Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62203
million in donations, including a $1.2 million endowment from the Chicago Board of Trade Educational Research Foundation. to help increase the number of women and minorities working in information technology. "IT work- force demand is at the lowest it has been in four years," says McKinney. "This research allows us to study what can be done to keep IT workers from leaving the profession, especial- ly in times with low job demand." One-of-a-Kind Trading Floor Opens at Kent State Earlier this year, Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, opened a $3 million futures and options trading floor on its campus. The KSU Financial Engineering Trading Floor, designed by Chicago-based Tekcom, is the world's first derivatives trading floor at an academic institution, say uni- versity officials. The facility simulates trading using live data feeds from six global exchanges and three news organiza- tions, including CQG Inc., Reuters, and Bloomberg. It also includes 25 HP workstations, which feature dual Xeon processors running two 18" trading screens, and incorporates the same trading software that major investment firms use. Real-time exchange feeds have been granted from the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Singapore Exchange, the Tokyo Grain Exchange, and Eurex, a German international exchange. Design, construction, and ongo- ing management of the trading floor are funded by more than $3 Career eFair Designed for 'Just-in-Time' Hiring A consortium of 18 business schools has launched a series of MBA Virtual Career eFairs, designed to give employers direct access to hundreds of qualified students. Developed by Lee Svete, director of the career cen- ter at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, the virtual fairs have included job postings from companies such as Anheuser-Busch International, Ernst & Young, General Electric, Intel, and Target. The first virtual career fair was launched on April 1 and remained open through May 6, with 48 employers posting more than 100 jobs. Another fair ran from the last week in May through the third week of June and included 80 jobs from 39 employers. Hundreds of students have taken advantage of the online job fair. More than 400 students vis- ited the site during its second virtual job fair, and 140 submitted resumes. Companies pay just $200 to post WEBWATCH ■ www.eBizSearch.org Lee Giles of The Pennsylvania State University's School of Information Sciences of University Park has devel- oped eBizSearch, a search engine tar- geted to business-centric information on the Internet. Designed in collabo- ration with Arvind Rangaswamy and Nirmal Pal of the eBusiness Research Center at Penn State's Smeal College of Busi ness, eBizSearch is designed to direct researchers to the most topical, relevant information on e-business, e-commerce, and other related topics. Users can conduct keyword or citation searches, collect and organize information, or submit articles of their own to the index. an unlimited number of jobs during each online fair. "We also do live career fairs in Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles. In this economic climate, however, many companies can't predict what their job opportu- nities will be," says Svete. "For $200, companies can post their openings for just-in-time hiring." Because of the initial success of the first two eFairs, the consortium plans to sponsor others in the future. For information on the Virtual Career eFair and the MBA Consor - tium, visit www.mba-consortium.org. ■ The Chazen Web Journal of International Business www.gsb.columbia.edu/ chazenjournal/ Columbia University's Graduate School of Business in New York, New York, recently launched its Chazen Web Journal of Interna tional Busi - ness. The site, which Columbia notes is the only student-driven online publication of its kind, establishes a forum for students, faculty, and busi- ness to provide topical analysis of today's international business issues. Available at no cost, each issue of the online journal features papers from Columbia students and faculty, as well as case studies following a specific global theme. The site also includes contributed articles and interviews with corporate leaders and emerging markets financial analysts. Its inaugural issue, published late last year, featured articles covering entre- preneurship in Africa. Its second issue focuses on issues of Asian corporate finance and business strategies. ■ z BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2003 55