Difference between revisions of "IS484 IS Project Experience (FinTech)"

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=== Course Description: ===
 
=== Course Description: ===
'''IS484 is cancelled for AY2021/22 Term 2. Will resume in AY2022/23 Term 1.''' <br>
 
'''Please seek sponsors and plan for IS483 for AY2021/22 Term 2.''' <br>
 
 
 
* This is an SMU-X course designed in collaboration with participating Banks, FinTechs, and other FIs, to serve as project sponsors.  Collectively, industry sponsors will supply a minimum of 5 projects ideas to select from.   
 
* This is an SMU-X course designed in collaboration with participating Banks, FinTechs, and other FIs, to serve as project sponsors.  Collectively, industry sponsors will supply a minimum of 5 projects ideas to select from.   
 
* Students will form teams of 5 or 6, and select one the project ideas to work on.  Project selections do not need to be unique, meaning multiple teams can select the same project idea.
 
* Students will form teams of 5 or 6, and select one the project ideas to work on.  Project selections do not need to be unique, meaning multiple teams can select the same project idea.
Line 10: Line 7:
 
* Sponsors will specify the technologies to be used, including; development tools/languages, OS, database, 3rd party libraries, target deployment environment e.g. cloud environment.
 
* Sponsors will specify the technologies to be used, including; development tools/languages, OS, database, 3rd party libraries, target deployment environment e.g. cloud environment.
 
* Student project teams will be expected to develop a working software application prototype, to be delivered to the sponsor at the end of the course.
 
* Student project teams will be expected to develop a working software application prototype, to be delivered to the sponsor at the end of the course.
 +
 +
=== Course Prerequisites: ===
 +
1. Software Project Management (IS212) is a pre-requisite or a co-requisite. <br>
 +
2. Any two (2) track courses '''from the track that you are declaring''' for your project. One of these courses can be a co-requisite.
  
 
=== Project Timeline: ===
 
=== Project Timeline: ===
Line 17: Line 18:
 
! Activities || Timeline || Term 1/ Term 2 || Action By
 
! Activities || Timeline || Term 1/ Term 2 || Action By
 
|-
 
|-
! Project Sourcing and Registration || Week -14 to Week -10 || Form teams. Review the below set of predefined projects provided by Citibank, OCBC or NETS. Fill up the Project Team Signup Sheet at the below link, listing your preferred projects. FT Track Coordinator will finalize the matching of teams to projects. || Students
+
! Project Sourcing and Registration || Week -14 to Week -10 || Form teams. Review the below set of predefined projects provided by Citibank, OCBC, NETS, UBS, and others. Fill up the Project Team Signup Sheet at the below link, listing your preferred projects. FT Track Coordinator will finalize the matching of teams to projects. || Students
 
|-
 
|-
 
! Project Matching || Week -10 || FT Track Coordinator will finalize the matching of teams to projects. || FT Track Coordinator
 
! Project Matching || Week -10 || FT Track Coordinator will finalize the matching of teams to projects. || FT Track Coordinator
Line 31: Line 32:
 
! Finals || Week 14 to Week 16 || Presentation ||Students, Supervisor, Reviewer (Optional: Sponsor, Track Coordinator)
 
! Finals || Week 14 to Week 16 || Presentation ||Students, Supervisor, Reviewer (Optional: Sponsor, Track Coordinator)
 
|}
 
|}
 
=== IS484 Project Wiki: ===
 
Project teams to maintain their documentation here: <br>
 
[[IS484 Project Wiki Home Page]]
 
  
 
=== Project Team Signup Sheet: ===
 
=== Project Team Signup Sheet: ===
AY2020/21 Term 1 <br>
 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IDAhC4JiK3RuKnIDQMG5UjJ6I1IiImo81Lu13wAuUxE/edit?usp=sharing <br>
 
AY2020/21 Term 2 - CANCELED <br>
 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IDAhC4JiK3RuKnIDQMG5UjJ6I1IiImo81Lu13wAuUxE/edit#gid=1043528005 - CANCELED <br>
 
AY2021/22 Term 1 <br>
 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IDAhC4JiK3RuKnIDQMG5UjJ6I1IiImo81Lu13wAuUxE/edit#gid=86226209 <br>
 
AY2021/22 Term 2 - CANCELED <br>
 
AY2022/23 Term 1 <br>
 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IDAhC4JiK3RuKnIDQMG5UjJ6I1IiImo81Lu13wAuUxE/edit#gid=155160571 <br>
 
  
=== Current Projects ===
+
AY2024/25 Term 2 <br>
 +
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q-2qNkXGcjPxybU52s-1cazP5k4zhHTYRn7SKxz5Hjg/edit?gid=0#gid=0 <br>
  
{| class="wikitable centered" width="95%"
+
=== Current Projects - FY2024/25 Term 2 ===
!Item
 
!Project Sponsor
 
!Project Description
 
!Project Deliverables
 
!Project Stakeholders
 
|-
 
|width="2%"|<!-- Item--> 1
 
|width="10%"|<!-- Sponsor--> NETS
 
|width="30%"|<!-- Project Description --> '''Transform Internet Online Direct Debit via Web3.0''' - Web 3.0 blockchain identity which offers privacy, control, openness and interoperability is a powerful catalyst to transform the usability and technology for Internet Online Direct Debit. The Web3.0 blockchain identity is a viable secure substitute for the end-user’s internet banking ID credentials and will also streamline the user experience for Internet Online Direct Debit from a Web2 to a Web3 experience. Students will be tasked to build a prototype which contains the following:
 
* A prototype bank app to simulate the registration of a Web3.0 id (blockchain id) thru the existing banking credentials and to be the mobile app to enable a Web3.0 login and notification for internet direct debit payments.
 
* A blockchain host to support the Web3.0 login and payment processing functionality which may include a blockchain smart contract to bridge Web3.0 and legacy payment processing of the banking institutions. 
 
* A banking payment simulator host to register and demonstrate successful payment processing and reference to Web3.0 audit trail.
 
|width="30%"|<!-- Project Deliverables --> Students are expected to deliver a prototype which can accomplish the following:
 
* Demonstrate the registration of a Web3.0 id (blockchain id) thru the existing banking credentials via a prototype banking app.
 
* Demonstrate Web3.0 login and notification for internet direct debit payments.
 
* Demonstrate capability on use of blockchain host to substitute and support the online internet direct debit payment processing functionality which may include a blockchain smart contract to bridge Web3.0 and legacy payment processing of the banking institutions.
 
* A banking payment simulator host to register and demonstrate successful payment processing and reference to Web3.0 audit trail.
 
Project sponsors will share sufficient context so students can understand the context of internet online direct debit to enable the students to design suitable solutions to overcome the problem statement. A sample high level conceptual design, explanation of this roles and responsibilities of the components and other useful details will be available.
 
|width="20%"|<!-- Project Stakeholders -->
 
Project Coordinator: David Woo Chee Keong <br>
 
DavidWoo@nets.com.sg <br> <br>
 
Project Mentor: TBD <br>
 
email TBD
 
|-
 
|width="2%"|<!-- Item--> 2
 
|width="10%"|<!-- Sponsor--> NETS
 
|width="30%"|<!-- Project Description --> '''Interoperable QR payments using EMVCo QR''' - EMVCo QR implementations currently requires consumers to download and deposit funds in multiple payment apps in order to pay to the whole spectrum of EMVCo QR merchants as opposed to only needing to use their favorite payment app. EMVCo QR merchants need to sign-up, settle and reconcile with multiple payment providers as opposed to a single party. EMVCo QR labels currently need to be replaced physically when a merchant decides to ADD or REMOVE QR payment options. Students are asked to create an interoperable payment solution using EMVCo QR which can accomplish the following:
 
* Allow users to use their favorite payment apps to pay to all EMVCo QR merchants as opposed to users having to download multiple payment apps in order to pay to  merchants accepting different payment apps.
 
* Allow merchants to accept payment from all payment apps and receive settlement including consolidated reporting from only one acquirer versus settlement with multiple acquirers each representing different payment app providers.
 
* Allowing a unified and streamlined QR payload which is merchant centric and do not need replacement if the merchant decide to switch acquiring relationships.
 
|width="30%"|<!-- Project Deliverables --> Students are expected to deliver a prototype as follows:
 
* A working eco-system prototype comprising mock\up payment apps, merchants, EMVCo QR labels, EMVCo QR switch (if applicable) and sample transaction and settlement reporting dashboards received by both consumers, merchants and the scheme.
 
* The prototype should be able to highlight and demonstrate key concepts which are key to enabling such an interoperable QR payment scheme.
 
Project sponsors will share sufficient context so students can understand EMVCo QR and the QR payment landscape to enable the students to design suitable solutions to overcome the problem statements.
 
A sample high level conceptual design, explanation of this roles and responsibilities of the components and other useful details will be available.
 
|width="20%"|<!-- Project Stakeholders -->
 
Project Coordinator: David Woo Chee Keong <br>
 
DavidWoo@nets.com.sg <br> <br>
 
Project Mentor: TBD <br>
 
email TBD
 
|-
 
|}
 
  
=== Archived Projects (no longer available) ===
+
<table width="966" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#f2f2f2" style="background: #f2f2f2; page-break-before: always">
{| class="wikitable centered" width="95%"
+
<tr>
!Item
+
<td width="73" style="border: 1.00pt solid #000000; padding: 0.02in 0.08in"><p class="msonormal" align="center">
!Project Sponsor
+
<b>ID, Term, and BA Status</b></p>
!Project Description
+
</td>
!Project Deliverables
+
<td width="78" style="border-top: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-bottom: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-left: none; border-right: 1.00pt solid #000000; padding-top: 0.02in; padding-bottom: 0.02in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0.08in"><p class="msonormal" align="center">
!Project Stakeholders
+
<b>Sponsor / Business Vertical</b></p>
|-
+
</td>
|width="2%"|<!-- Item--> X
+
<td width="322" style="border-top: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-bottom: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-left: none; border-right: 1.00pt solid #000000; padding-top: 0.02in; padding-bottom: 0.02in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0.08in"><p class="msonormal" align="center">
|width="10%"|<!-- Sponsor--> Citibank
+
<b>Project Description</b></p>
|width="30%"|<!-- Project Description --> '''Derivative & Structured Product Performance Dashboard''' - Derivative & Structured products are complex and its crucial for Bankers and investment counselors to have a consistent view for how these products perform for our clients. Apart from product performance it’s important to know product lifecycle events and any risks that may be detrimental to private bank clients. This dashboard will allow visualization of such complex information in an organized and intuitive manner.
+
</td>
Bankers and Investment counselors (ICs) act on market trends and guidance from research teams to create customized financial products for clients. These products are created to cater to a variety financial risks and client preferences.
+
<td width="320" style="border-top: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-bottom: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-left: none; border-right: 1.00pt solid #000000; padding-top: 0.02in; padding-bottom: 0.02in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0.08in"><p class="msonormal" align="center">
|width="30%"|<!-- Project Deliverables --> The ask is to create an analytics dashboard that:
+
<b>Project Scope</b></p>
* Allows users to view cumulative financial performance of the products.
+
</td>
* Surface product performance details, including possible risks from changes in the market conditions etc.
+
<td width="151" style="border-top: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-bottom: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-left: none; border-right: 1.00pt solid #000000; padding-top: 0.02in; padding-bottom: 0.02in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0.08in"><p class="msonormal" align="center">
* Filter and show a summary of upcoming product milestone details
+
<b>Project Stakeholders</b></p>
 +
</td>
 +
</tr>
 +
<tr valign="top">
 +
<td width="73" style="border-top: none; border-bottom: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-left: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-right: 1.00pt solid #000000; padding-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.02in; padding-left: 0.08in; padding-right: 0.08in"><p class="msonormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in">
 +
Project #1</p>
 +
<p class="msonormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in">FY2024/25
 +
<br/>
 +
Term 2</p>
 +
<p class="msonormal" align="center">Fulfills BA</p>
 +
</td>
 +
<td width="78" style="border-top: none; border-bottom: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-left: none; border-right: 1.00pt solid #000000; padding-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.02in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0.08in"><p class="msonormal">
 +
OCBC - Consumer Banking</p>
 +
</td>
 +
<td width="322" style="border-top: none; border-bottom: 1.00pt solid #000000; border-left: none; border-right: 1.00pt solid #000000; padding-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.02in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0.08in"><p class="msonormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in">
 +
<font color="#000000"><b>Fast Data Acquisition for Real-time
 +
Analytics</b></font><font color="#000000"><br/>
 +
Core Banking
 +
processes a high volume of customer transactions including
 +
transfers, deposits and payments in an RDBMS (say PostgreSQL).
 +
There is a need to analyze the data real-time to detect any
 +
anomalies and generate operational reports. The application
 +
transaction database in optimized for high-availability and write
 +
performance, not analytics.<br/>
 +
<br/>
 +
Therefore, there is a need
 +
for a real-time ingestion framework to stream transaction data
 +
from the source to the target operational data store (ODS), for
 +
real-time analytics.<br/>
 +
<br/>
 +
Traditional batch ETL processes
 +
result in delayed data availability, leading to slower
 +
decision-making. Real-time analytics improves the customer
 +
service, reduce fraud risk etc.</font></p>
 +
<p class="msonormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in">The key
  
Project sponsor will share further context on the various pain points and priorities around onboarding and training new hires. Specific use case and target audience personas will be defined and shared with the students too.
+
=== Archived Past Projects and Groups ===
|width="20%"|<!-- Project Stakeholders -->
+
AY2024/25 Term 1 <br>
Project Coordinator: Dossii, Shailej P <br>
+
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IDAhC4JiK3RuKnIDQMG5UjJ6I1IiImo81Lu13wAuUxE/edit#gid=491663198 <br>
shailej.p.dossii@citi.com <br> <br>
 
Project Mentor: Go Cheng Yan <br>
 
email cg14129@citi.com
 
|-
 
|width="2%"|<!-- Item--> X
 
|width="10%"|<!-- Sponsor--> Citibank
 
|width="30%"|<!-- Project Description --> '''Data APIs using Low Code''' - Lots of our data sourcing is driven from embedding SQL or Logic in Stored procedures. This makes the application logic heavily dependent on data which sometimes is not even owned by the given service. Accessing data in an easy way within a distributed platform is a big challenge. A low-code development platform (LCDP) provides a development environment used to create application software through a graphical user interface. A low-coded platform may produce entirely operational applications, or require additional coding for specific situations
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-code_development_platform
 
The objective is to develop Data APIs using Low code technology automation. This is an agile way of software development. It will deliver easy access of our data (reference / product / transactional) to our Web, Mobile UI and reposting modules.
 
|width="30%"|<!-- Project Deliverables --> Students are expected to deliver:
 
* POC for Low Code products.
 
* Design new APIs based of selection made by project sponsor.
 
* Working APIs for data from current sources.
 
  
Project learnings:
+
Past Project Descriptions<br>
* Experience in designing / developing APIs.
+
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f7r2y1n6USWAYVTVyWkZkYxJt7HCoxlc-z3jAGzX7LQ/edit?gid=0#gid=0
* Learning an agile way of application development.
 
* Proof of connects with product(s) used of Low Code automation.
 
* Experience working on data complexity in a distributed system.
 
* Good idea about Capital Markets domain.
 
 
 
Project sponsors will share sufficient context so students can understand how current data flow works and what we expect from the APIs, and details about Low code products which can be used by Citi.
 
|width="20%"|<!-- Project Stakeholders -->
 
Project Coordinator: Dossii, Shailej P <br>
 
shailej.p.dossii@citi.com <br> <br>
 
Project Mentor: Rohit Rohatgi <br>
 
email rohit.rohatgi@citi.com
 
|-
 
|}
 

Latest revision as of 18:35, 16 October 2024

Course Description:

  • This is an SMU-X course designed in collaboration with participating Banks, FinTechs, and other FIs, to serve as project sponsors. Collectively, industry sponsors will supply a minimum of 5 projects ideas to select from.
  • Students will form teams of 5 or 6, and select one the project ideas to work on. Project selections do not need to be unique, meaning multiple teams can select the same project idea.
  • Each student project team will be assigned to a sponsor/mentor and an SMU faculty supervisor.
  • Sponsors will provide project scope and management for student teams to have practical industry learning experiences.
  • Student teams will have weekly check in meetings, either virtually or physically, with their sponsor.
  • Sponsors will specify the technologies to be used, including; development tools/languages, OS, database, 3rd party libraries, target deployment environment e.g. cloud environment.
  • Student project teams will be expected to develop a working software application prototype, to be delivered to the sponsor at the end of the course.

Course Prerequisites:

1. Software Project Management (IS212) is a pre-requisite or a co-requisite.
2. Any two (2) track courses from the track that you are declaring for your project. One of these courses can be a co-requisite.

Project Timeline:

Activities Timeline Term 1/ Term 2 Action By
Project Sourcing and Registration Week -14 to Week -10 Form teams. Review the below set of predefined projects provided by Citibank, OCBC, NETS, UBS, and others. Fill up the Project Team Signup Sheet at the below link, listing your preferred projects. FT Track Coordinator will finalize the matching of teams to projects. Students
Project Matching Week -10 FT Track Coordinator will finalize the matching of teams to projects. FT Track Coordinator
Proposal Due before the start of Week -8 Submit your project proposals to your Track Coordinator(s). For mixed-track teams, both track coordinators need to review your proposal. Students
Decision on Proposal Week -4 Your Track Coordinator(s) will confirm that the project has sufficient scope to fulfill your respective track requirements for IS Project Experience. Track Coordinator, Students, (Optional: Sponsor)
Start of Project Week 1 Supervisor - Teams Student
Midterm Week 8 Presentation Students, Supervisor, Reviewer (Optional: Sponsor, Track Coordinator)
Finals Week 14 to Week 16 Presentation Students, Supervisor, Reviewer (Optional: Sponsor, Track Coordinator)

Project Team Signup Sheet:

AY2024/25 Term 2
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q-2qNkXGcjPxybU52s-1cazP5k4zhHTYRn7SKxz5Hjg/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Current Projects - FY2024/25 Term 2

ID, Term, and BA Status

Sponsor / Business Vertical

Project Description

Project Scope

Project Stakeholders

Project #1

FY2024/25
Term 2

Fulfills BA

OCBC - Consumer Banking

Fast Data Acquisition for Real-time Analytics
Core Banking processes a high volume of customer transactions including transfers, deposits and payments in an RDBMS (say PostgreSQL). There is a need to analyze the data real-time to detect any anomalies and generate operational reports. The application transaction database in optimized for high-availability and write performance, not analytics.

Therefore, there is a need for a real-time ingestion framework to stream transaction data from the source to the target operational data store (ODS), for real-time analytics.

Traditional batch ETL processes result in delayed data availability, leading to slower decision-making. Real-time analytics improves the customer

service, reduce fraud risk etc.

The key challenges that should be address are

Low latency: Data needs to be streamed in near real-time without impacting the performance of the source transaction system.

Data consistency: The data arriving at the ODS remains consistent with the source system, especially during high transaction volumes.

Scalability: The ingestion framework must scale to handle increasing transaction volumes during peak hours, like flash sales or promotions etc.

High Availability: The framework should tolerate failures and be resilient with high-availability. 

Project Inputs:
Project sponsors will share sufficient context so students can understand how/where this model brings value to users.

Project Deliverables:

•       A low latency real-time ingestion framework using CDC and should support CRUD operations to be consistent with the source database.

•       Analytics dashboard that provides insights as

•     Customer activity and behaviour

•     Pending or failed payments

•     Total transaction volume per minute/hour

•       Documentation with detailed setup instructions for configuring the ingestion with no-coding and just using configuration changes.

Project Coordinator: Lim Wei Ming
Project Mentor:

Radhakrishna Sarma

Project #2

FY2024/25
Term 2

OCBC - Front Office Relationship Managers

Front Office Dashboard / Client meeting prep support

The goal of this project is to leverage GenAI Technologies to develop a dashboard and client meeting preparation support system. The system will gather relevant information such as to-do lists, insights that clients would appreciate, follow-ups from previous meetings, outstanding document deficiencies, and areas requiring client feedback. All of this information will be consolidated into a meeting preparation pack, making it easier for professionals to prepare for client meetings efficiently.

Front office staff often struggle to gather and organize all the necessary information for client meetings. This leads to inefficiencies and potential oversights. Therefore, there is a need for a system that can streamline the process of gathering, organizing, and presenting important information to professionals before client meetings.

Project Inputs:

•       Project sponsors will share sufficient context so students can understand how/where this UI brings value to users.

•       Components required for effective client meeting preparation, including to-do lists, insights, follow-ups, document deficiencies, reviews, and client feedback.

•       Data or resources necessary for testing, such as sample client meeting data, client feedbacks, digital channel access data and relevant documents.

Project Deliverables:

•       Dashboard: Create a user-friendly dashboard that allows Front office to input and access information for client meeting preparation.

•       AI Integration: Utilize GenAI Technologies to enhance the system's capabilities, such as natural language processing for analyzing meeting notes and predictive analytics for generating insights.

•       Data Analysis: Implement AI models to analyze data inputs and generate valuable insights, such as identifying patterns in client feedback or predicting potential document deficiencies.

•       Meeting Preparation Pack: Consolidate all relevant information, including to-do lists, insights, follow-ups, document deficiencies, reviews, and areas requiring client feedback, into a comprehensive meeting preparation pack.

Project Coordinator: Bryan Lee Cheng Hui

Project Mentor: Amila Silva

Project #3

FY2024/25
Term 2

OCBC - Group Operations & Technology

This project aims to explore the concept of Zero-Knowledge Rollups, an innovative technology that addresses two significant challenges in blockchain transactions: privacy and efficiency. In simpler terms, Zero-Knowledge Rollups are like a secret code that allows you to do more things securely and quickly without anyone

else knowing the details.

In the world of digital currencies and blockchain, it's crucial to ensure that transactions are both private and efficient. Zero-Knowledge Rollups offer a promising solution by bundling many transactions together and proving they are valid without revealing specific details about each individual transaction.

This approach enables blockchain networks to handle a large number of transactions at once, making them faster and more scalable. This also prove that transactions are valid without exposing the specifics. As a practical demonstration, we are able to develop blockchain applications such as:

1.    Enhancing Privacy and Scalability in Blockchain Transactions using Zero-Knowledge Rollups

There is a need for an improved solution to address the privacy and scalability challenges facing blockchain transactions. Traditional blockchain systems, such as those used in cryptocurrencies, often struggle to handle a high volume of transactions while simultaneously ensuring the privacy of participants.

Existing blockchain architectures suffer from limited scalability, resulting in congestion and increased transaction delay during peak usage periods. Moreover, transaction details are often visible to malicious actors, compromising user privacy and confidentiality.

Project Inputs:

•       Project sponsors will share sufficient context so students can understand its use cases, discussing the benefits and limitations of implementing zero knowledge rollups and how it can benefit end users.

•       The project details, explanation of the zero knowledge rollups and other useful details will be shared.

Project Deliverables:

•       Students will dive into the technical aspects of Zero-Knowledge proofs, learn about the challenges of implementing Rollup solutions, and examine real-world examples where this technology has been used successfully

•       Investigate where zero knowledge rollups can be applied in banking environment. Students will study relevant academic resources, examine existing Zero-Knowledge Rollup implementations

•       Create simulations or proof-of-concept prototypes to explore the practical aspects

 

Project Coordinator: Ravindra Kumar

Project Mentor: Jorden Seet

Project #4

FY2024/25
Term 2

Fulfills BA

Citi - Exchange Traded & Cleared Derivatives

Collateral Optimization for CCP Margin Calls

Citi provides its clients with clearing services on several global Central Counterparty Clearing Houses (CCPs). Clients can post eligible currency (cash) & financial instruments (bonds, treasury notes, securities, commodity warrants, etc.) as collateral to cover margin calls. Citi, as a clearing member, will then utilize some of these assets to cover the corresponding margin calls with the CCP.

Each CCP has specific requirements regarding the types of collateral it accepts, applying different haircuts and collateral fees based on asset class. Additionally, transaction costs are incurred when depositing, substituting or withdrawing collateral. Optimizing the allocation of available collateral across different CCPs can minimize costs and increase efficiency.

This project aims to develop an algorithm that optimizes the allocation of available collateral to various CCPs based on eligibility, collateral costs, haircuts, and transaction costs, taking into account frequent changes in available collateral due to client activity.

Citi’s clearing services require optimal collateral allocation to different CCPs in order to minimize costs and comply with eligibility requirements. The current process involves multiple variables such as collateral eligibility, haircut rates, collateral fees, and transaction costs. The objective of this project is to build a solution that optimizes collateral allocation for margin calls at each CCP while minimizing associated costs and fees.

Project Inputs:

Students will be provided with:

1. A file containing a list of available collateral.

2. A file that lists the margin calls required at each CCP.

3. A file containing static data regarding eligible

associated haircut rates, fees, and transaction costs at different CCPs.

All required data is in public domain. No Citi proprietary data is required nor will be shared for this project.

Project Deliverables:

1. Optimization Algorithm: A solution to optimize the allocation of available collateral across multiple CCPs based on eligibility, costs, and transaction considerations.

2. User Interface: A basic user interface to input data and visualize the optimized collateral allocation across CCPs.

3. Collateral Movement Report: A user report that lists the optimal collateral allocation and the related asset movements.

4. Documentation: Detailed documentation explaining the methodology, logic behind the optimization algorithm, and any assumptions made.

5. Presentation: A final presentation demonstrating the optimization tool, its functionality, and potential real-world applications for Citi's operations.

Project Coordinator: TBA

Project Mentor: Nirav Parikh

Project #5

FY2024/25
Term 2

Citi - Markets & Trading

Synthetic Market Generator for Algorithmic Trading

One of the key challenges in training trading algorithms is the limited availability of real-world historical data specific to certain securities. This scarcity of data can lead to overfitting and suboptimal performance in machine learning models. Moreover, it is difficult to find data that accurately reflects specific market conditions, including varying volumes, trends, and volatility levels.

This project aims to address these challenges by developing a synthetic market simulator capable of generating market data tailored to specific securities and market conditions. The simulator will be parameterized to model various patterns, volatility levels, and market trends, providing a flexible tool for creating synthetic datasets. These datasets can then be used for training and testing algorithmic trading strategies, avoiding the pitfalls of limited real-world data.

Current trading models face the challenge of limited historical data for specific securities and market conditions. This project seeks to build a synthetic market data simulator that allows traders and researchers to generate customized market data based on chosen parameters such as volatility, trend strength, and volume. This will provide a larger and more diverse dataset to train trading algorithms, leading to better generalization and performance in various market environments.

Project Inputs:

Students will be provided with:

1. A representative set of market data for a given security (historical OHLCV data).

2. Parameters to tune the synthetic data generation, including market patterns, volatility, trends, and volume.

All required data is in public domain. No Citi proprietary data is required nor will be shared for this project.

Project Deliverables:

1. Synthetic Data Generator: A working model that simulates and outputs synthetic market data based on input parameters.

2. Parameterization: A set of controls to modify the synthetic data generation, including trend types, volatility levels, and other key market conditions.

3. Transaction Output: The output will be a file containing the generated market data, with fields such as Open, High, Low, Close, and Volume (OHLCV).

4. Documentation: Detailed documentation explaining how the synthetic data is generated, how to use the parameterization tools, and how the simulator can be applied in algorithm training.

5. Presentation: A demonstration of the synthetic market simulator, including use cases for improving trading algorithm performance.

Project Coordinator: TBA

Project Mentor: Nirav Parikh

Project #6

FY2024/25
Term 2

Citi -  Investment Banking

Deal Review Committee Using LLM Agents

In investment banking, evaluating deals for new clients involves multiple dimensions of analysis. Banks must assess the market potential, competitive positioning, and risk profile of a client’s business, while estimating revenue and cost projections. Additionally, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and aligning deals with the bank’s strategic objectives are crucial aspects of decision-making.

This project proposes the development of a framework utilizing Large Language Model (LLM) agents to simulate a virtual committee of financial experts. Each LLM agent will be specialized in specific areas such as risk assessment (credit, market, operational, regulatory, reputational), revenue estimation, compliance, and strategic alignment. By simulating the expertise of real-world financial analysts and risk managers, this system will provide a comprehensive review of deal proposals for new clients.

The goal is to enhance decision-making, mitigate risks, ensure regulatory compliance, and foster profitable client relationships, helping banks balance opportunity with risk for long-term sustainability and growth.

Investment banks face challenges in evaluating deal proposals due to the need for multi-faceted analysis across revenue potential, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, and strategic fit. This project aims to develop a framework leveraging LLM agents to provide a holistic and expert-driven approach to deal review, improving both the efficiency and accuracy of decision- making processes.

Project Inputs:

Students will be provided with:

1. Training data from previous deal reviews, including analysis from financial analysts and risk managers.

2. Access to relevant market data, risk factors, and financial models.

3. Strategic guidelines and risk appetite documentation for new deals.

Note: Anonymized Citi internal data (no client data) will be required for this project subject to approvals and potential NDA agreements.

Project Deliverables:

1. LLM-Based Expert Agents: A framework of specialized LLM agents trained to simulate expert perspectives in areas such as revenue estimation, risk analysis, compliance, and strategic alignment.

2. Virtual Committee Decision Process: A mechanism for synthesizing the insights from different agents to form a comprehensive recommendation on deal approval and conditions.

3. Decision Support System: A tool that provides deal recommendations, approval conditions, and risk mitigation strategies based on the committee’s output.

4. Documentation: Comprehensive documentation outlining the design, methodology, and decision-making process of the virtual committee of LLM agents.

5. Presentation: A final presentation showcasing the framework, its decision-making process, and its potential impact on the bank's deal review process.

Project Coordinator: TBA

Project Mentor: Nirav Parikh

Project #7

FY2024/25
Term 2

Revolut - Digital Investing

Bespoke Robo Advisory Platform for Retail Users

Create a digital investment platform that allows users to invest into through Revolut’s Robo-advisory solution coupled with the Users own inputs relating to Risk Appetite, preferred asset class mix, single name stocks and investment amount.

The ask is to create a web app that:

•       Allows users to include more inputs before letting Robo advisory take over the investment of users funds.

•       List of investment instruments and asset classes available

•       Visualize the performance data using charts, tables etc. in a simple, uncluttered fashion.

Robo-advisory is a useful solution / tool for beginning and intermediate investors who wise to utilize ”Robos” to optimize users funds and invest accordingly based on black box algorithms built by the Robo Advisory company.

The Problem is that users have little or no say in which specific asset class, industries, or single name stocks should the investor have a preference in whilst offering the investor expertise of the Robo Advisory perform dynamic asset re-allocation as and when the need to do arises.

So the idea is to create a platform which is a hybrid of a Robo-Advisor and a full manual trading platform

Project Inputs:

•       Project sponsors will share sufficient context so students can understand how/where this platform brings value to users.

•       The mock raw data files, explanation of this data structure and other useful details will be available.

Project Deliverables:

•       Working App that provides intuitive UI/UX.

•       This App should be a standalone application that can be easily incorporated in a larger application. Freedom to use visualization & analysis tools, technology of the team’s choice.

 

Project Coordinator: [ TBA ]

 

Project Mentor: Abhinav Suryavanshi

Project #8 FY2024/25

Term 2

Fulfills BA

Singapura Finance -Regulatory Compliance

Customer Profiling Application

Customers are on-boarded to the bank’s system after performing checks and validation for know your customer and anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) compliance.

The solution should extract information about existing customers, run checks and document results. It will score each customer based on given parameters. The parameters may change over time, so flexibility to adjust the parameter will be required.

The current approach to handling AML scoring and documenting of customer profile is manually done by staff. It is not consistent and prone to oversight and missing filed information.

Project Inputs:

•       Project sponsors will share context so students can understand how/where this digitalization can add value to the organization.

•       The mock up data and parameter for scoring will be shared with explanation on the digital filing requirements.

•       Potential to use ML Tools to profile customer

Project Deliverables:

A solution or program which can accomplish the following:

•       Take in a customer information from the banking system

•       Profile the customer information using available search/information engine/service provider. Obtain the results

•       Provide data visualization of the results obtained

•       Score each customer  profile

•       Store the results for historical review or audit review requirement.

•       Allow customization of the scoring

•       Easy search and identification of customer profile documents collated.

•       Allow for triggering of review on customer information based on score

Project Coordinator: (TBA)

Project Mentor: Winny Ho

Project #9

FY2024/25
Term 2

Fulfills BA

Singapura Finance - Risk Management

 

Consumer Loans Credit Scoring

The bank implemented an online straight through loan application (Mortgage) using government provided information, with customers consent.

The system does not identify nor prioritize customer profile, hence good/great customers are left together with the majority.

Solution will use information obtained by the government data source and generate a credit score each application. An application may have more than one submission (Multiple owners).

The solution should provide automated recommendation for improved loan rates for of better scoring customers. It should also document and recommend follow-up for lower scoring applications.

 

Project Inputs:

•       Project sponsors will share context so students can understand how/where this digitalization can add value to the organization.

•       The mock up data and parameter for scoring will be shared with explanation on the digital filing requirements.

Project Deliverables:

An app that provides the following:

•       Take in a customer information submitted via online forms/government data.

•       Profile the customer information

•       Analyze the results obtained and score each application

•       Allow customization of the scoring using various data points available.

•      Provide data visualization of the results obtained

•       Results will be sent to back-room for processing or automated escalated actions.

Project Coordinator: (TBA)

Project Mentor: Cindy Ng

Project #10

FY2024/25
Term 2

Tiger Fund - Fund Management

Using Artificial Intelligence for Effective Stock Screening

This project focuses on using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop an effective stock screening tool that assists investors in identifying potential buying or selling opportunities in the U.S. stock market.

With the vast amount of data generated daily, AI can automate the screening process by quickly analyzing stock trends, sector performance, and user-defined parameters to detect valuable market opportunities.

The system will leverage machine learning algorithms and technical indicators to filter stocks based on investor preferences, such as undervaluation, technical patterns, or strong market trends.

The goal is to streamline stock selection and improve decision-making efficiency for portfolio managers.

Investors face a challenge in sorting through the immense quantity of stock market data to identify opportunities for profitable trading. The manual stock screening process is time-consuming and prone to human error, especially when considering various technical indicators and market conditions.

This project aims to address these issues by developing an AI-powered stock screening system capable of efficiently analyzing stock data, detecting strong market trends, and automating the identification of potential buying or selling opportunities based on predefined criteria.

 Project Inputs:

•       Project sponsors will share sufficient context so students can understand how/where this project brings value to users.

Project Deliverables:

•       AI-Powered Stock Screener Application: A functional application that can analyze large datasets and apply user-defined parameters to screen stocks.

•       Backtesting: To engage in backtesting of the model in order to ensure the reliability of the system

•       Market Trend Detection Module: A feature that detects strong market trends or significant changes in sector performance.

•       Sector Analysis Tool: A tool to conduct in-depth analysis of sectors to identify potential opportunities for buying recommendations.

•       Sentiment Analysis Engine: A system that scrapes and analyzes sentiment data from news articles, social media, and financial reports, and integrates it into the model.

•       User Interface for Stock Screening: An interactive interface where users can input their screening criteria and view stock recommendations in real-time.

Project Coordinator: [TBA]

Project Mentor: [TBA]

Project #11

FY2024/25
Term 2

Fulfills BA

Tiger Fund - Fund Management

Using Artificial Intelligence to Time the Market

The project aims to build a machine learning-based system that assists portfolio managers with accurate market timing by predicting the prices of major Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) such as SPY (S&P 500 ETF) and TLT (Treasury Bond ETF).

The core component of this system will be an AI model, potentially using a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network, which will predict future prices based on a blend of economic, fundamental, sentiment, and technical data.

The model will be designed to continuously learn and adapt to evolving financial environments, making real-time predictions.

The data inputs will be aggregated from reliable financial sources like FRED, World Bank, Yahoo Finance, and sentiment analysis from news outlets, social media, and financial reports to develop a comprehensive model.

Accurate market timing is one of the most challenging tasks for portfolio managers. Market prices fluctuate based on a wide range of factors, including economic indicators, fundamental analysis, market sentiment, and technical trends. Traditional financial models often fail to capture the complexity and rapid changes in market dynamics. This project seeks to bridge the gap by leveraging machine learning to forecast ETF prices more accurately and continuously adapt to changing market conditions.

Project Inputs:

•       Project sponsors will share sufficient context so students can understand how/where this project brings value to users.

Project Deliverables:

•       AI Prediction Model: A machine learning model trained to predict the prices of SPY and TLT based on technical, economic, fundamental, and sentiment data. An AI system capable of retraining itself as new data becomes available, allowing for adaptation to market changes.

•       Backtesting: To engage in backtesting of the model in order to ensure the reliability of the system

•       Sentiment Analysis Engine: A system that scrapes and analyzes sentiment data from news articles, social media, and financial reports, and integrates it into the model.

•       Risk Appetite Indicator: A composite indicator driven by sentiment analysis, measuring market risk aversion or appetite to inform predictions.

•       Data Pipeline: Web scraping and integration pipeline to pull continuous data from FRED, World Bank, Yahoo Finance, and other relevant sources.

•       Dashboard Interface: A user-friendly dashboard to display model predictions, risk appetite indicators, and relevant metrics.

Project Coordinator: [TBA]

Project Mentor: [TBA]

Project #12

FY2024/25
Term 2

Fulfills BA

UBS -  Equities

News Screener For Relevant Investment Opportunities

Bankers and Investment counselors (ICs) develop deep relationships with clients and provide them with relevant investment and opportunities advices based on client’s needs.

The ask is to create a tool that:
Scans publicly available social media and news sources for news about relevant sector’s or region’s current and ongoing events and their co-related relevant companies or entities.

Summarize these views to a digestible format for Client Advisor, Ensure each data point has a source link, that would enable the Client Advisor to verify that the subject is indeed relevant to preferences of their client.

Freedom to use visualization & analysis tools, generative AI, APIs and technology of the team’s choice. However the solution should be hosted in an Azure Cloud.

Example: Tools scans news from the ‘Financial Times’ for relevant sector ‘Real Estate’ and region ‘China’, Based on the news coverage, it identifies the current market trend and effected companies and instruments relevant to those companies and provides a relevant view to client advisors.

Given current volatile world and lots of information being generated every moment, analysts require smart intelligent tools to sort through all those and provide clients with relevant investment advices on timely manner. The tool is to automated way to scan news, provide digest about the news in categories like sector, region and entity. Also to provide relevant  sentiment of the news.

Project Inputs:

•       Project sponsors will provide 5 entity names, and suggested data sources on which the output should be created

•       Project Sponsors will review at regular intervals the outputs to refine requirements and usability of output.

•       We will provide support on how to perform identity matching for the entities.

•       Team can use AI tools to discover digest of news (e.g. news is about ‘Real Estate’ sector.)

Project Deliverables:

•       Working dashboard that provides a real view of relevant sectors and entities.

•       View provides contextual correlated sentiment assessment of entities.

•       View provides trigger notifications when significant activity threshold is breached (optional).

•       View provides collected historical information and perform system end to end risk and returns on entities.

•       Ability to collect data from different sources.

 

Project Coordinator: Kumar, Ajith-A

Project Mentor: Hossain, Mohammad-Jahangir

Project #13

FY2024/25
Term 2

UBS -  Mobile banking

Modern web application and Native Mobile application for

Portfolio viewing of a banking customer

There are already a quite a lot of Banking asset viewing and portfolio viewing apps in the market currently. Having a great user experience for such apps are key for success of any business. User experience is garnered from Customer experience strategy, research and design. Understanding user behavior and human computer interaction techniques are key in designing and implementing next gen user experience application is key.

In this project you will produce native iOS/Android mobile application and web application using latest technology which inculcates great customer experience design , user experience design and wireframes. There are already great deal of research materials on this subject, so need a both balanced academic view and already existing app view to come out with a great application to do portfolio viewing of a Banking clients assets. The backend may have mock data to begin with so not really expecting the app to work end to end. Key success criteria are to have a great visual and customer experience for these apps.

This project aims to develop a banking portfolio viewing application which targets the upcoming generation of banking application consumers, ie. Gen Z and Millennials. Additionally, we will enhance the user experience of our application by implementing specific design considerations obtained through rigorous user research and analysis of human-computer interactions.

Project Inputs:

•       Technology services mentor will provide insights on deep knowledge on the subject

•       Help students to formulate the solution ideation

•       Provide the expertise where necessary for the group to produce a industry standard solution

Project Deliverables:

Must Have:

•       Working Mobile application for asset viewing targeted at Gen-Z age group

•       Design and develop a prototype which has a high customer experience design and HCI.

Nice To Have:

•       Fully working backend is not a requirement. Application can have a static data to power the application.

 

Project Coordinator: Kumar, Ajith-A Project Mentors: Sanghavi,

Seema

Project #14

FY2024/25
Term 2

UBS -  Regulatory Compliance

FinRegScanner

Banks have to adhere to multiple market and exchange related financial regulations. The compliance function has to be vigilant in identifying the regulations that are published by various countries, regions and by industry bodies and implement them on time. If a bank is not regulatory compliant, that could lead to various repercussions from financial penalties, reputational impact to even posing a risk to the financial system as a whole.

Once a regulation is identified, few companies look out for vendor solutions and few companies build solutions in-house and this often requires a lot of coordination among various functions/teams to ensure that the regulation gets adhered to on time.

Hence, it would great if technology can help to assist and simplify the regulatory project management and implementation.

Right from identification of a financial regulation that the bank needs to adhere to, till the implementation, is very complex to manage, time intensive and costly affair.

Build a solution that can act as an assistive tool to Compliance function of an organization to help detect, plan and manage regulatory impacts in a timely manner within the organization.

Project Inputs:

•       Project Sponsors will provide information about regulatory data sources and will also give a brief overview of Financial Regulatory Landscape and relevant support wherever required

•       Project Sponsors will review the output at regular intervals to provide feedback and to refine requirements

Project Deliverables:

Must Have:

1)    Identify upcoming regs and their regulatory deadline

2)    Summarize the requirements for each impacted business division and able to query the regulatory text and get answers

3)    Apply a chatbot feature to query the QnA

4)    Provide a dashboard to visualize the key features of the regulations.

Nice To Have:

1)    Build a machine learning model to classify the regulation, identify the potential impacts for each business division

2)    Provide a comparison with other regulations of similar nature

 

Project Coordinator: Kumar, Ajith-A

Project Mentors: Kumar, Phanindra; Kumar, Ajith-A

Project #15

FY2024/25
Term 2

UBS -  Wealth Management

Gamified Financial Literacy Application

Financial Literacy is essential in wealth management as it enables individuals to make informed decisions about growing, protecting and preserving their assets.

The ask is to create a gamified financial literacy app that teaches essential money management skills through interactive challenges, quizzes, activities, simulations and make financial education engaging and fun for all ages. Users earn badges and unlock new levels as they progress through next stages in their learning paths consisting of topics ranging from time value of money, insurance, emergency fund, asset allocation, budgeting, saving, investing etc.

Financial Literacy is essential in wealth management as it enables individuals to make informed decisions about growing, protecting and preserving their assets.

The ask is to create a gamified financial literacy app that teaches essential money management skills through interactive challenges, quizzes, activities, simulations and make financial education engaging and fun for all ages. Users earn badges and unlock new levels as they progress through next stages in their learning paths consisting of topics ranging from time value of money, insurance, emergency fund, asset allocation, budgeting, saving, investing etc.

Project Inputs:

•       Project sponsors will share sufficient information regarding the various aspects of personal finance

•       Mentors will guide the students on building learning paths and scenario simulations

•       Mentors will review the progress at regular intervals to refine requirements and usability of the app.

Project Deliverables:

Must Have:

•       Fully functional responsive / mobile native application with at least 2-3 financial literacy learning paths.

•       Excellent user experience with security features implemented.

•       Real time analytics to track progress with personalized insights and badges

•       Admin dashboard showing the learning progress, and the badges earned by all the users.

Nice To Have:

•       Integration with ChatGPT or other LLMs for personal finance scenario simulations

Project Coordinator: Kumar, Ajith-A

Project Mentors: Gopalan Ramakrishnan

Archived Past Projects and Groups

AY2024/25 Term 1
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IDAhC4JiK3RuKnIDQMG5UjJ6I1IiImo81Lu13wAuUxE/edit#gid=491663198

Past Project Descriptions
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f7r2y1n6USWAYVTVyWkZkYxJt7HCoxlc-z3jAGzX7LQ/edit?gid=0#gid=0