The first edition of the mini-symposium on "Recent Trends in Quantitative Finance 2024" (RTQF 2024) is being organized at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore on February 13th 2024. The mini-symposium aims to bring together academicians, industry experts, and research scholars working on quantitative methods in finance. The talks by the experts touch upon the exciting developments in the field.
We thank the Kotak IISc AI-ML Centre for their support in organising this symposium.
Prof. Oosterlee https://www.uu.nl/staff/CWOosterlee has been working on computational problems in financial mathematics since 2000. He is the co-author of two textbooks ("Multigrid" 2001 and "Mathematical Modeling and Computation in Finance", 2019) and several scientific publications. Financial derivative pricing and risk management methods he co-developed include the COS method on Fourier cosine expansions, SWIFT (Shannon Wavelet Inverse Fourier Transform method), SGBM (Stochastic Grid Bundling Method, with Prof. Shashi Jain), SCMC (Stochastic Collocation Monte Carlo Method), and the Seven-League scheme (7L). Machine learning in Finance is another recent research interest in Oosterlee's group, where he works on optimal portfolio selection, time series and anomaly detection methods. Oosterlee has led two EU projects on risk management in finance and insurance, in collaboration with the industry, and he also worked on several Dutch national projects. He has been a guest lecturer at Oxford Uni, UK, Hitotsubashi Uni., Japan, Uni. A Coruna Spain, amongst others.
Sankarshan Basu is currently a Professor in the Finance and Accounting Area at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM Bangalore). He has been at IIM Bangalore since 2002. Between August 2022 and September 2023, he was also the Dean of Amrut Mody School of Management (AMSOM), Ahmedabad University, while on leave from IIM Bangalore. At IIM Bangalore, Sankarshan has been the Chairperson of the Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management (between April 2017 – March 2019), the Chairperson of Career Development Services (between April 2012 – March 2015) and Chairperson of Alumni Relations (between January 2007 – September 2011) at IIMB.
Sankarshan has a B.Sc. with honours in Statistics from Presidency College, Calcutta, an M.Sc. in Statistics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
His primary research and teaching interests are in financial markets and quantitative finance, particularly derivatives, fixed-income securities, and insurance and pension issues.
Prior to joining IIMB, Sankarshan also worked with ICICI Ltd. (now ICICI Bank Ltd.), as well as been a teaching faculty at London School of Economics and Political Science and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K. Sankarshan has also been a Visiting Professor at University of Twente, Netherlands, Gothenburg University, Sweden, ESCP, Paris, CFVG, Ho Chi Min City and Hanoi, Vietnam and Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok.
Sankarshan is active in teaching, consulting (both in India and outside India) and research. He has published several papers, book chapters, and two books. He is very well-travelled and has presented his works at a number of international conferences. He also serves on the boards of a couple of companies.
Sankarshan currently serves as an Independent Director on the board of Federal Bank Ltd., as an Independent External Person on the Risk Management Committee of India International Exchange (IFSC) Limited (India INX) and as an Independent External Person on the Risk Management Committee of India International Clearing Corporation (IFSC) Limited (India ICC). He has also served on the Risk Management Committee of NCCL as an external expert, on the Board and the Committee of Directors on Risk Management of The Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL) as an Independent Director, as a SEBI nominated Public Interest Director on the Governing board of the erstwhile Bangalore Stock Exchange Limited, on the Board of Bangalore Properties and Securities Limited as an independent director, as well as an independent director on the board of Bilcare Ltd.
Srikanth Iyer is currently the Associate Dean of the undergraduate Program (B.Tech) and Professor at the Department of Mathematics. He received his M.Sc. (5yr Integrated) degree in Statistics from IIT-Kanpur in 1990 and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1994. He had a year-and-a-half stint as a postdoc at the Technion and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He joined the faculty of IIT-Kanpur in 1996 and subsequently moved to IISc in 2004. His research interests include stochastic geometry, mathematical finance, and branching processes.
Arjun is currently India & Philippines Head of Stress Testing, Balance Sheet & Markets Model Validation, Corporate Model Risk, Wells Fargo. He obtained a PhD in Mathematics from University of Houston in 2010. He works on developing and validating models pertaining to Derivative Valuation, Credit Risk Analysis, Market Risk Analysis, Asset Liability Management and Stress Testing (Scenario Generation models as part of CCAR, ICAAP).
Anshul is Assistant Vice President at Active Quantitative Equities, StateStreet Global Advisors. His core competence lies in application of data science to discover alpha insights in active equity investing. He received an Integrated M.Tech degree in Mathematics & Computing from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in 2015.
Arjun is a seasoned Quantitative Researcher in the financial services industry with a breadth of experience in the areas of Risk Management, Strategy and Business Development. He is passionate about using Research methodologies & Analytics to solve a variety of business problems. His experience in operating in a variety of markets including US, APAC/EMEA, and India has nurtured exposure to a broad range of organizational cultures, regulatory regimes as well as a range of problem-solving methodologies based on the maturity of the financial services ecosystem. In his more than 9 years of immersive experience working with renowned Banking and Consulting firms such as JP Morgan, Citi Group, and EY, Arjun has incubated and scaled new capabilities in Quantitative Research and Analytics areas, managed profitability in highly competitive and challenging environments, and helped develop deep capabilities globally.
Arjun holds a Master's degree from the Department of Management Studies (DOMS), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Additionally, he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cochin University Main Campus.
Sobin Joseph completed his postgraduate studies in Industrial Engineering in the year 2015. Presently, he is a doctoral candidate specializing in Computational Finance. His research focuses on the "Hawkes Process: estimation and its application," where he explores modeling the intricate dynamics of temporal events through the integration of Hawkes processes and artificial neural networks (ANN). The practical implications of his work extend to modeling the market microstructure of cryptocurrency trades.
Sumanjay Dutta is a Phd candidate at the Department of Management Studies, IISc. He completed his Masters in Financial Economics from Madras School of Economics (MSE). His research interests include Asset Pricing, Portfolio Theory, etc.
Aditya Nittoor is an industry professional in high-frequency trading for the last decade, and PhD scholar under Professor Shashi Jain for the last five years.