IIT Madras launches Quantitative Research Lab
The lab will study AI for quantitative finance, including research in financial markets and its microstructure, quantitative investment management & risk management
CHENNAI : Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has launched a new research lab focused on Quantitative Finance. AlphaGrep Securities, a quantitative trading and investment firm, is providing CSR Funding of Rs. 5.65 Crore towards the establishment of this lab.
The ‘AlphaGrep Quantitative Research Lab’ will conduct Exploratory Research Projects in the areas of AI for quantitative finance, including research in financial markets and its microstructure, quantitative investment management and quantitative risk management, among other areas,
Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, and Mr. Mohit Mutreja, Chairman and Managing Director, AlphaGrep Securities, signed a MoU today (10th Oct 2024) towards this collaboration in the presence of Prof. B. Ravindran, Head, Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Madras, and other stakeholders.
Highlighting the need for such research centres, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “Three decades before, the financial institutions were predominantly run by their legal group, the next decade by their finance/audit group and currently by the Information Technology group. The time is ripe now to look at how AI can be used for effective and efficient conduct of business of these institutions. The proposed lab will be precisely addressing this issue.”
Welcoming this collaboration, Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, said, “Given how much work there remains to be done in bringing AI to the world of finance, a program that focuses on exploratory research is exactly what we think will push us forward. We are very happy to be supported by AlphaGrep Securities in this regard and look forward to building this partnership further.”
The Key Outcomes envisaged from this Research Centre include
Ø Exploratory Projects on applying frontier AI techniques to quantitative finance
Ø Training Programs for different stakeholders in this space
Ø Focused courses for students on AI for quantitative finance
Ø Development of data sets and other resources to enable research
Looking forward to this collaboration, Mr. Mohit Mutreja, Chairman and Managing Director, AlphaGrep Securities, said, “AlphaGrep is proud to announce its collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, with the inauguration of AlphaGrep Quantitative Research Lab as part of the Department of Data Science & AI at IIT Madras. This strategic initiative marks a significant step towards fostering innovation in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Quantitative Finance. The lab aims to nurture collaboration between esteemed faculty members of IIT Madras, and staff at AlphaGrep, and provide advanced resources and mentorship to IIT Madras students, enabling ground breaking research and development in these cutting-edge fields. Together, we are committed to shaping the future of technology and nurturing the next generation of leaders in quantitative research.”
The Professors who will work in this lab include Prof. Nandan Sudarsanam, Dr. Nirav Bhatt and Dr. Arun Ayyar (Adjunct faculty) from the Department of Data Science and AI, IIT Madras.
Highlighting the work that would be taken up in this new centre, Prof. B. Ravindran, Head, Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Madras, said, “the quant community has been at the forefront of adoption of new technologies in their models. With the rapid advances in AI in the past two years, it has become imperative to look at how the AI tools can help with quantitative research and how we can use these tools in a responsible fashion. The new lab will work with the industry in advancing the understanding and responsible adoption of AI in quant models.”
Human resource training in areas of AI for quantitative finance through different programs will be a focus area of this lab. The Centre would also explore the possibilities of developing new courses related to AI for quantitative finance