As the world increasingly relies on data analysis in numerous areas, the importance of financial data analytics also grows. To keep students up to date on this rapidly evolving industry, Penn State Great Valley recently redesigned and added a Financial Data Analytics (FDA) option to its Master of Finance program.
“With the recent exponential job growth in the field of big data, we are excited to offer the FDA option within the Master of Finance program,” said Patrick Qiang, associate professor of operations and management and professor-in-charge of the program. “With such an interdisciplinary curriculum, graduates will find tremendous opportunities in the job market. Potential career options include financial risk analyst, financial data analyst, and financial data engineer.”
Because of the rapid growth in data-focused positions, the FDA option was designed to appeal to a variety of industries, including finance professionals looking to expand their knowledge to the big data field, data scientists interested in working in finance-specific areas, and engineers who were trained in statistics and want to pivot to the finance realm.
The FDA option dives into big data and analytical problems in the finance world and culminates in a capstone course that immerses students in case analyses of real-world financial analytics problems.
“Financial analytics is especially critical to guide companies in making investment decisions and mitigating financial risks,” Qiang said. “The FDA option prepares students to learn important tools to analyze large amount of financial data to facilitate real-time decisions in fast-changing financial markets.”
Courses cover machine learning and data mining tools used in the financial industry, advanced financial data visualization techniques, and real-world applications and projects related to financial data analytics, like fraud detection in credit card companies, real-time credit evaluation, insurance companies’ pricing decisions for customers’ changing financial situations, and market sentiment analysis to help make investment decisions.
The FDA option will be available for Master of Finance students beginning in the spring 2021 semester. Interested individuals may attend a webinar or schedule a virtual meeting with a program manager to learn more.