Upcoming Events
CRAFT Spring 2024 Industry Advisory Board Meeting at RPI
To register, please visit this website.
Past Events
Financial Fraud Workshop
In February 2024, CRAFT hosted a financial fraud workshop at Stevens.
Generative AI Workshop
In November 2023, CRAFT hosted its second workshop of the year - a Generative AI Workshop at the Stevens Institute of Technology. Presenters included Sudhir Pai, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, Member of FS Exco - Financial Services SBU at Capgemini, Adam Faanes, Chief Technology Officer, 4Thought Technologies, Jeffrey Nickerson (Stevens), Feng Mai (Stevens), Xiaoyang Liu (RPI), Chang Lu (Stevens) and Kevin Pitts (Stevens). Presentations included “Multi-Label Clinical Time-Series Generation via Conditional GAN”, “Generative AI and Ideation”, “Dissecting Corporate Culture Using Generative AI: Insights from Analyst Reports”, “Data-centric FinGPT: Open-Source Financial Large Language Models”, “Race2GenAI”, “Generative AI Trading Strategies: Trust and Explainability in 4Thought Studio”, a discussion on proposed Fintech Education Certification. The workshop was followed by a reception.
Please see the agenda for the event here.
Fall 2023 Industry Advisory Board Meeting
CRAFT’s fourth bi-annual Fall 2023 IAB conference took place on November 2-3, 2023. The conference was hosted by Bank of America. This was the first time that an industry member hosted such an event. By having the conference at such a central location, over 100 guests were able to attend. Day 1 of the Conference included presentations from CRAFT and academic leadership, a presentation from host Bank of America, a academic presentation by the University of Manchester, keynote addresses by industry partner the United Nations, and prospective members Imperial College and UK Fin+, five newly submitted research project proposal presentations including “Large Transaction Models for FinTech” PI Kristin Bennett (RPI), “Semantically Enhanced Graph Neural Networks for Event-Driven Financial Impact
Analysis” PI Mohammed Zaki (RPI), “A Next Generation AI-Powered Financial Advisor” PI Jacek Ossowski (Stevens), “An initial Framework to understand Financial Systems Resilience” PI Jose Ramirez-
Marquez (Stevens), “Unpacking Failed Big-Ticket M&A: Exploring Behavioral Characteristics and Decision-
Making Dynamics Using Deep Learning Models” PI Suman Banerjee (Stevens), and panel discussions on workforce development and fintech commercialization.
Please see the agenda for the event here.
Spring 2023 Industry Advisory Board Meeting
CRAFT's third bi-annual Spring 2023 Industry Advisory Board Meeting on March 30, 2023. This meeting will feature 15 research proposal presentations by CRAFT affiliated faculty, keynote presentations on FinTech Venture Capital and Start-up Ecosystems (Speaker: Mr. Jeff Stewart, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Global Public Offering Fund) and Fraud and Anomalies Detection in Financial Services (Speaker: Rick Hoehne, Sr. Partner, Leader – Fraud, and Financial Crime Center of Competency, Data & Technology Transformation, IBM), presentations by CRAFT academic prospective members, as well as CRAFT leadership. The event is jointly hosted by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute & Stevens Institute of Technology and will take place at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus - BioTech Auditorium, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY 12180.
Workforce Development Workshop
CRAFT will be hosting a Workforce Development Workshop on Wednesday, February 22, 2023. Come learn about career growth strategies and the hiring practices of fintech leaders. The workshop will consist of 2 panel discussions, one led by industry, the other by students from Stevens and RPI. Panelists will include CRAFT's industry partners from Bank of America, Charles Schwab, CME, and Vanguard. > More info
CRAFT Workforce Development Workshop Video
News
CRAFTing the Future with Generative AI
During CRAFT second workshop of 2023 at Stevens, new research and tools showcase AI’s potential to shape the financial industry during CRAFT workshop. > More
CRAFT Holds Annual Advisory Board Meeting
CRAFT held its fifth Industry Advisory Board Meeting. For the first time, the meeting was held at a CRAFT industry partner headquarters in New York City. The collaboration between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stevens Institute of Technology and the industry host proved to be very beneficial in solidifying many long-lasting relationships. > More
Partnering between Universities, Governments and Fintech Companies
November 2022's IAB meeting facilitated real-time collaboration between researchers and industry practitioners concerning the future of fintech. > More
Crafting the Future of Fintech
In late March, the Center for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies (CRAFT), Stevens' joint venture with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and the first fintech research organization backed by the National Science Foundation, held a two-day industry advisory board meeting at the RPI campus in Troy, New York. >More
Stevens Launches Pathbreaking CRAFT Fintech Research Center With RPI, NSF
Stevens Institute of Technology hosted the launch of the first-ever National Science Foundation-backed (NSF) fintech research center October 28-29 in a two-day hybrid conference with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), industry members, NSF officials and others. > More
Annual Reports
2023 Annual Report
As emerging technologies continue to transform the financial industry, CRAFT is well positioned to lead this change. In 2023, six new industry members joined the consortium, including a partnership with the NGO Committee on Private Sector Development at the United Nations that will accelerate the Center’s work globally. CRAFT is currently in discussions with the New Jersey Economic Development Agency to establish a state level Fintech Innovation Center. Workshops on workforce develop and generative AI provided opportunities to enhance members’ understanding of where the financial sector is and where it’s going. The five research projects voted upon my members include:
“Blockchain Interoperability for Business Organizations”
“Efficient, Private, and Explainable Federated Learning for Financial Crime Detection
“Extending, Simulating and Scaling Decentralized Exchanges Made by Automated Market Makers”
“Systemic Risk Implications of Central Bank Digital Currencies”
“Quantum Algorithms for Tail Risk in Loan Portfolios”
2022 Annual Report
As the global economy emerges from the shadows of the COVID pandemic, the fintech industry, while enjoying continued growth, faces challenges such as the crypto winter and ESG washing. Throughout 2022, CRAFT refined its strategic planning process to update its research map to better promote and align our commitment to our stakeholders. The center conducted surveys and workshops with our members to identify seven important vertical themes, which include explainable AI, decentralized finance and quantum computing, while keeping the related social concerns of fairness, accountability, responsibility, privacy and ethics in clear sight. This report provides additional details on the vertical themes and related research priorities.