Business Pitches are becoming some of the most powerful tools to master for young employees, granting the ability to persuade a client or a manager in a very short time. The benefits of being able to effectively pitch projects are also highlighted in a 2020 survey by LinkedIn: the skills most requested by recruiters appear to be Creativity, Persuasion and Collaboration.
For these reasons, during the Financial Engineering course A.Y. 2019/2020 held by Roberto Baviera, students -divided in 24 teams- were asked to present their final projects using a “Pitch”, simulating a real world situation. Each team recorded a short (3 min), but comprehensive video introducing the methods and the results of their final projects. This award has been followed by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of the prize, the following years.
Three best pitches were then selected among the 24 presented by a jury composed by peers, a commission of practitioners of the financial industry and distinguished academicians. The winners are:
Financial Stress Index for Eurozone
by David Gussoni, Gabriele Vighi, Guglielmo Zaffaroni
Ref. Paper: A Thermometer for Financial Instability in the Euro Area economy. Baviera & Lebovitz, 2014. Available at SSRN 2496516.
Credit Portfolio VaR
by Giovanni A. Di Luozzo, Stefano Mezzera
Ref. Paper: A Flexible Analytical Method to Calculate the Specific Risk Surcharge. Rebonato, Kwiatkowski and Liesch, 2007, Risk (7) 34-37
Neural Network power forecast
by Jean Paul G. Baroni, Maurizio Cerisola, Chiara Cozzarini
Ref. Paper: Neural Network Middle-Term Probabilistic Forecasting of Daily Power Consumption. Azzone & Baviera, 2021. Journal of Energy Markets, 14 (1), 1-26. Available also at arXiv:2006.16388.