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It’s on to Montreal and the semifinals of the prestigious (MIPC) for a team of four Illinois Institute of Technology finance students who will compete for $50,000 (Canadian) in cash prizes that are awarded to the competition’s top-performing teams and individuals.

MIPC is the world’s largest buy-side university finance competition and is designed to bridge the gap between academia and industry by providing an opportunity for students to tackle real-world investment problems.

This year’s competition includes 99 teams from universities in 17 countries. The Illinois Tech team is among 25 teams selected to advance to the semifinals, which will be held on November 8–9, 2024. The five top semifinalists will advance to compete in the finals, also on November 9.

Illinois Tech team members Akansha Burad, Javier Gomez, Yu-Te “Kevin” Lin, and Max Ortolano are enrolled in the nationally ranked Master of Science in Finance program at Stuart School of Business. Clinical Associate Professor of Finance Michael Rybak serves as the team’s faculty adviser.

In the competition, students take on the role of asset managers at large, institutional investors, such as pension funds. Each team prepares a written investment proposal that addresses issues laid out in the MIPC Grand Challenge. This year’s challenge: How can we formulate innovative portfolio strategies that not only stand the pressures of inflation but also cater to the liquidity needs of retirees across various demographics?

Prominent industry professionals and experts in institutional investing judge the proposals and select the semifinalists. In the semifinal and final rounds, each team gives a live presentation of its proposal to a panel of judges and then responds to the judges’ questions.

In addition to the competition, MIPC-sponsored recruiting events and networking sessions give participants chances to interact with industry professionals and their peer students in the months leading up to and during the weekend of the semifinals.

Illinois Tech teams have made their mark in the MIPC competition over the years, advancing to the finals in 2017 and 2019 and in recent years earning team and individual awards for exceptional quantitative analysis and presenting.

Photo: [From left] Javier Gomez, Michael Rybak, Akansha Burad, Max Ortolano, and Yu-Te “Kevin” Lin.