Financial Engineering News Salutes Polytechnic University

Polytechnic's Financial Engineering program is highlighted in the March/April edition of FE News, an industry publication, in their annual "Report on Worldwide Graduate Education Programs in Financial Engineering."

    Perhaps no program in our survey has more currently happening in terms of change and innovation than Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, New York. Fred Novomestky, program director for the Polytechnic Master of Science in Financial Engineering program, and Charles Tapiero, recently appointed to be the distinguished Topfer Chair Professor of Management and Financial Engineering, are aggressively moving forward on several novel initiatives. “At Polytechnic, we understand that the financial engineering discipline has expanded into many fields and many professions. And we are adopting our curriculum in response and anticipation of this trend,” states Novomestky. “We're in the process of establishing a state-of-the-art computational finance laboratory with a broad range of software tools and databases for our students to use in everything from structured product valuation to risk management. The goal is to create, compile and share — as open source tools — software, data and analytical tools that are web-enabled and part of our students' learning experience at Polytechnic.” Tapiero adds, “We've also begun planning the first Ph.D. program in financial engineering which will include both full- and part-time options. There is significant interest among working financial engineers and risk managers, many in their late 20s or early 30s, who hold a master's degree in finance or even financial engineering to build on their real-world experience and earn a Ph.D. in this field. We're evaluating this need in terms of a full-time, part-time and even executive education learning format.

   The current Polytechnic program offers several options for students. There is the Master of Science in Financial Engineering program and three Advanced Certificates Programs covering financial engineering, risk management and financial technology management. More than 300 students are currently enrolled in these programs — all on a part-time basis. But beginning in the fall of 2006, Polytechnic will begin offering an accelerated Master of Science in Financial Engineering option with afternoon and evening courses requiring only one year to graduate.