On November 16th, ZHANG Wenchu, a doctoral student of Tongji SEM, won the championship at “The 1st Shanghai Universities Financial Modelling Camp: Search of Future Quantitative Stars” award ceremony held in Shanghai. Additionally, Tongji SEM was awarded the Excellent Cooperation Award of Universities. Students from Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics secured the first and second place.

The training camp event is organized by Shanghai Securities News-China Securities Net and Taiping Asset Management and co-organized by Orient Securities and Soochow Securities. It is hosted by institutions such as Shanghai Securities Investment, and is designed for Shanghai doctoral students, master’s students, and senior undergraduates interested in quantitative investment. The competition spans over 9 months and includes activities such as course learning, question practice, knowledge competitions, themed discussions, presentations, and a summer training camp. The objective is to stimulate students’ interest in financial engineering and data research, achieve the integration of financial, modeling, and programming capabilities, and expedite the cultivation of talent in the field of quantitative investment.

ZHANG Wenchu, the championship winner, studied Physics for his undergraduate degree and is currently pursuing a master’s and doctoral through-training in Management Science and Engineering at Tongji SEM. He has always been fascinated by exploring finance and investment through mathematical approaches. He expressed great joy at the opportunity to work with faculty members at the academy, delving into the randomness of financial markets from various perspectives such as stochastic optimization and deep learning. He hopes to continue progressing and achieving success on this path in the future.

In light of the significant changes brought by fintech in the financial sector, Professor ZHONG Ninghua, Deputy Dean of Tongji SEM and Director of the Department of Economics and Finance, hopes to cultivate more exceptional fintech talents through a cross-faculty, cross-disciplinary, and cross-knowledge approach. The practical training of integrating industry and education helps students strengthen their innovative thinking and teamwork abilities. This lays a solid foundation for students’ careers in finance and assists in the construction of the “financial talent highland” in the Shanghai International Financial Center.

In response to the advent of the era of artificial intelligence and digitization, Tongji SEM has actively promoted the deep integration of disciplines such as artificial intelligence and digital technology with economics and management in recent years. In collaboration with the School of Electronic and Information Engineering, SEM has newly established a full-time master’s program in Intelligent Finance. Furthermore, in cooperation with the School of Mathematical Sciences, SEM has launched a double-degree programmme in Finance and Applied Mathematics at the undergraduate level. These initiatives aim at wholeheartedly cultivating high-level, multidisciplinary talents to meet the needs of national development strategies and societal advancements.

In addition to innovating the interdisciplinary and fusion training modes on campus, the college actively accelerates the deepening of school-enterprise cooperation and the integration of production and education. The college collaborates with Shanghai Stock Exchange, Guotai Junan Securities, Haitong Securities, and SAP, Jingdong Technology and other enterprises aim to cultivate high-quality, innovative, and versatile professionals. The collaboration between Guotai Junan Securities and Tongji SEM marks the first systematic practical training cooperation between its information technology sector and a university. This partnership inaugurates a new model for joint cultivation of talents in financial technology. In the future, our institute will adhere to talent development as the driving force, creating a core curriculum system that integrates industry and education. We aim to establish a new form of industry-education integration and build an innovative system where government, businesses, universities, research institutes, and the broader society participate, nurturing high-quality talents with both virtue and talent.