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The
University of Texas at Austin EDS Financial Trading and Technology Center McCombs School of Business |
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In May of 1996 the Governor of Texas, George
W. Bush, dedicated the Center. When it opened for classes in the fall of the
1996-1997 academic year the Center was the only facility of its kind on college
campuses nationwide. Dean of the McCombs School of Business, Dr. George W. Gau
was the founding director. His vision was to create a state-of-the-art trading,
research and teaching facility. Its goal was to help students, faculty,
executives and the community understand the growing flow of financial data and
its impact on financial markets as well as to enable them to participate in the
development of new applications of information technology to finance. Dean Gau
translated his vision for the facility into reality by enlisting the support of
numerous corporate sponsors. The lead sponsor of the Center is EDS,
Electronic Data Systems. EDS not only contributed funds to cover a substantial
portion of the construction costs of the Center, but also provided the personnel
and in-kind support to integrate the widely varying data sources and
technologies of the Center. Joining EDS as supporters of the Center are forty
corporate partners who donated their equipment and services. Completing the
funding are Center Trustees, a group of leading investment banking and financial
service firms who supported the Center financially. A total of over $6 million
in funding and equipment was contributed to the creation of the EDS Financial
Trading and Technology Center. Since the summer of 1996, the Center has grown to
be valued at over $10 million. A detailed list of corporate sponsors is
available at this web site. Originally the center consisted of the trading
room (5 work stations), the classroom (38 work stations) and the technology
showcase room. During the summer of
1999, the first major equipment upgrade was completed. Workstations and other
equipment in the trading and class rooms were replaced, incorporating the latest
technology. Computers in both rooms
have access to Bloomberg, Reuters, Bridge and Stock Val. In January 2000 Dr. Gau resigned as director
to accept a variety of other challenges. He appointed Dr. Beverly Hadaway as his
successor. After six years of operations the first major
renovation of the center began. Funding for the undertaking was provided through
a generous endowment initiated by two of the founders of the AIM Management
Group, Gary Crum and Bob Graham.
In addition, numerous employees of the AIM Management Group contributed
to the endowment. Plans called for a
complete remake of the
trading room consistent with the donor’s corporate image. Goals of the project
included increasing the number of work stations, expanding the meeting
facilities available to the fund managers and providing more storage space.
Of course, the latest technology was incorporated in the renovated
facilities. The trading room was redesigned to accommodate six workstations,
fitted with four flat screen plasma TVs and equipped with the latest hardware and
software. A small conference room,
with video conference capabilities, was created in the space formerly known as
the technology showcase area. Finally, the focal point of the renovation is a
seventy foot curved ticker, proving stock quotes and news headlines to the
McCombs Business School community. A ribbon cutting ceremony officially opened the renovated AIM
trading and conference rooms on October 10, 2002. Students using the Center’s classroom in the
fall of 2003 can take advantage of equipment up-grades for each of the
thirty-eight workstations and enjoy enhanced quality from a new screen
projector. Each year the Center is host to visitors from
across the nation and around the world, a sample of which is listed here. ACAP Accounting program Since its inception the center has been
the model for similar trading and classroom facilities developed on over twenty
campuses across the country. |
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