Innovation Hub

The Hub provides a physical space for innovation that brings together all stakeholders. The overarching goal of the Hub is to create a local ecosystem of academics, students, and entrepreneurs that drive innovation and contribute to the Algorand ecosystem. The Hub works closely with the MPhil in Fintech course, where students are taught hard (coding) skills in order to empower them to start their own company or make a meaningful impact in society.

During their Masters thesis, students have between 3 to 12 months to take an idea from purely academic research and develop it into a prototype. This can either be in the form of an open source project or a commercially viable company. The Hub will work in conjunction with these students, providing support to significantly increase the number of students who start their own companies.

Importantly, the Financial Innovation Hub will bring together Masters students with PhD students and Postdoctoral researchers who help translate the latest academic research into viable projects. On the other hand, the Hub will also facilitate the transfer of knowledge from the practical and application realm back to academic work. This creates a virtuous cycle between practically relevant research and research-relevant innovation. The research into blockchain applications falls under three categories: decentralized finance (DeFi) specifically the benefits of tokenization in a decentralized marketplace, blockchain for food traceability and exploring blockchain to manage digital property rights.

Explore some of the ventures our students and staff have started.