The opening ceremony of the FDT Center for Intelligent Asset Management was held on April 27, 2017, at Carleton Commons, Columbia University. The guests from Columbia included Mike Purdy (Executive Vice President for Research), Mary Boyce (Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science), Gaud Iyengar (Chairman of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research), and Xunyu Zhou, the founding Director of the Center. The FDT delegation included Mark Lin (co-founder and Chief Operating Officer) , Qifeng Liu (CEO of FDT Robo-Advisor Ltd), and Gaughui Nie (Senior VP).

Purdy, Boyce, Iyengar, Lin and Zhou respectively delivered brief remarks. Dr. Weihua Ma (Chairman of FDT and a prominent banker in China) and Bill Nie (co-founder and CEO of FDT) sent their congratulating video messages. These were followed by the Center plaque unveiling. Finally, Lisa Huang, the Director of Quantitative Investing at Betterment, one of the largest robo-adviors in the world, gave a lecture on digital wealth management.

The event was joined by approximately 60 undergraduate and graduate students in the department of IEOR interested in financial services, selected professors and alumni in the field, and several employees of FDT.