MSc in Financial Engineering

Introduction
Financial engineering is a multidisciplinary field involving finance, engineering type problem solving skills, mathematical tools, programming skills and communications skills.  Financial engineering is a relatively young field that is growing by leaps and bounds each year. 

The aim of the Financial Engineering program at Reykjavik University is to produce high-calibre practitioners and researchers who will be able to apply engineering problem solving skills and quantitative methods with common sense so as to develop profitable new financial solutions that can potentially change the way consumers and corporations think about taking and managing financial market risks. As a part of the program the students have the option of acquiring hands-on experience working on practical problems in finance as part of the curriculum.

Program Structure
The MSc program in Financial Engineering is a full-time two year program divided into 4 semesters.

During the first three semesters all students take 9 core courses that include applied probability, statistics and data mining techniques, quantitative methods for investment decisions, stochastic processes, financial derivatives, optimization methods, risk management and a seminar series where actual problems are presented, analyzed and solved in collaboration with professionals. A normal workload during the first three semesters is three MSc level courses and either research work or an extra elective course for enhancing the understanding of the research topic. 

During the fourth semester, the students complete the research project and write a thesis.  Students are encouraged to take a semester abroad during the second year.

The Financial Engineering program at Reykjavik University was designed in close collaboration with the Sloan School of Management and the Operations Research Center at MIT.  Reykjavik University and MIT will continue to collaborate in research and teaching. 

Prerequisites

• Undergraduate degree in engineering, mathematics or physics
• Basic knowledge on stocks, fixed income instruments, and derivatives
• Able to program in Matlab, C++ or other programming languages
• Undergraduate courses on Calculus, Linear Algebra, Probability and Statistics

An otherwise promising student who does not satisfy the requirements above may be accepted to the program. In such a case the student is expected to fill the aforementioned requirements during the first year of study.

Further Information

Jóhanna Fríða Dalkvist, graduate administrator,  johannafd@ru.is

Hlynur Stefánsson, department head, hlynurst@ru.is