CPATH-2: Learning Computational Thinking in Context: Using Problems and Cases in Financial Market Regulation

Suny At Albany, Albany NY

Investigators

Abstract

Financial markets and their regulation are excellent arenas in which to see the power and importance of computational thinking. Financial markets are critical to the nation?s economic health; the current turmoil in the economy has been driven by instability in the country?s financial markets. The need to track, monitor, and analyze the large number of transactions in modern markets drives the use of cutting edge computer science and information technology in financial market regulation. Also, a large portion of American undergraduate students major or minor in fields related to business, public policy, and finance. This provides a large potential audience to learn the relevance and appeal of computational thinking. This project is integrating computational thinking as an essential theme in teaching students in computing, business, public policy, economics, mathematics, and the social sciences about financial markets. The University at Albany is home to the Center for Financial Market Regulation and has the nation?s first undergraduate major and minor in Financial Market Regulation. These programs are the focus in the development of a new computational thinking curriculum. Over a two-year period, the researchers on this proposal are engaging government and industry regulators in developing a set of learning objectives that will drive the creation of problem-based undergraduate curricula ? first for courses in the financial market regulation programs, and then in other undergraduate programs across the campus, including computing. The end result of this work will be cases, modules, and courses that provide an attractive interdisciplinary learning environment in which students become interested and proficient in computational thinking and understand its importance to society. Intellectual Merit. The various disciplines that contribute to financial market regulation are all mature fields, and are well represented as academic programs. A major innovation of this work is the explicit integration of the multidisciplinary partners using computational thinking as a central focus. This is possible due to the expertise that the personnel in this proposal bring from their research and educational experience in the component disciplines, working together in multidisciplinary teams, partnering with non-academic experts, and designing effective and enjoyable learning environments for students. In addition, this work is investigating how experts in the applied field of financial market regulation conceive of critical computational problems and the thinking skills most relevant to their solution. Finally, this work is examining the efficacy of problem-based learning curricula for the development of computational thinking in financial market regulation. Broader Impacts. Recent events have shown that the nation?s economic health depends on developing effective regulatory, surveillance, and oversight systems for our financial markets. The industry has been divided into front-room operations staffed with sales, business, and legal professionals and back-room operations staffed with IT and other quantitative professionals, but now sees the need to integrate these multiple disciplines and acknowledges the need for computational thinking in all aspects of business strategy. The same holds true for industry and government regulators. Enabling students to learn about the role of computational thinking in the financial markets ? in particular its importance in regulation and oversight ? will promote a workforce that helps the United States build more effective regulatory and risk management systems that will grow our economy and provide a safe environment for investors. Further, this approach to fostering computational thinking in an applied context can serve as a model for similar programs in other domains, and help diversify the pool of students learning advanced computational thinking.