MIT launches first graduate-level course in the country on financial technology applications

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and the Finance Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, in collaboration with the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Harvard Law School, have launched a new, groundbreaking course called FinTech Ventures, the first graduate-level course covering financial technology applications in the United States.

"MIT has always been at the forefront in financial innovation and as financial technology is becoming more important in the financial world, we thought it was imperative to have a class covering this new trend," says Antoinette Schoar, Michael M. Koerner (1949) Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance, who co-leads the course together with Bill Aulet, Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.

Throughout the courses' seven weeks, students will explore different sub-industries within the FinTech space, including consumer finance, payments, trading and cryptocurrencies. Enrolled students will be asked to develop business plans for their own FinTech ideas in teams that will be eligible to compete in the new MIT FinTech Competition in early April 2016.

"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," says Carlos S. Altable (MIT Sloan MBA '16), the FinTech Practice Leader at the Martin Trust Center who helped to develop the course together with Schoar and Aulet.

Aulet has run similar "Ventures" model courses at MIT Sloan where they function as cornerstones of innovation ecosystems in a particular industry. "What makes these Ventures courses so powerful," says Aulet, who also leads the very successful Energy Ventures course, "is to have a group of smart students with strong enthusiasm to start companies in the same industry. It is amazing to see them giving each other honest feedback and constant help."

The MIT Sloan School of Management is where smart, independent leaders come together to solve problems, create new organizations, and improve the world. Learn more at mitsloan.mit.edu.

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SOURCE MIT Sloan School of Management