On January 4, 2025, Shandong University's Institute of Financial Studies hosted a special report on the "Fastbox Financial Data Practice Platform" at Zhixin Building. The report was jointly presented by QFRC Associate Prof. Samuel Drapeau and Associate Prof. Lin Yiqing, showcasing the core functionality and future prospects of Fastbox—China's first university-developed open-source quantitative finance platform.

Under Academician Peng Shige's guidance, SJTU's School of Mathematical Sciences established the Quantitative Finance Research Center in November 2023. The Center's Fastbox platform, developed over one year, has completed three foundational milestones: (1) building a multi-source financial database integrating real-time data from major global exchanges; (2) developing a visual UI and API interfaces compatible with mainstream ML libraries; and (3) achieving low-latency cross-campus data connectivity between SJTU and Shandong University. The platform will be opened to universities nationwide, supporting courses such as "Mathematical Finance" and "Quantitative Trading Strategies" with real-world teaching scenarios.

Dr. Samuel Drapeau is Associate Professor at SJTU's School of Mathematical Sciences and Adjunct Professor at SAIF. He received his doctorate from Humboldt University in Germany and has extensive IT industry experience with strong programming, database management, and platform development skills. Prof. Lin Yiqing is a tenured Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Statistics Department. He received his doctorate from both the University of Rennes 1 (France) and Shandong University in 2013, working on nonlinear mathematical expectations, financial mathematics, and machine learning. In 2023, they co-founded the Quantitative Finance Research Center as principal initiators.