Bank supports NLP-related research

State Street Corp.'s money management unit is supporting a research center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where students learn how to apply financial technology in the business world.

Boston-based State Street's State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) unit will join five other sponsors in supporting the Laboratory for Financial Engineering at MIT's Sloan School of Management, in nearby Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company said.

At the lab, which was set up as partnership between industry and academia to promote quantitative research in financial engineering, State Street will support work that may help fund managers pick stocks and bonds more effectively.

For example, the company said it will participate in developing natural-language programs that can quickly scan databases and documents like analyst and annual reports to help money managers analyze key financial information.

Current LFE sponsors include Credit Suisse First Boston, Gifford Fong Associates, Investment Technology Group, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Reuters Holdings PLC. (RTR.L: Quote, Profile, Research) .