Thesis (M. Fin.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Master of Finance Program, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 31). / Recessions are an inherent part of economic cycles. During the last decade we have experienced two extended periods of significant economic slowdown accompanied by major downturns in most of the asset classes and especially in equities. Investors during recessions suffer from severe losses and diversification does not provide the optimal solution. Through the development of an econometric model for dynamic management of recession risk in equity portfolios based on an empirical measure of timevarying recession risk, I plan to estimate cross-sectional differences in recession risk exposure among equities and associated differences in risk premia. The analysis is expanded on an industry level, where among industries clear patterns are identified in terms recession risk exposure. In the last part of the report I explore the possibility of creating a trading strategy which is able to generate significant performance benefiting from the market underreaction to recession risk. / by Kyriakos Chousakos. / M.Fin.

Thesis: M. Fin., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Master of Finance Program, 2014. / Title as it appears in the MIT commencement exercises program, June 6, 2014: Financing methods that drive innovation in biotechnology: the megafund IPO model Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 91-92). / Current research has shown that a mega fund and securitization approach using debt financing can not only mitigate risk in investments in cancer but can also align research and development in the right direction for new and innovative breakthrough therapies. We propose a new application of this megafund biopharma model - the megafund IPO model. There are almost arbitrage-like opportunities for investors where there are heavily discounted investments opportunities which are generated in IPO's. However, these events driven investments are only for the institutional investor and hence pooling capital into a more scalable mega fund structure could generate returns that are not otherwise possible while encouraging innovation in biomedicine. The investment vehicle is attractive to investors because of the significant amount of alpha that the fund can generate on de-risked basis. Risk is mitigated by the fact that there is an arbitrage like opportunity for the institutional investor in events driven investments for the mispricing of an IPO. We examine a back-testing of ten years examining a long only strategy and later also look at a case study of Monashee Investment Management that currently most closely resembles the megafund IPO model. / by Harngid Cho. / M. Fin.

Thesis: M. Fin., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Master of Finance Program, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 70-76). / This thesis introduces a new framework for establishing waste systems in developing countries. The functional perspective is a stand-alone extension of integrated sustainable waste management. In January 2015 the functional perspective was applied to analyze the waste system of Muzaffarnagar, India, and to propose solutions to existing problems. The functional perspective was found to be helpful as a theoretical framework guiding waste system design processes for decision makers both in the public as well as private sector. / by Julius Danek. / M. Fin.

Thesis (M. Fin.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Master of Finance Program, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-45). / The impact of corporate governance on firm value has been extensively debated by academics and business practitioners. Some studies show that companies that allow minority shareholders to have more control are likely to create greater shareholder value than those firms with concentrated control, while other studies suggest that the impact of having democratic governance is either negligible or even negative. In developed countries institutional investors have a significant stake in most of the companies. Active engagement by institutional investors is expected to decrease agency costs by strengthening monitoring mechanisms of operations and performance evaluations of the management, resulting in an increase in firm value. However, some academics and business practitioners argue that such minority shareholders' active engagement could be detrimental to firm value. In this thesis, I study the influence of institutional investors' active shareholder engagement on firm value and the relationship between the characteristics of corporate governance and firm value of target companies. I review previous studies that have evaluated both the effect of corporate governance and of institutional investors' activism on firm value. I conduct empirical analyses to examine the relationship between the institutions' shareholder engagement and firm value. / by Yong Seung Lee. / M.Fin.

Thesis: M. Fin., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Master of Finance Program, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 37-38). / This thesis proposes a simulation tool to study the question of how market structure and market players' behavior affect price movements. The adaptive market simulation system consists of multiple agents and a centralized exchange. By applying reinforcement learning techniques, agents evolve and become capable of making intelligent trading decisions while adapting to changing market conditions. Trading dynamics in the real world are complex yet compelling. The presence of the human element in trading makes studying it via repeatable scientific models, especially on a large scale, very difficult and almost unfeasible. By making it possible to conduct controlled experiments under various market scenarios, this simulation seeks to help researchers gain a better understanding of how different types of traders affect price formation under distinct market scenarios. The impact of trading frequency on prices is also explored as a test of the simulation tool. Results suggest that the market generates richer information when the frequency of trading is high, and when the market is more frequently accessed, short-term market prices demonstrate higher volatilities and move faster in respond to market sentiments. / by Buliao (Jerry) Shu. / M. Fin.

Thesis: M. Fin., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Master of Finance Program, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 59-60). / In this thesis, our objective is to enable businesses looking to enhance their product by varying its attributes, where effectiveness of the new product is assessed by humans. To achieve this, we mapped the task to a machine learning problem. The solution is two fold: learn a non linear model that can map the attribute space to the human response, which can then be used to make predictions, and an active learning strategy that enables learning this model incrementally. We developed a system called Continuous active learning system (COAL). / by Jonathan Johannemann. / M. Fin.

In 1926, after rejoining the Russian Orthodox Church, Igor Stravinsky began composing religious music. These religious works provided a creative outlet for Stravinsky’s personal interest in religion and religious philosophy and also revealed Stravinsky’s professional exploration of a new musical genre. His personal religiosity played an integral role in the composition of these pieces by originally inspiring the subject of the works, and later providing intellectual stimulation during the composition process. This thesis will examine three of Stravinsky’s religious works from his Neo-Classical period, including Otche Nash, Symphony of Psalms, / Thesis / Master

<p>In our everyday tasks context plays an important role, we act based on the information we have or based on what we can see, hear or feel about surrounding. Using this information about context we use to adapt ourselves and our behavior for example in class room we usually whisper when we want to communicate with other class fellow, but in cafeteria we talk normally. Due to the advancements in technology and mobile computing, we are now able to carry computers and smart phones with us, almost everywhere and use them as an alternative to desktop computers. Ubiquitous computing goes step further and refers to the world where computation is being weaved into every day object. In typical ubiquitous computing scenario many invisible computers interact with each other to help user in getting his task done. The ability of being carried easily, i.e. mobility and their presence almost everywhere make it necessary for computer systems, taking part in ubiquitous computing environment, context-aware. If computers can sense the environment they are being used in, they can help user in providing only relevant information, information at correct place and time and such systems can also adapt their behavior according to their surroundings. For example, if would be nice if our mobile phone automatically set to silent profile, whenever we are in class room or in a meeting room. Ubicollab is a platform for supporting collaboration and is a result of research work done in the areas of mobility and ubiquitous computing. Mobility and ubiquity being the inherent properties of UbiCollab, requires it to be aware of context just like another ubiquitous system. It will help UbiCollab applications to adapt their behavior as per surrounding and will enhance the experience of collaboration by using the resources nearby. I researched in the area of context-aware ubiquitous computing and used the results of my research to design and implement a solution for making UbiCollab context-aware. The proposed solution answers research problem related with context itself and different aspect of context. Context definition for UbiCollab has already been defined in work previously done; my solution addresses how to represent this contextual information in simple and effective manner, how to gather location information using different and heterogeneous sensors in understandable and standard format. The outcome of this work comprises of proposed context model, design and implementation of Space Manager for working with spaces, design and usage of flexible data store for storing space information and design and implementation of Location Service Manager for gathering location information using different location sensing technologies.</p>

<p>This project is a continuation of research work done by (Asif, 2009) which proposed an extended architecture of Mobile Student Information System (MSIS) to integrate the systems available for the students to provide student centric services on mobile devices. The architecture was developed by using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to provide services for collaboration and communication among the students or between students and the teachers. The mobile services are built by integrating MSIS to Twitter, Feed based systems and NTNU email system. The services have the potential to provide students an experience of a virtual environment of class, project work and discussion groups anytime-anywhere. The project has been carried out in accordance with design-science research model over a number of implementation and evaluation iterations. A user-driven evaluation of the MSIS service has been conducted among a diverse group of NTNU students. The utility as well as the usability of the system were evaluated by applying observational and empirical evaluation methods in a real-world environment at the university. The usability test identified few issues with the initial design of services, and received feedback for enhancements. The Mobile Service Acceptance Model (MSAM) has been used to examine the factors that are influential for user adoption of mobile services in the light of this project. The MSAM instrument measures different facets of a mobile information service, such as the perceived usefulness, ease of use, and usage intention. Our findings confirm that the utility of the student centric mobile services are perceived as high, and students would likely benefit from such kind of services. There is no doubt about the great potential for a service like MSIS and it is believed to be a useful addition to the existing systems.</p>

<p>This study presents the implementation of a voice messaging system using the Peer2Me framework. Voice messaging system (VMS) is an attempt for a new era of communication which is an intuitive-to-use service that adds an emotional and personal dimension to messaging. It enables the user to send voice messages in a peer-to-peer network. One of the objectives of designing VMS is to use the Peer2Me framework which is a framework for developing mobile collaborative applications on mobile phones. For this purpose an initial background study of the framework, central concepts, related technology and state of the art was carried out. We started with the realization of the idea of the VMS by defining its functional and quality requirements, software architecture and high level design. The implementation was carried out in MIDP/J2ME. The application was tested throughout the implementation process and a system test was performed on real phones on completion of the implementation phase. At the end we evaluated our work, discussed the problems we encountered, answered our research questions, gave our conclusions and described further work that could be carried out on the VMS. (All source code of the VMS is attached along with this report).</p>