Winners of 2018 Master’s in Applied Mathematics Thesis Competition Announced

BNY Mellon and the Hugo Steinhaus Centre, acting on behalf of the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, are pleased to announce the winners of the inaugural Master’s Thesis Competition in Applied Mathematics.

Master’s students and recent graduates from Polish universities were invited to enter their thesis on any topic in Applied Mathematics, using math to solve a current financial mathematics or financial engineering problem.

The thesis competition was sponsored by BNY Mellon Science, the strategic center of excellence for quantitative and analytical work focused on risk management across BNY Mellon globally. BNY Mellon’s office in Wroclaw includes teams of professionals with expertise in financial industry practices and regulation. This center of excellence works closely with colleagues across BNY Mellon to support modelling and data analytics for the firm’s capital adequacy, market risk and enterprise risk activities.

The competition submissions were reviewed against a number of criteria by the judging panel at an event held at BNY Mellon’s Wroclaw office. The panel included Prof. Zbigniew Palmowski, Prof. Rafał Weron, Prof. Dr. Hab. Krzysztof Jajuga, as well as senior BNY Mellon executives Dr. Heng Sun and Dr. Kamil Tabiś. Entries were reviewed for their originality, mathematical correctness and practical application of the proposed solution. The winners were:

• 1st place: Jonas Al-Hadad for “Pricing of American Options: Single and Double Continuation Region”
• 2nd place: Weronika Białecka for “Application of Weighted Distributions to modelling Operational Risk”
• 3rd place: Joanna Kuprowska - “Comparison of different models of Credit Scoring”

The winners were recognized at an award ceremony held at the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology in November.

“Our congratulations to this year’s winners who all demonstrated their mathematical prowess, commitment to excellence and ability to apply their knowledge in a practical way,” said Heather Crowley-Kerr, BNY Mellon Head of EMEA Fund Accounting and Wroclaw Site Head. “The judging panel was impressed by the overall standard of entries to this year’s inaugural competition and we are looking forward to building upon this when the 2019 competition submission window opens April.”

Visit our website for more information about BNY Mellon’s operationsand career opportunities in Poland and details of how to enter the 2019 competition.