Kent State Opens High-Tech Trading Exchange Laboratory
By Ronald Roach

KENT, Ohio

Last month, Kent State University opened a Financial Engineering Trading Floor designed to give business students hands-on experience in risk management and derivatives trading by replicating trading floor conditions.

The facility, housed within the university's College of Business Administration, has 25 Hewlett-Packard workstations with flat panel monitors, each with live exchange data feeds to the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, BrokerTec, the Singapore Exchange, Tokyo Grain Exchange and Eurex, an international exchange in Frankfurt, Germany.

"The creation of an on-campus Financial Engineering Trading Floor will further distinguish Kent State as a center of excellence in financial engineering and risk management," says Kent State president Dr. Carol A. Cartwright.

Financial engineers apply mathematical models to risk management problems in finance and are employed by the financial markets, investment banks, hedge funds, insurance companies, corporate treasuries and regulatory agencies.

"Because the financial engineering program places special emphasis on the application of financial engineering methods, a hands-on training facility is a key component of the program," says Dr. George E. Stevens, dean of the College of Business Administration and Graduate School of Management.

"Only a handful of colleges and universities have similar trading floor facilities. Kent State's is the only derivatives-oriented facility at an academic institution," Stevens adds.

Faculty from Kent State's finance, mathematics and economics departments have developed the curriculum for the master's of science in Financial Engineering program with input from industry professionals.

Professionals from Asia West Group, Bear Stearns, the Chicago Board of Trade, First Energy, Foley & Lardner, Goldman Sachs, Key Corp, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Prebon Yamane, the Singapore Exchange and Trading Technologies serve as members of an advisory board for the program.