School celebrates its new BSc Financial Mathematics
3 October 2016
A fresh intake of students wasn’t the only cause for celebration at the School of Mathematics last month. The School was also celebrating the launch of its new undergraduate degree, BSc Financial Mathematics, with a two-day event.
The event gathered students, colleagues, guests and friends to celebrate the new course, which has been created to meet demand from the financial industry for mathematics graduates with practical skills in statistics, risk and computing. The program began recruiting earlier this year and this month sees the first group of BSc Financial Mathematics students step foot inside the School.
To inspire financial mathematicians new and old, the School enlisted collaborators from the industrial and academic worlds to speak. Among those to congratulate the School on its new program were Matthew Jones from Nationwide, Professor Enrico Scalas from the University of Sussex, and Professor Valérie Chavez from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Dr Khaldoun Khashanah, Director of Financial Engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology in the University of Delaware, United States, used his keynote speech to give hope to students on the new BSc Financial Mathematics course about potential future careers following graduation. The Stevens Institute, whose Financial Engineering Master’s and PhD programs are similar to Cardiff’s new course, sends more than half of their postgraduates to Wall Street.
Later on, Jeff Rodgers from Admiral, the youngest FTSE 100 Company, continued to excite new students by providing a glimpse of what being a data scientist involves, while talking about the exciting emergence of data science.
In the evening, guests were treated to a research workshop with a keynote speech from Alan Hawkes, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Swansea University.
Day two of the event included a series of talks on industry and research.
Peter Fullerton and Louisa Nolan from the Office for National Statistics talked about the Office’s ambitious plans to improve the UK’s financial statistics following the last financial crisis.
Dr Matthias Kirchner, a mathematics researcher at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland, presented a research talk.
Guests were full of praise for the event. Professor Enrico Scalas, who heads the Department of Mathematics at the University of Sussex, said the workshop gave him “several ideas for future collaborative research projects.”
Professor Alan Hawkes described the event as “a splendid opportunity to meet up with current research collaborators and old friends, and to make new ones.”
The BSc Financial Mathematics scheme benefits from the support and collaboration of local and city investment and trading firms. It is hoped these partnerships will encourage opportunities for course graduates in the future.
Hannah Church from OSTC Ltd, a collaborator with the course, said: “The launch event was a good opportunity to meet with academics and engage with new undergrad students. It helped us to establish what we hope to be a long-term commitment with the staff and students at the School. This program delivers a direct link between industry and academics, which as an employer we hope will lead to direct career opportunities for Cardiff Mathematics students.”
The BSc Financial Mathematics is designed to prepare students with the mathematical and financial skills to work in today’s finance and investment sectors. This year’s new students will have the opportunity to put theory into practice inside the School’s new simulated trading room.
For more information about the course please visit: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/course/financial-mathematics-bsc