FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Finance Industry to Explore Risks and Rewards of Big Data
NEW YORK, April 23, 2013 – At what may well be the first conference of its kind,
Commissioner Scott D. O’Malia of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission will join
thought leaders from throughout the financial industry to grapple with issues arising from
massive amounts of digital financial data. The Department of Risk and Finance Engineering at
the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) will host Big Data Finance on
Friday, May 3, 2013, on its downtown Brooklyn Campus.
While the emerging field of Big Data – which tries to make sense and use of the vast quantities
of digital information that technology has wrought – is a hot topic, few fields generate as many
data points as the financial industry, with each bid and stock trade, millions of times each
minute. Big Data may one day predict stock pricing. But if only big institutions have the
computing firepower of Big Data, they will widen their advantage over small traders, said
Charles Tapiero, the NYU-Poly Topfer Distinguished Professor of Financial Engineering and
Technology Management and department chair.
“It is vital that we address the issues of Big Data now, as the technology explodes with
possibilities, so that we can properly shape regulation and address moral issues such as privacy,”
Tapiero said. “Big Data Finance will offer new information, targeting the precise needs of the
financial community.”
In his keynote address, Morgan Stanley Managing Director Kevin Atteson will outline how his
institution deals with data sets on loans, housing transactions, consumer credit and more.
The eye-opening conference will also address such topics as data analytics versus financial
econometrics, behavioral data finance, data security and legal protection and credit risk.
Speakers and panelists will include Irene Aldridge, Philip Maymin and Carmen Wong Ulrich of
NYU-Poly; Robert Almgren, co-founder of Quantitative Brokers and fellow in the NYU
Mathematics in Finance Program; Marcos Lopez de Prada, the head of quantitative trading and
research at Hess Energy Trading Company; Sasha Stoikov, Financial Engineering, Cornell
University; Peter Kolm, Dennis Shasha and Eric Vanden-Eijnden of the NYU Courant Institute
of Mathematical Sciences; and Johan Walden of the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas
School of Business.
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The event is sponsored by SemLab and Institutional Investor Journals. Visit
http://bigdatafinanceconference.com/bigdata/ or contact Irene Aldridge at (718) 260-3869 or
ialdridge@bigdatafinanceconference.com for more information and to register.
NYU-Poly’s financial engineering degree was the second program of its kind, and the first
curriculum certified by the International Association of Financial Engineers. It is among the
largest programs of its kind in the world, educating nearly 250 graduate students from across the
globe.
About Polytechnic Institute of New York University
The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute
and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of
New York University, soon to be its School of Engineering. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the
nation’s second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of
education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of
invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology,
innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to
critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health
and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main
campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs
around the globe remotely through NYUe-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering
in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress
(CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and
Brooklyn. For more information, visit www.poly.edu.
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Contact:
Kathleen Hamilton
718-260-3792 office
347-843-9782 mobile
hamilton@poly.edu