A world class financial services technology lab at the University of Sydney is looking to double Australia's financial services exports and create 30,000 jobs.
The $56 million Financial Services Innovation Partnership, announced today by Federal Innovation Minister, Kim Carr, will aim to “democratise” time series prediction technology by giving a larger number of Australian companies access to predictions of their financial data within a fraction of a second.
The technology uses mathematical algorithms and computer systems to predict future values and brings together the brightest minds in the fields of economics, engineering, mathematics and computer science.
Director of the University’s Computer Engineering Laboratory, Associate Professor Philip Leong, told ARN the project would double financial services exports and create 30,0000 jobs in the industry.
“Hedge funds, banks and insurance companies use these types of predictions even though it’s very difficult to do,” he said.
“One of the goals of our proposal is to make this easy for people to do by having what we call a prediction market. We hope to democratise this technology and make it available to a large number of Australian companies.”
Dr Leong said it was a significant positive acknowledgement from government that industry and universities could combine to achieve ambitious goals.
“I have not seen any project like this before,” he said. “We envisage a world class interdisciplinary financial services exports lab that will engage 50 researchers and students focused on financial services industry innovation and export.”
The project will use custom software and hardware systems improve speed and reduce latency, which is critical in making timely decisions and managing large data-sets.
It will also form a prediction market which will make machine learning algorithms available to companies and provide training in new machine learning technologies.
University of Sydney vice-chancellor, Dr Michael Spence, said: “This partnership builds on existing University and industry collaboration and aims to position Australia as a global leader in financial services, innovation and technology.”
Professor Archie Johnston, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies, said the University was delighted to spearhead the project.
“We predict the FSIP will assist in the creation of 30,000 new jobs in financial services and financial services technology in the next five years,” he said.
The project was developed by faculty of engineering and information technologies in conjunction with, the University of Sydney business school and founding partners SIRCA and Boston Consulting Group.
