The Finance Innovation Research and Education (FIRE) Lab is a collaborative initiative between Penn State Great Valley’s Management and Engineering Divisions that will serve as a cutting-edge hub for collaborative research, curriculum development, and industry engagement in finance and technology. By fostering a vibrant ecosystem of students, faculty, industry experts, and innovators, the FIRE Lab will facilitate advancements in financial knowledge and practice, supporting both academic excellence and practical applications in finance and technology.
Consistent with the mission of the Great Valley campus to bridge the gap between theory and practice, the FIRE Lab’s mission is to:
- Serve as a forum to exchange, inspire, and share new ideas in research and innovation at the intersection of finance, fintech, and AI
- Enrich the student learning experience for all master's degree programs, and enrich engagement among professionals, faculty, and students
- Prepare students to lead and adapt in an evolving financial landscape
- Build and strengthen partnerships with industry and the community
Events and Programs
To accomplish its mission, the lab plans to hold several events each year with invited guests and discussion panel speakers with relevant expertise in finance, fintech, or AI. These events will be open to the public, all Penn State students and faculty, and will be available in a hybrid format. The planned events take the following forms:
- Research and development
- Educational programs: workshops, speaker series, and industry panels
- Industry partnerships and student engagement: internship and mentorship programs, networking events
Participating Faculty Members
Several faculty members from both the Management and Engineering Divisions at Penn State Great Valley serve as participating members of the lab:
- Daniel Indro (Co-Director, Management Division)
- Judy Qiu (Co-Director, Management Division)
- Youakim Badr (Engineering Division, Professor-in-Charge of the Master of AI program)
- Adrian Sorin Barb (Engineering Division, Professor-in-Charge of the Master of Data Analytics program)
- Pornsit Jiraporn (Management Division)
- Sangmook Lee (Management Division)
- Zugang “Leo” Liu (Management Division, Director of Management Programs)
- Bo Ouyang (Management Division, Professor-in-Charge of the Master of Professional Accounting program)
- Qiang Qiang (Management Division, Professor-in-Charge of the Master of Finance program)
- Raghu Sangwan (Engineering Division, Director of Engineering Programs)
- Sagnika Sen (Management Division, Professor-in-Charge of the MBA program)
- Yuan Shi (Management Division)
- Hajime Shimao (Engineering Division)
- Chengfei Wang (Engineering Division)
Lab Advisory Board Members
- Daren Coudriet, Executive Director, Penn State Nittany AI Alliance
- Joseph Cullen, Chief Investment Officer, Penn State University
- Michael Dellavalle, Market Leader - Technology & Life Sciences, Cohen & Company
- Aaron Filbeck, Managing Director, Global Content Strategy, the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA)
- Sassan S. Hejazi, Director-in-Charge, Technology Solutions, Kreischer Miller
- Cindy Li, Manager—Novel Activities Supervision Program, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
- Hong Qiu, Head of Data Science and Machine Learning for Corporate Services, Chief Data and Analytics Office, Vanguard
- Alex Zeng, Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets, Lincoln Financial Group
