MIT Launches First Graduate Fintech Course

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, is launching the first graduate level financial technology course in the United States.

The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and the Finance Group at MIT Sloan School of Management are joining forces with both MIT’s department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Harvard Law School to make the course possible.

The new course has been dubbed FinTech Ventures and will cover financial technology applications at the graduate level.

Antoinette Schoar, professor of entrepreneurial finance at MIT, noted that the prestigious university has always been at the forefront of financial innovation and this course represented the next step in new fintech ideas. Professor Schoar will co-lead the course with Bill Aulet, Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT entrepreneurship.

The course will take place over seven weeks and during this time students will be expected to develop fintech business plans for the newly created FinTech Competition at MIT in 2016. This particular course will focus on consumer finance, payments, cryptocurrencies and trading, with an option to extend the curriculum in the future.

“The class is part of a major effort to promote FinTech on campus and the Competition will be a huge incentive for students to continue with their ideas,” said future MIT Sloan School of Management graduate and co-developer of the class, Carlos Altable.