The Python for Business Club has been a newer addition to the collection of clubs here at Stevens. School of Business students Om Mehta and Tejas Appana are the co-runners of this club. In an interview with The Stute, Om Mehta shared more about the Python for Business Club and how it originated.
The club started when Josa Balisi, Manager of Academic Operations for the School of Business, reached out to Mehta and Appana with the concept. Mehta elaborated, “She said that Professor Kevin Ryan recommended Tejas and I to run the club given our experience in his classes, in Python in general and our backgrounds in the quant side of the Stevens Student Managed Investment Fund (SSMIF).”
SSMIF combines “programming and modeling techniques, critical thinking, and business and finance skills” in order to manage a portion of the Stevens endowment. As Stevens indicates, ‘[T]he Student Managed Investment Fund is where tomorrow’s investment professionals perfect these techniques in preparation for rewarding careers in the fast-changing world of finance. In this two-semester course, students work as analysts, risk advisors, quants and, ultimately, leaders.’ To apply to this course, students undergo a competitive application process. The Python for Business Club aims to help students improve their skills in Python to prepare them for this “fast-changing world of finance.”
The Python for Business Club hosts general body meetings (GBMs) on Mondays at 9 p.m. According to Mehta, “In our GBMs, we focus on the business and finance application of Python, using libraries like Pandas, NumPy, and more. We have a new project each week; for example, we recently had a portfolio analysis program, where we assess the risk to return ratio of a user’s given portfolio. We try to find the midpoint between too basic and too advanced for the students that attend. Our goals for this semester are to keep holding meetings, create new and more involved projects, and most importantly get more members!”
Mehta also noted, “So most importantly, I want Stevens students to know that we only do this to help. We are both TAs for [Professor] Kevin Ryan’s class, we both have SSMIF quant backgrounds, but we got to where we are with a lot of self teaching. The Stevens Quantitative Finance program and Business and Technology program don’t include courses in Python after freshman year, and we really want to be the ones that can help. In the field of quantitative finance and data science, Python is the most used language, and it’s easy to learn. Practice makes perfect, and we feel like coming and doing a project every week is great practice. And for future members, I want everyone to know that using every resource available is the key to success at this school. If I had this club my freshman year, I would have had a lot easier of a time doing the SSMIF coding challenge.”
For more information about the club, check out their Instagram page @pfb_stevens. Discord is their primary form of communication and the link to the Python for Business Club’s Discord server can be found in its Instagram bio.
Regardless of your experience level, be sure to check out their GBMs and put your Python skills to practice!
