DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Principal Financial Group®, in partnership with the University of Iowa, is launching its first Principal Challenge in Analytics Innovation, a crowdsourced, problem-solving competition among undergraduate students to develop data-driven solutions to navigate financial markets.
Students around the world are eligible to compete individually or in teams to develop a model that applies analytics in new, novel ways to identify the best-performing stocks over time.
"People and businesses turn to the financial markets to help protect and grow their assets. Unfortunately, the value of stocks, bonds and other securities fluctuates with market conditions," said Joseph Byrum, chief data scientist with Principal. "We’re sponsoring this challenge because we believe having the right data at the right time plays a critical role in successfully anticipating economic and environmental changes that may impact investment performance – and ultimately impact how people live their best lives."
In partnership with Principal, the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business will provide three different faculty experts from disciplines including statistics, machine learning, and optimization for online office-hour sessions open to all participants to give an overview of the problem from their specific area of focus, and then Q&A.
“We find business students at all levels are eager to take on real-world business problems,” said Nick Street, chair of the University of Iowa’s Management Sciences Department. “The Principal Challenge gives students an experiential learning opportunity – an integral part of the undergraduate experience -- to help them gain a fresh perspective on business problems and put classroom learning into practice.”
The winner will receive $2,000; the runner-up $1,500; third place entry $1,000, fourth place entry $500, and fifth and sixth place entries $250. The challenge is now live and accepting submissions until January 19, 2018. Students can access the financial predictors data sets and semi-annual returns for the competition https://www.ideaconnection.com/principal-challenge/ . Finalists will be announced Feb. 9, 2018. Contestants must be 18 years or older to participate.
About
Principal®
Principal helps people and
companies around the world build, protect and advance their financial
well-being through retirement, insurance and asset management solutions
that fit their lives. Our employees are passionate about helping clients
of all income and portfolio sizes achieve their goals – offering
innovative ideas, investment expertise and real-life solutions to make
financial progress possible. To find out more, visit us at principal.com.
About
the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business
The
Tippie College of Business provides undergraduate and graduate education
to students throughout the state of Iowa and in locations in Hong Kong
and Italy. Tippie faculty are experts in the areas of accounting,
finance, marketing, management, business analytics, information systems,
and economics. In all of the college’s programs, experiential learning,
global understanding, and communication skills are reinforced through
activities both in and outside of the classroom. Tippie College of
Business was one of the first in the nation to develop an undergraduate
Business Analytics degree offering. To find out more, visit the college
at: https://tippie.uiowa.edu/management-sciences.
Principal, Principal and symbol design and Principal Financial Group are trademarks and service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.
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