19 August 2020 – The Asian Institute of Digital Finance (AIDF) will be funding three research projects by NUS Computing Associate Professors He Bingsheng, Huang Ke-Wei and Liang Zhenkai.
AIDF is a new research institute jointly set up by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the National Research Foundation (NRF), and NUS.
The institute will focus on developing deep and long-standing capabilities in financial technology (fintech) education and research. It aims to create and commercialise fintech innovations that will help the financial services sector in Singapore and Asia address these and other challenges.
AIDF will be led by Professor Duan Jin-Chuan, the Jardine Cycle & Carriage Professor of Finance at the NUS Business School, and is due to begin operating by the end of the year.
Apart from offering scholarships, a Master’s programme at NUS, and training post-doctoral fellows in digital finance and fintech, AIDF will pursue foundational and inter-disciplinary research projects covering fundamental digital infrastructure, performance optimisation of business processes, and advanced application development research on cyber, fraud and anti-money laundering challenges.
The research institute will provide a total of S$10.65 million in grants over five years for four selected research projects. Three of these four research projects will be led by these NUS Computing professors.
A/P He will lead a research project on real-time fraud management, prevention, and detection using graph analytics. A/P Huang will be developing a system to extract, score and quantify financial experts’ comments or predictions from news media, while A/P Liang will be exploring unified protection solutions to provide consistent security for diverse fintech services.
“The findings from these collaborative research projects will benefit traditional financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, and emerging digital banks,” said A/P Huang, who is also AIDF’s Graduate Programs Director and chairman of the AIDF Academic Committee.
Pointing out that the bulk of fintech companies are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), he said that AIDF aims to reach out and connect with these SMEs through strategic collaborations and tie-ups.
The establishment of AIDF will also prove beneficial to NUS in terms of strengthening its teaching and research capabilities, and in attracting talent.
“It consolidates NUS resources and efforts in fintech research and teaching, while industry collaborations enrich teaching programmes and increases our research’s societal relevance. Furthermore, AIDF can help us attract top researchers and students, which will make NUS a more attractive place to conduct high-quality academic and translational research,” said A/P Huang.
A/P Huang added: “With this grant, NUS Computing researchers will have a platform to exchange and share relevant research or ideas with the broader fintech community.”
