Senior Tyler Beason Wins Two Awards at the 2014 Student Scholarship Expo

05/08/2014 4:10 PM

By Lindsay Anderson

At last month’s Student Scholarship Expo, senior Tyler Beason won the Dr. Alfonse and Nancy Masi International Scholars Award and the Foster College of Business Dean’s Award for Undergraduate Research.

“The experience was both interesting and the time put in was feasible,” Beason said.  “A variety of people, students and faculty, came up and talked to me about the research I was doing, asked questions and also gave me great feedback on what other steps I could take to further the research.”

“The thing I found most interesting in Tyler’s project is that his research has the potential to identify the direction of price change of stocks,” Dr. Amit Sinha, Finance and Quantitative Methods Department Chair, said.  “Primarily, he is investigating if the direction of a stock price change can be gleaned from the spread between dividend yields and current yield.  In his project, Tyler applied this to American Depository Receipts, as well.”

Sinha had been looking into this research for a few years, but Beason has been involved only during this spring semester as the project is just starting out.

The potential for this research is substantial,” Sinha said. “Over the summer and then the fall semester, we should be able to get a draft ready that could be submitted to academic conferences and maybe even an academic journal.”

Finance instructor Amy Fairfield Doering said Beason’s business and math academic background suited the project well.

 “I am delighted he submitted his project in the Research Expo and that he had a faculty mentor to encourage and promote his work,” she said. “There is so much research being done in the Foster College of Business between faculty members and students, I hope more of our students will take advantage of the opportunity to showcase their work.”

Aside from double majoring in Mathematics and Finance, Beason has shown exceptional leadership qualities and has served as president of the Financial Management Association. 

The annual Student Scholarship Expo recognizes and promotes student scholarly activities in research and creative production and celebrates collaboration among faculty and students within and across disciplines.  Each year, nearly 300 undergraduate and graduate students showcase their work at the Expo, competing for the President’s Award, Provost’s Award, and Dean’s Awards.