,” he said. “This kind of mentorship is not just academic. It tries to empower future researchers and build networks, and that extends Ramapo’s global reach.”

Twenboahs’ work is the latest example of how Ramapo faculty are actively making an impact beyond the college’s Mahwah campus, New Jersey, and even the United States.