Projects: SMU’s Biz School Emulates Trading Floor Environment

April 15, 2013 by Dave Haynes

[youtube id=”6Ve_TDx9WP8″ width=”600″ height=”350″]

This is pretty cool, though I doubt the students at Southern Methodist University’s Finance Lab yell all day and then head home in their BMW the way the guys do on Wall Street.

SMU’s Cox School of Business has simulated a real-world trading environment  in a lab that emulates a trading floor environment, driven heavily by tickers and displays put together by Rise Display.

Rise Display, in a release, says:

The state-of-the-art classroom features 2×2 market wall of 46-inch displays with an interactive touch screen, two 2×2 video walls comprised of 55-inch displays, and four 15-inch analog world clocks. A 136-foot LED ticker wraps around the inside of the Finance Lab, posting the latest stock updates and news headlines. Rise Display’s digital signage has sparked the Cox School to develop new courses that take advantage of the technology, according to Finance Department Chairman Kumar Venkataraman.

“We have developed many new projects and assignments that require the students to use the technology in the trading room,” he explains. “Students love being in the trading room. The technology allows a way for professors to better relate the academic framework to the applied framework, which allows students to understand where theory meets practice.”

Professor Venkataraman says the video walls and digital signage provide additional value beyond the teaching experience.

“The displays are very flexible and easy to set up, so during non-classroom hours, we use the displays for information purposes, including making announcements on events and other items related to the trading room or the business information center.”

Rise Display’s Ryan Cahoy says that the Kansas-based company’s technology is finding its way onto college campuses for a wide range of functions. “SMU’s finance lab is a perfect example of using digital signage in a variety of ways to enhance a student’s learning experience. Other digital signage displays are also in use at schools for donor recognition and campus communications.”

Since 1920, the SMU Cox School of Business has equipped students with the skills, knowledge and experience they need to succeed in business. Major publications—including BusinessWeek, The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report and The Wall Street Journal—rank SMU Cox among the top business schools in the nation and around the world.