It's never been a more exciting time to pursue a master's degree in financial engineering at Berkeley Haas. The innovation taking place in the San Francisco bay area continues to push boundaries and Berkeley's financial engineering students are taking full advantage. 

 

If you haven’t been paying attention to the explosive growth of decentralized finance, otherwise known as DeFi, now is a good time to start. According to DeFi Pulse, the total value of currency at play in DeFi ecosystems shot up from $10 billion in 2020 to $93 billion in 2022. We asked Professor Christine Parlour to break down what DeFi is, what’s behind its recent exponential growth—and why we all should be paying attention. Read more about her thoughts here.

 

In other news, Master of Financial Engineering student Dmitry Silantyev and three teammates won the grand prize at the Citadel Data Open Championship—one of the world’s largest and most prestigious university-level data science competitions. The cross-school Team 13 won $100,000 for a data-led project that addressed how international trade impacts global plastic pollution.

 

Navigating through the continued impact of COVID-19 has been no easy feat for the students this year but we have been extremely proud of how they have come together to persevere through these complex and uncertain times.  

Learn more about the Berkeley MFE and how the program can launch or advance your career in finance and private markets by going to our website or joining an information session.