1. What is Purdue Computational Finance Program?

2. What about your programming skills (C++, Java, S-PLUS, etc) ?

3. Where are you from?

4. What brought you to the US?

5. Your CV says you are a member of this "Toastmasters" club. Does it mean you are a hard drinker?

What is Purdue Computational Finance Program?

The Computational Finance program at Purdue is an interdisciplinary program created by joint efforts of various academic units including the Department of Mathematics, Department of Statistics, Department of Computer Science, School of Industrial Engineering and Krannert School of Management. 

Student training is focused on careers in derivative pricing and quantitative based trading, risk management, financial engineering, portfolio management, and other financial areas.  

CF program graduates are awarded an M.S. in Computational Finance degree after a rigorous two-year coursework. However, the list of all CF-related courses available at Purdue goes well beyond a typical M.S. plan of study. As a Statistics Ph.D. student, I have an opportunity to take all of the relevant courses, so even though the program doesn’t formally award a doctoral degree in Computational Finance, my coursework is on a par with that of Computational Finance Ph.D. holder.

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What about your programming skills (C++, Java, S-PLUS, etc) ?

I have a special page where you can download and assess my code samples. Note that C++ and Java samples are supplied with detailed UML diagrams and you don't even have to see the code to get an idea of my programming level. Please visit this page .

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Where are you from?

I grew up in Krasnogorsk, Moscow region, Russia. Here you can view its photogallery  and read about its history (in Russian).

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What brought you to the US?

I came to the US on the purpose of professional development. Here at Purdue I have two majors: Statistics and Computational Finance. While it might have been possible to obtain an equivalent of Purdue Ph.D. in Statistics in Russia, that certainly doesn't apply to Computational Finance, a field I have been interested in since my college days. Unlike Statistics, Quantitative/Computational Finance is a very young discipline and if an English-speaking person wants to pursue an advanced degree in that area, he/she is bound to do it in either USA or UK (at least, that's how the situation looked to me back in 2003).

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Your CV says you are a member of this "Toastmasters" club. Does it mean you are a hard drinker?

Don't laugh - this question was actually asked while I was looking for an internship in 2005. In fact, Toastmasters International is dedicated to improving one's speaking and communication skills and  has nothing to do with alcohol consumption.

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