My thanks also go to Professor Neil Pearson at
the Finance department of the University of Illinois for raising my interest
in risk management and patiently answering all my questions related to
finance. I wish to thank my advisor, Professor Ralph Johnson, for giving
me the opportunity to work on this project and shaping my learning with
his valuable software engineering insight. Many thanks go to the UIUC patterns
reading group which offered me the opportunity for many interesting discussions.
I am grateful to my friends Yiming Chung and
Beth Azzi for proof-reading, providing me with valuable feedback, and being
there whenever I needed someone to talk to. I am particulary thankful to
Yiming for taking care of the paperwork. She has been my good angel in
Urbana and there is no way I could have got things done without her reliable
and committed support. I also express my gratitude to my friend Cathy Shakespeare
who helped me mastering the statistics challenges and provided me with
information from the accounting point of view. Thanks go to Leslie Tyrrell
for meeting with me to brainstorm LeCar, the hypothetical Midwestern car
manufacturer. And most of all, I would like to thank Alois Camenzind for
his loyal and loving support. Although being 4926 miles away from me, he
has been a constant source of motivation and has never complained about
me calling with questions in the middle of the night.