Financial technology is getting increasing attention. Until the first half of 2018, the global FinTech startups has invested a total of US$57.8 billion. To accelerate the development of Taiwan's financial technology applications, the Industry Liaison Office of National Taiwan University (NTU ILO) and E.SUN Bank established the “E.SUN-NTU AI and FinTech Development Center,” which is the first industry-academia collaboration center subordinate to the "FinTech Center" of National Taiwan University.
The center was opened today by the Vice President of NTU, Ming-Syan Chen, R&D Chief, Pai-Chi Li, Dean of the College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Yao-wen Chang, Director of the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Yung-Yu Chuang, Director of FinTech Center, Zhi-Xing Chang, the CEO of E.SUN Financial Holding Company, Nan-Zhou Huang, and the Technology Chief, Sheng-Wei Chen.
Combining the research and development resources from academia and industry, the center aims at bringing artificial intelligence and financial technology to user needs and opening a new era of Taiwan's smart finance development. The industry-academia collaboration will last two years, with E.SUN Bank paying more than 10 million on research funds each year.
The E.SUN-NTU AI and FinTech Development Center works towards international financial research. As the first cooperation project of NTU FinTech Center, this institution has computing devices that fully support the development and communication of the research team. In near future, combining the research resources of the colleges of EECS and management as well as the practical operation data and experience of E.SUN, this center will carry out research and development on applications of financial technology with AI approaches.
The Vice President of NTU, Ming-Syan Chen, claimed that “Industry-academia collaboration is an important mechanism that rapidly improve Taiwan’s economy. For this reason, NTU has been in close touch with the industry. Sponsored by a startup company, this cooperation by the Industry Liaison Office of National Taiwan University (NTU ILO) is the biggest since its foundation. The mediation by ILO will help linking enterprises and academic resources with diversification, maximizing the practical operation data and experience of E.SUN, promoting technology and human resources development, and accelerating the development of forward-looking fintech applications.”
The CEO of E.SUN Financial Holding Company, Nan-Zhou Huang, said, “E.SUN Bank has long been looking at customer’s needs, focusing on financial scene, smart finance, and inclusive finance, as well as developing financial technology and AI applications. NTU is a comprehensive university with diversified resources, expert technical knowledge, and excellent human resources. This industry-academia collaboration combines technologies of AI deep learning, keyword spotting of speech recognition, irregular activity monitoring, rendering AI and financial technology to practical use. E.SUN will keep striving to offer warm customer experience.”
NTU’s team for research center covers the colleges of EECS, engineering, law, and management, along with centers for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics and FinTech. First, Zhi-Xing Chang and SD Lin from the graduate institute of networking and multimedia, Yung-Yao Chen from the department of electrical engineering, and Ling-Jie Kong from the department of information management will lead over 30 researchers. As the project moves forward, more resources will be provided.
Research project of the E.SUN-NTU AI and FinTech Development Center include keyword spotting of speech recognition and irregular activity monitoring, etc. Designed for actual problems encountered in market operation, the center aims at solving these by AI applications through NTU’s R&D resources.
[About the Industry Liaison Office of National Taiwan University]
NTU ILO was founded for purposes of introducing industrial resources to academia through collaboration with enterprises, building up innovative system, achieving multiply effect in academic research, and creating social benefits and industrial value. Through integrated platform between the school and the industry, ILO strives for making NTU the most influential university to industrial development, innovation, and transformation. For more information, please visit: https://ntuilo.ilo.ntu.edu.tw/
[About FinTech@NTU]
Through industry-academia collaboration, innovative services of information technology, and applications of new business models, NTU FinTech Center looks forward to enhancing the financial technology industry and the competitiveness of our country and developing cross-disciplinary financial applications that meet market needs: including green energy technology, Internet of Things, biotechnology, precision machinery, and arms industry. In accordance to financial technology regulations, this institution aims at promoting realization of data research and safety, boosting the development of financial industry, creating digitalized services and business models, and actively helping on the transformation of small and medium enterprises by using small & medium enterprise credit guarantee fund.
