The Bachelor of Science in Financial Engineering (FE) is a multidisciplinary major that emphasizes the creation of new financial economic instruments as well as the combining of existing instruments to manage risk, create strategic business opportunities, lower costs, and access new markets. Risk management is essential in today’s highly leveraged domestic markets as well as the global business environment. Successful market, credit, and production risk management requires complex financial economic modeling and analysis.

The objective of the program is to provide students with the necessary tools to manage a business’s financial risks. In keeping with this objective, financial engineering majors undertake rigorous training in financial economics, engineering mathematics, and actuarial methods:

• Mathematics similar to engineering but expanded to include more statistics and probability theory
• Financial economics with a solid background in classical economic theory and markets (capital, commodity, and derivative)
• Software engineering and modeling

Financial engineers are commonly employed in banking, corporate finance, securities, insurance, manufacturing, agricultural businesses, and other industries that require sophisticated financial management skills. To remain competitive, regional industries as well as national and international firms will employ financial engineers because of the increased complexity and sophistication of business risk management. Due to their rigorous training, the demand for financial engineering graduates is high with a forecasted growth rate of 18 to 20% annually over the next seven years, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook. The financial engineering major is a joint program of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics.