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Financial technology has grown explosively as the internet revolution and the mobile internet revolution, and has been applied to the back office of banks or trading firms.

Utilizing new technologies, like machine learning and predictive behavioral analytics, Fintech will help institutional clients further refine their investment decisions and open new opportunities for financial innovation.


Financial Data Technologies Ltd. (FDT) is a FinTech firm based in Hong Kong led by one of China's most renowned and innovative financier Dr. Ma Weihua. With practitioners and researchers with experiences from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, IBM, Yahoo Inc., Microsoft, and Tencent as its core, FDT is committed to build a financial platform driven by big data, artificial intelligence, deep learning, and mobile technology.


HKUST – BDI, Leveraging on the existing strength and resources of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), the Big Data Institute (BDI) was established upon the needs from both industry and society for a new model for managing multi-disciplinary focal points for Big Data research, by coordinating faculty’s research on Big Data and Data Science at HKUST. BDI will provide a strong and highly visible leadership role in Big Data and Data Science research in Hong Kong and the world...


Microsoft Research Asia has excelled at creating a talent fostering environment, where researchers are free to explore and pursue what interests them. This culture not only drives researchers to develop groundbreaking technologies and work at the cutting edge, but has also made the lab a natural partner for universities and governments. MSRA is committed to seeking broad and deep engagement with academic communities, in order to promote collaboration, cultivate innovation, advance education, and turn ideas into reality.


Experts Invited



Tony Chan
President of HKUST

Tim Cheng
Dean of Engineering, HKUST

Weihua Ma
Chairman & Chief Mentor of FDT

Cally Chan
General Manager of Microsoft HK

Fanqi Nie
Founder and CEO of FDT

Qifeng Liu
FDT-AI, Co-Founder & CEO & Chief Data Scientist

Henry Ma
VP&CIO of Webank

Ying Yan
Lead researcher from Microsoft Research Asia

James Lei
Acting Director of ASTRI

Ihab Ilyas
Professor of Waterloo University

Yang Qiang
Head of Department of Computer Science & Engineering, HKUST


Time: 9:30 am, Nov 24th, 2017

Venue: IAS Lecture Theatre in HKUST


Global University Fintech Education Forum
Start End Content
9:30 10:00 Registry
10:00 10:20 Open speech
- Prof. Tony Chan, President of HKUST
- Prof. Tim Cheng, Dean of Engineering, HKUST
- Dr. Weihua Ma, Chairman & Chief Mentor of FDT
- Ms Cally Chan, General Manager from Microsoft Hong Kong
Keynote Speech
10:20 11:00 "AI and Big Data in Fintech"
by Dr. Qifeng Liu, FDT-AI, Co-Founder & CEO & Chief Data Scientist
Abstract: FDT-AI is researching and implementing how to leverage AI and Big Data to describe inner/intra daily trader's financial behaviour and further optimise and personalise the long temporal series of finance trading and long-term investing. Besides introduction of method and theory, Dr.Liu will bring up successful products and solutions, such as FDTScore for top trader selection, FDT robot advisor cloud for wealth management, intelligent resource allocation for hedge fund trading optimisation, intelligent market prediction for day-trading…
11:00 11:40 "FinTech: Enabler of Inclusive Finance"
by Mr. Henry Ma, VP and CIO of Webank
Abstract: This presentation introduces WeBank's positioning on FinTech - an enabler of inclusive finance. By leveraging advances in technologies such as AI, Blockchain, Cloud computing and Big Data, users’ experience can be improved while reducing cost, thus bringing various financial services to a wider audience.
11:40 12:20 "Building Enterprise Blockchain Ecosystem"
by Dr. Ying Yan, Lead researcher from Microsoft Research Asia
Abstract: Blockchain is an emerging technology with the potential to change the way businesses, industries, and public organizations conduct and verify transactions, thereby streamlining business processes, saving cost, and reducing the potential for fraud. Given such benefits, in our rapidly evolving digital economy, it won’t be long before blockchain technology is a key foundation for distributed enterprise and consumer applications. In this talk, Dr.Yan will introduce Microsoft’s newly announced Blockchain Framework - Coco, which is an open-source system that enables high-scale, confidential blockchain networks that meet all key enterprise requirements—providing a means to accelerate production enterprise adoption of blockchain technology. Besides Coco, some real Blockchain scenarios, Blockchain ecosystems and BaaS are also included in the talk.
12:20 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 14:40 "FinTech - The Challenges and Opportunities"
by Dr. James Lei, Acting Director of ASTRI
Abstract: Financial Technologies are driving an unprecedented experience in many applications and the fundamental transformation in the industry. Dr.Lei will discuss the major challenges and opportunities in this ever-changing world of FinTech - the intersection of finance and technology.
14:40 15:20 "Building Scalable Machine Learning Solutions for Data Curation"
by Prof. Ihab Ilyas, University of Waterloo
Abstract: Machine learning tools promise to help solve data curation problems. While the principles are well understood, the engineering details in configuring and deploying ML techniques are the biggest hurdle. In this talk Prof.Ihab discuss why leveraging data semantics and domain-specific knowledge is key in delivering the optimizations necessary for truly scalable ML curation solutions. The talk focuses on two main problems: (1) entity consolidation, which is arguably the most difficult data curation challenge because it is notoriously complex and hard to scale; and (2) using probabilistic inference to suggest data repair for identified errors and anomalies using our new system called HoloCLean. Both problems have been challenging researchers and practitioners for decades due to the fundamentally combinatorial explosion in the space of solutions and the lack of ground truth. There’s a large body of work on this problem by both academia and industry. Techniques have included human curation, rules-based systems, and automatic discovery of clusters using predefined thresholds on record similarity Unfortunately, none of these techniques alone has been able to provide sufficient accuracy and scalability. The talk aims at providing deeper insight into the entity consolidation and data repair problems and discusses how machine learning, human expertise, and problem semantics collectively can deliver a scalable, high-accuracy solution.
15:20 16:00 "AI Powered Fintech"
by Prof. Qiang Yang, Director of BDI, HKUST
Abstract: AI needs to find the “right” business setting to be truly beneficial. In FINTECH area, AI can naturally become an enabling technology. In this talk, Prof.Yang will give an overview of AI + FINTECH and highlight some examples of successful applications.
BeeVest Plan Launching
16:00 16:10 BeeVest Plan Introduction
Research Demonstration
16:10 17:00 Poster / Demo
Concurrent Coffee Break
Panel Discussion
17:00 18:00 Panel Discussion: "AI in FinTech"
Moderator: Prof. Tim Cheng
Dr. Qifeng Liu, Dr. James Lei, Prof. Ihab Ilyas, Prof. Qiang Yang, Dr. Ying Yan
Howard Chen, Founder & CEO of GtechFin
18:00 18:10 Award ceremony for demo/ poster students
- 1 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze awards
18:10 Ending