The University of Washington, Department of Applied Mathematics, Computational Finance and Risk Management (CFRM) program continues to cultivate and strengthen relationships across the financial and investment sectors through participation in industry events and by providing opportunities for students to network and learn from established professionals.
Twenty-one CFRM students and faculty joined a few hundred finance professionals at the 6th Annual SAIA Alternative Investment Summit on November 15, 2017 at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle. CFRM is the academic sponsor of the SAIA Alternative Investment Summit.
The topic of this year’s moderated panel was “Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology.” An animated discussion addressed the opportunities, trends and challenges surrounding the decentralized technology, “blockchain,” and the explosive growth in digital currency.
“We are all witnessing how technology is rapidly transforming finance; from banking and payments to trading and wealth management,” noted Professor Tim Leung, Director of the CFRM program. “Our students need to learn about financial innovations, such as robo-advising and cryptocurrency, as well as acquire the technical knowledge and financial intuition necessary for the modern finance industry.”
The next evening, on Thursday, November 16, 2017, Professor Tim Leung was an invited panelist at the CFA Society Seattle, Young Professionals Network (YPN) and Women’s Network Event, examining the factors that are changing the investment management industry. The implementation of technology is changing both private wealth and institutional investing methodologies. Panelists included representation from academic research and investment management professionals.
Simultaneously, Karen Beaudry, CFRM Career Services Manager attended the NABE Tech Economics Conference, TEC2017 – Economics in the Age of Algorithms, Experiments and A.I. Leading thinkers in data science and economics provided insight on the future data science needs in economic research and practice. A career fair, exhibition hall and poster presentations provided added-value and networking opportunities.
The CFRM program is committed to providing students with valuable networking and educational opportunities through participation and emphasis on industry collaboration.