In February, a group of students participated in the “HKUST-WBB x MIT Node Fintech Academy” (the Academy), a two-week program using a project-based learning approach to provide students with insights on the latest fintech trends and enterprising opportunities to engage with the industry.
The judging panel on the Program’s Final Day (from the third on the left in the front row): Mr. Neil TAN, Chairman, FinTech Association of Hong Kong; Mr. Andy CHUN, Regional Director, Technology Innovation, Prudential plc; Mr. Sam LIM, Chief Operations and Transformation Officer, Prudential Hong Kong Limited; Prof. Stephen NASON, Professional of Business Practice of the Department of Management, Program Director of World Bachelor in Business Program, HKUST
Organized by the World Bachelor in Business Program of HKUST Business School, the learning experience was designed and delivered by MIT Node who connected support from Prudential Hong Kong as the corporate sponsor. The Fintech and Green Finance Projects of the HKUST Business School and the FinTech Association of Hong Kong were also supporters. A total of 42 HKUST students from over ten different degree programs were divided into six teams to participate in learning sessions, a company visit, and a two-day industrial challenge. All teams showed their hard work and ingenuity in the challenge, developing venture proposals for building better insurance technology solutions in digital innovations and the metaverse, and pitching their concepts and solutions to a panel of judges on the Final Day of the Academy.
(Third from left) Shafira MONICA (Year 2, Computer Science and Business) from the winning team recaps she learned to understand the problems and find the right solutions through the self-paced research and the team proposal. “As a student who takes both Engineering and Business subjects, the program helps me see the possibilities to combine both fields to improve people’s lives,” she said.
The students were deeply impressed by their mentors. From the runner-up team, (middle) Ken KUANG (Year 2, Technology and Management) finds the Academy very insightful, “It is good to do research by ourselves, but it can really bring things into perspective when we have mentors to help us put all the concepts together.” (Second from left) Evelyn FONG (Year 1, Economics and Finance), also learns a lot from the mentors in the brainstorming and pulse-check sessions during the challenge, “The mentors’ feedback crucially contributed to our success.”
(Second from left) Magnus JAYA (Year 3, Economics and Management) says that the MIT-disciplined entrepreneurship approach taught him that it is more important to empathize with customers’ needs than to be solution-focused. Magnus and other participants then applied the entrepreneurial mindset in practice by conducting market research and brainstorming for their proposals.
