Stevens Institute of Technology and Accenture form analytic research collab.

On Wednesday, private research university Stevens Institute of Technology announced a three-year collaboration with Accenture, set to study and focus on analytics in the financial services industry. The two will also hold advanced analytics research projects and workshop sessions with Accenture's financial services clients.

Additionally, Stevens will offer a Financial Services Analytics (FSA) Graduate Certificate Program beginning in January 2015, in response to evolving analytics needs in the financial services industry - namely, in aspects of financial big data and data visualization. Coursework is being offered through Stevens’ School of Systems and Enterprises, Financial Engineering (FE) Division.

The FSA Graduate Certificate Program features classes in topics such as:

•             Data Quality and Composition
•             Advanced Data Mining, Analytics and Visualization
•             Creation of Databases and Decision-Making Tools
•             Enterprise Level Data Analytics and Delivery

A report by Accenture indicates that the United States could face a shortage of more than 260,000 analysts by 2015. The Program is specifically designed to help close the talent gap through graduate-level coursework.

Qualified students will have the opportunity to participate in internships with Accenture and other leading firms. Scholarships funded by Accenture will be awarded to two students per year to cover tuition and fees for the FSA graduate certificate.

"During this ‘century of complexity,’ our ability to understand and analyze data with perceptive questions in mind, supported by our ability to visualize the results of our analysis to allow strategic insights and critical decision-making, will be a key competitive discriminator for all organizations – commercial, government and academic,” said Dinesh Verma, dean of the Stevens School of Systems and Enterprises, in a statement. “With this in mind, the Stevens-Accenture collaboration has been established to develop optimal analytical competencies for the financial services enterprise."

“Finding and accessing analytics talent will require innovative sourcing strategies to bridge the gap between supply and demand,” said John DelSanto, senior managing director for Accenture’s Financial Services group in North America. "Stevens is teaching and researching complex systems and data analytics at a level that ties into an entire class of problems that we are addressing with our clients. As a result, Stevens graduates are well prepared to work on some of the most important business challenges of our times in financial services.”

For more information on the FSA Program, visit the Stevens Institute site here.