The mission of the Center for Computational Finance is to

• improve the interaction between academic researchers and the finance industry
• enhance the environment for graduate education and research in Computational Finance at Carnegie Mellon University

Planned Center activities include:

• Sponsorship of meetings. The Center sponsored a highly successful week-long meeting in the summer of 2000, drawing invited speakers and participants from around the world. The first day was devoted to a tutorial to introduce newcomers (many of whom were graduate students from other universities, partially supported by the Center) to the field. We plan to hold such meetings every three or four years. We will also support smaller, more frequent "cutting edge" working conferences. These conferences will be organized by interested Center faculty and financially supported by the Center. Attendance will be by invitation only. The organizer will select active researchers to participate in the conference. Each affiliate will be invited to send one participant, and Center faculty are always invited.
• Nash Lecture Series. Each year Center faculty will invite one distinguished speaker to spend several days at Carnegie Mellon University, and to give three talks: one aimed at general audiences, one for specialists in the field, and one on any topic of the speaker's choosing. The series is named after John F. Nash, Jr. who was a former Carnegie Mellon faculty member. Professor Nash received Nobel prize in economics in 1994. The first speaker in the series was Professor Robert Merton.
• Building relationships. The development of relationships between Center faculty and affiliates will be encouraged by providing travel support and, where appropriate, limited compensation to faculty for initial exploratory meetings with affiliates.
• Dissemination of research. The Center will maintain a technical report series, consisting of working papers by Center faculty and Ph.D. theses. Affiliates interested in any of these are encouraged to contact the authors.
• Support graduate education. The Center will provide financial support for Ph.D. students to attend meetings, and will maintain a list of Ph.D. students available for internship and/or for employment.
• Maintain a website. The Center website will contain general information about the Center and its activities, as well downloadable technical reports and MSCF and Ph.D. student resumes. Some of this information will be public, and some will be available only to those who have an ID and a password. There will be information about the Ph.D. program in Computational Finance and the MSCF program.