The Department of Finance and Economics is very pleased to congratulate numerous student participants and award winners in the IUP Scholars Forum held on April 5, 2023.
Two IUP MBA students, sponsored by Yaya Sissoko, participated in the Oral Presentation sessions. Taylor Friedman (IUP BA, economics/honors graduate and current MBA student) presented “Data Breaches and Cybersecurity in Financial Institutions,” and she received the 2023 Eberly College of Business Graduate Student Dean’s Award.
Babere Marwa (MBA student) presented “Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Finance,” and he received the 2023 Eberly College of Business Outstanding Podium Award.
Additionally, IUP MBA student James Walubengo Mukaisi presented in the Business Case Study Showcase session.
Several undergraduate students collaborated under the direction of Todd Potts to prepare a poster presentation, “An Analysis of the Sensitivity of Stock Market Returns to the Release of Macroeconomic Data.” For this work, the 2023 Eberly College of Business Undergraduate Outstanding Poster Award was given to Dominic Rocco (BS, Finance and BS, Accounting dual degrees with minor in economics), Blake Edwards (BS, finance with double major in accounting), Kaitlin Eichenlaub (BS, finance with minor in management), and Matthew Levenson (BS, accounting with double major in finance).
Under the supervision of Brandon Vick, Angel Alcantara (BA, economics/honors with minors in applied statistics, women’s and gender studies, and sociology) prepared a poster presentation related to data analysis research work she has helped conduct for the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency as an IUP Justice Research Fellow. Angel’s work was recognized with the 2023 Eberly College of Business Undergraduate Student Dean’s Award.
FIEC student Alyssa Carne (BA, economics/honors and BS, mathematics/actuarial science and statistics dual degrees) and her co-researcher, Aminah Herbert (BS, mathematics), received a Jones White Writing Center Award for the research project, “How Medical Malpractice affects Health Insurance Rates,” presented in the poster session under the auspices of faculty mentor Daniel Burkett.
Eight undergraduate students from James Jozefowicz’s ECON 356/H Introduction to Econometrics course participated in the oral presentation sessions:
Alyssa Carne and Alex Tseng (BS, mathematics/actuarial science and statistics major with minor in computer science) presented, “The Effect of Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Other Influences on State DUI Rates,” and they won the 2023 Eberly College of Business Outstanding Oral Presentation Award.
Additional student presenters were Erin McGrath (BA, economics/honors and BS, accounting dual degree), Emily Elliott (BS, finance with a double major in economics/honors), Jorge Luna Lopez (BS, finance with double major in economics/honors), Evan Orr (BS, mathematics/actuarial science and statistics), and Matthew Gulyas (BS, accounting with minors in economics and applied statistics), and their presentation topics included analyses of state DUI rates, gender-based wage gaps among professional athletes, gross domestic product of developing nations, motor vehicle deaths, and railroad traffic.