The Computing and Data Mining Laboratory (LACED) is an extension of the Computational Laboratory in Financial Services and Insurance (LACFAS) whose mission has gradually extended to the entire research community of HEC Montréal. LACED houses servers and workstations, and manages the access to specialized software for processing data (economic, financial, marketing, etc.) and performing calculations and scientific simulations. The infrastructure is used for various research activities, including multidisciplinary research, conducted by faculty members and graduate students. Current and future research themes include distribution management and logistics, integrated risk management, governance, macroeconomics, mathematical finance, data mining and energy and environmental management.
LACED was created as a result of a $1.2 million grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) Leading Edge Fund and New Initiatives Fund. The proposed development of the new laboratory had a total budget of $3 million. In addition to the CFI grant, there is also an equivalent contribution from the Quebec government and partner contributions. The LACED project was managed by Michèle Breton, Full Professor. The previous round of funding, which resulted in the creation of LACFAS, had been managed by a group of researchers led by Georges Dionne, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Risk Management at HEC Montréal.