Research & Innovation

CRAFT Spring 2025 Industry Advisory Board Meeting Highlights Collaborative Fintech Innovations

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CRAFT Director Steve Yang and Co-Director Mohammed J. Zaki provide opening remarks.

The Center for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies (CRAFT) successfully concluded its 8th Industry Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting. Held at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on March 27-28, 2025, the bi-annual meeting brought together leading academic and industry experts to discuss advancements and collaborative opportunities in financial technologies.

Welcoming Remarks and Keynote Address

The meeting commenced with welcoming remarks from CRAFT leadership, including Mohammed Zaki, CRAFT Site Director and Department Head at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Steve Yang, CRAFT Director and Associate Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology; and George Calhoun, CRAFT Managing Director and Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. Deans Liad Wagman of Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management and GJ de Vreede of Stevens’ School of Business also addressed attendees, emphasizing the importance of cross-institutional collaboration in fintech research.

A highlight of the opening session was the keynote address by Saed Shonnar, Director of the AI Hub at BNY Mellon, who provided insights into the evolving role of artificial intelligence in financial services.

Panel Discussion on Digital Disruption in the Age of AI

A group of CRAFT participants speak in the auditorium, smiling. The conference featured a panel discussion titled “Digital Disruption in the Age of AI,” moderated by Graeme Muirhead, Managing Director at Bank of America. Panelists included Kumar Bhaskaran, Financial Services Technology & Innovation Leader, IBM, Liad Wagman, Dean of Lally School of Management, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Saed Shonnar, Director, AI Hub, BNY Mellon, and Philip Barr, Chief Information Officer at Park Avenue Finance. The discussion delved into the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on the financial industry and strategies for navigating this rapidly changing landscape.

University of Connecticut Joins CRAFT

CRAFT was pleased to announce the addition of the University of Connecticut as its newest academic member. Representatives from the university showcased their research synergies and capabilities through six compelling presentations:

  • Asset Allocation with Artificial Neural Networks, Yaacov Kopeliovich

  • Constrained FNN Risk Scoring Models in Telematics Insurance, Bin Zou

  • When Should You Mint or Burn Tokens in DeFi?, Bin Zou

  • Asset Allocation with Artificial Neural Networks, Yaacov Kopeliovich

  • Self-Organized Criticality Model: Predicting Black Swan Events Before They Happen, Mary Salvana

  • Investors in Real Assets When There Are Natural Disasters, Jeff Cohen

These presentations highlighted the University of Connecticut’s commitment to advancing fintech research and its alignment with CRAFT’s mission.

Industry Advisory Board Member Presentations

The meeting also included presentations from Industry Advisory Board members, who shared insights into current industry challenges, use cases, and success stories in fintech. These sessions fostered a collaborative environment for academia and industry to exchange ideas and explore potential research collaborations.

About CRAFT

The Center for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies (CRAFT) is the first fintech-focused Industry University Cooperative Research Center funded by the National Science Foundation. Established by Stevens Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, CRAFT aims to bridge the gap between traditional finance and emerging technologies by fostering collaborative research between academia and industry.

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