Don’t forget the CCEI Pitch Competition is being held tonight at 6pm (instead of 7 as originally planned) in ITE C-80 so that we can make sure everyone is able to watch the Huskies WIN tonight! How awesome would it be to watch that win with a giant check in your hands …. hope to see you tonight, and can’t wait to hear your ideas!
News
All School of Business pressroom news
MSFRM Students Take 3rd Place in Prestigious Rotman Trading Competition
Marking its first time participating in the Rotman International Trading Competition (RITC)–a very prominent, well-established global competition–the UConn team captured third place in the Quantitative Outcry Case.
Making up UConn’s team were MSFRM students Brian Asselin, Chad Belanger, Matt Dyer, and Tejas Patel. Continue Reading
Innovation Quest Competition Accepting Applications Until 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, April 1
Idea to Prototype to Company: all University of Connecticut students who have an innovative business or product idea are eligible to enter the third annual UConn Innovation Quest (iQ) competition, which will be accepting applications until 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, April 1.
The First Place grand prize is $15,000, with second place at $10,000, and third place at $5,000 to put towards the start of a business. Winners of the competition and selected finalists will be invited to participate in the iQ’s summer inQbator program, dudring which they will have the guidance of mentors and the opportunity to start their business.
The iQ competition was brought to UConn at the encouragement of Keith R. Fox ’80, a longtime entrepreneur, executive and philanthropist who offered to sponsor the contest after seeing its success at Cal Poly. “Innovation Quest is about fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in our students with a mission of helping them to create companies and ultimately jobs here in the United states,” explains Fox.
Applications for this year’s Innovation Quest competition will be accepted until Tuesday, April 1st at 11:59 p.m.
» Innovation Quest Website
» Competition Application
FRM Introduces New 5th Semester Option
We are excited to offer a new full semester of three 3-credit courses for the incoming and current cohort. This semester will include two courses on advanced and quantitative applications in Financial Modelling and Financial Engineering and a comprehensive course on Enterprise Risk management (ERM). This change will extend our 15 month program to 19 months. The students choosing this option will graduate in May rather than in December.
Additional 5th Semester
Spring (2)
- Programming and Modelling for Financial Analysis: This course focuses on the use of VBA in EXCEL, MATLAB, and SAS for financial modeling. With VBA, tudents will learn advanced materials such as Excel object programming, Database operations, file operations, graphical user interface design, bject-oriented programming, add-in, reports, and automation as well. Students will learn modeling techniques such as regression analysis, Monte-Carlo simulation, binomial trees, optimization, linear and non-linear programming, and data envelopment analysis and apply these in financial contexts such as portfolio optimization, credit risk, option pricing, capital budgeting, etc.
- Advanced Analytical Applications in Risk Management: This course will use datasets and software including Bloomberg, Matlab, EViews, Risk Metrics and others to train students in advanced applications of Risk Management models.
- Seminar on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM): This seminar course will introduce students to the current status of ERM. Various risks faced by multinationals including Operational Risk, Geopolitical Risk, Supply Chain Risk, Cyber Risk. The course will include the role of communication and ethical considerations in RM.
MSFRM Receives STEM Designation
The State of Connecticut’s Office of Higher Education recently granted STEM designation for UConn’s MS degree in Financial Risk Management (MSFRM). Under the new STEM classification, MSFRM international students can now qualify for a 17-month OPT (Optional Practical Training) Extension making it a full 29 months of OPT.
MSFRM joins MS in Business Analytics & Project Management as the only two programs in the School of Business to receive STEM designation.
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields are essential to U.S. economic competitiveness and growth. Over the last several decades the country has experienced a significant shortage of qualified workers for employment in STEM fields. Increasingly, businesses have to hire international workers to meet their needs. Therefore, STEM designated educational programs make it possible for international graduates to remain stateside longer to not only establish their careers but also to help meet the demand for STEM-educated professionals.
UConn’s STEM designated programs, and their related initiatives, also play an important role in Next Generation CT, state legislation passed into law and signed by the governor, that will invest over $1.5 billion dollars in UConn over the next 10 years.
“Recruiting the best and brightest international students to our program and then enabling them to successfully begin their professional careers is an important part of our educational mission,” said Professor Chinmoy Ghosh, head of the Finance Department and director of the MSFRM program. “Furthermore, providing a sufficient and qualified pipeline of talent for the nation’s economy is core to our service mission as a public institution.”
Under the traditional OPT program, international students who graduate from colleges and universities in the U.S. are able to remain in the country and receive training through work experience for up to 12 months. Students who graduate from a designated STEM degree program can remain for an additional 17 months on an OPT STEM Extension.
“Undeniably, international students bring valuable contributions to our programs and classrooms,” adds Jud Saviskas, executive director of the School of Business in Stamford. “STEM designation now allows these highly skilled foreign graduates to extend their post-graduate training, establish their careers, and enhance the U.S. economy.”
1st Annual Risk Management Academic Conference
The Master of Science in Financial Risk Management (MSFRM) Program at the University of Connecticut will host the First Annual Academic Conference on Risk Management at Storrs, Connecticut on May 30, 2014.
Date & Time
- May 30, 2014 (Friday)
- 9am-5pm
Program Committee
- Chinmoy Ghosh
- Chanatip Kitwiwattanachai
- Efdal Misirli
Purpose
The purpose of this conference is to bring together academic researchers at the frontier of risk management and investments. This year’s conference program includes empirical perspectives on credit contagion, hedge fund investment, fire sales, market efficiency, mutual fund investment and media visibility in financial markets, central bank borrowing and risk shifting by banks in Europe.
Invitation
The Finance Department at the UCONN School of Business organizes this conference for the first time this year, and we would like to make it an annual event where prominent scholars and active young researchers present their work and receive valuable feedback. We will be happy if you can join our conference in its inaugural run.
Presenters
1. Jean Helwege, J. Henry Fellers Professor of Business Administration at the University of South Carolina, “Do Hedge Fund Fire Sales Disrupt the Stock Market?” (9:00 – 9:50 am)
Discussant: Namho Kang (University of Connecticut) (9:50 – 10:05 am)
Audience Q&A. (10:05 – 10:15 am)
2. Jennie Bai, Assistant Professor of Finance at Georgetown University, “Non-committable Channel for Credit Contagion”. (10:15 – 11:05 am)
Discussant: Chanatip Kitwiwattanachai (University of Connecticut). (11:05 – 11:20 am)
Audience Q&A. (11:20 – 11:30 am)
Lunch & Remarks from Dean John Elliot (11:30 am – 1:00 pm)
3. Ron Kaniel, Professor of Finance, University of Rochester, “Making the list – the impact of WSJ fund rankings on consumer investment decisions”, (1:00 – 1:50 pm)
Discussant: Jonathan Reuter (Boston College, NBER). (1:50 – 2:05 pm)
Audience Q&A. (2:05 – 2:15 pm)
4. Bing Liang, Professor of Finance, University of Massachusetts Amherst, “Hedge Fund Ownership and Stock Market Efficiency” (2:15 – 3:05 pm)
Discussant: Jean Helwege (University of South Carolina). (3:05 – 3:20 pm)
Audience Q&A. (3:20 – 3:30 pm)
Coffee Break (3:30 – 3:45 pm)
5. Phillip Schnabl, Assistant Professor of Finance, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Kaufman Management Center, NYU “Who Borrows from the Lender of Last Resort?”. (3:45 – 4:35 pm)
Discussant: Jennie Bai (Georgetown University) (4:35 – 4:50 pm)
Audience Q&A. (4:50 – 5:00 pm)
2014 Ph.D. Awards
2014 School of Business Hall of Fame Award
- Management – Lauren D’Innocenzo
2014 Ph.D. Program-wide Outstanding Student Scholar Award
- Management – Margaret Luciano, winning 2nd consecutive year
2014 Departmental Outstanding Ph.D. Student Scholar Awards (*Nominated for Program-wide Outstanding Scholar Award)
- Accounting – Biyu Wu*, Andrew Duxbury, Valerie Tellez
- Finance – Yihong Xiao*, Charles Clarke, Steven Kozlowski, Xiangkun Yao
- Management – Margaret Luciano*, Brian Fox, Rebecca Ranucci
- Marketing – Anna Vredeveld*, Nian Wang, Selcan Kara, Bin Li, Zahra Tohidinia
- Operations & Information Management – Yuan Jin*, Yucheng Chen
Departmental Ph.D. Student Teaching Awards
- Accounting – Biyu Wu
- Finance – Yihong Xiao
- Management – Wonseok Choi
- Marketing – Selcan Kara
- Operations & Information Management – Gang Wang (Winner of the Ph.D. Program-wide Teaching Award)
The CCEI Startup Challenge is back …. and we want YOU!!!
The snow is finally melting and temperatures are slowly rising, which means we are finally entering collegiate competition season, including our annual CCEI Startup Challenge.
The CCEI Startup Challenge is a two-pronged initiative that includes a Pitch Competition (April 7th), where ten $1000 prizes are given out for different categories of elevator pitches. Then, the second element is a written Strategy Competition, where participants submit a written application containing specific elements found in a business plan (submission is max 5 pages in length), all submissions are reviewed, and the finalists are invited to do a full length presentation for a panel of judges from the University and from the Connecticut entrepreneurial community. The details of these events can be found by vising our “Business Plan Competition” page.
So, although this is a two part initiative, participants can do either/or, or both events. However, we strongly encourage people to take the ideas that they pitch at the Pitch Competition, and flesh them out and submit written Strategy Competition entries for these same ideas. The Strategy Competition also provides winners with larger monetary prizes, details found on the Business Plan Competition page.
In past years, we have had significant overlap with other competition participants, such as Innovation Quest (iQ), the Engineering Senior Design Project (ESDP), Startup Weekend Storrs, and the State Collegiate BizPlan Competition. The Pitch Competition is an event that we designed to be “for students by students”, and this years’ judges include winners from the 2013 CCEI Startup Challenge. It is fun and interactive, and last year there were over 60 ideas presented to a packed room of over 100 attendees.
Any UConn student is eligible to participate – each person (or team) has 90 seconds to present an elevator pitch for an idea of any type (app, manufactured product, service, etc.), real or hypothetical, and we present ten participants with $1000 each for 10 different prize categories, which include things like “best green idea”, “best college-focused idea”, “best overall pitch”, etc (listed on Business Plan Competition page). If you already are working on an idea, or if you are someone who wants to become involved in entrepreneurship at UConn, please come join us for the Pitch Competition! Any type of idea pitch will be heard – be as creative and innovative as you want to be. Do you have an idea? Pitch it!!!!
Kathryn Huntington
khuntington@business.uconn.edu
Over 100 Participate in Business Career Center “Biz-Nite” Event
Storrs, Conn.– On the evening of February 19, more than 100 School of Business students participated in “Biz-Nite,” the Business Career Center’s spring career event. The program included 35 corporate professionals from 16 companies who engaged students in presentations about the job market as well as full-time and internship positions.
The presentations were held at the School of Business in Storrs, Connecticut where there was a palpable energy as employers’ marketing banners lined the hallways. Steve Wolfberg ’81 (CLAS), principal and chief creative officer at Cronin and Company Marketing Communications, had this to say about the event:
“Biz-Nite was a great experience. UConn School of Business students are smart, prepared and curious. Hopefully they learned as much from me as I did from them.”
In addition to top key corporate partners, the evening also welcomed new presenters from the Boston Celtics, CareCentrix, Bouvier Insurance, and Cronin and Company. “Biz-Nite had a variety of employers, and as a student, I was able to hear about companies and the opportunities at them as well as talk with recruiters and have an informal interview,” said Nicole Nonnenmacher ’16.
Before, during and after the information sessions, students were able to network with business professionals and to deepen relationships developed at the Fall Career Expo.
At the end of the evening all students who had attended two or more sessions were entered into a drawing for two tickets to a Celtics basketball game at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. A junior MIS student was the lucky winner of the tickets, which were generously donated by Jillian Paine, inside sales manager of the Boston Celtics.
Pictured: Steve Wolfberg and Lindsey Wolejko, Cronin & Company, with School of Business students.
CFA Institute Helps UConn Business Students Practice Ethical Decision Making
Stamford, Conn. – On March 4, 2014, the Stamford CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Society hosted an Ethical Decision Making course for UConn business students on the Stamford campus. Michael Dineen, CFA and professor of finance, coordinated the event which was designed to provide participants with the framework to analyze situations from an ethics perspective.
Bob Dannhauser, head of global capital markets policy at the CFA Institute, led the presentation and discussion, presenting the CFA Institute’s Ethical Decision Making course in a case-based format. After the presentation, cases were given to all students, who were challenged with the task of choosing the ethical decision to make. This personal interaction and dialogue was an important component for the students: the discussion that ensued generated many considerations for real life situations that students may face in their financial careers.
The course attracted both graduate students in the MS in Financial Risk Management program and undergraduates studying Financial Management.