A new fintech lab has opened at the Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business, covering topics of finance, real estate, data analytics, risk management, insurance, and more.
The new lab will be the first of its kind in Georgia and among the few currently existing in the United States. The facility will focus on exploring how practices such as machine learning, blockchain technology, and data analytics can help businesses to operate intelligently through the use of trading, credit risk modeling, and other algorithms.
The lab will be open to students, faculty, and corporate partners, providing them with an opportunity to experiment with some of the newest technologies in financial services. The first projects will see lab users utilizing sales data and company financial documents to experiment with the implementation of new alternative financial application platforms.
Robinson College of Business Dean Richard Phillips commented on the importance of the lab in providing hands-on experience for business students in a news release, saying, “This new lab is the next step in the strategy Robinson has been executing over the past two years of integrating computer science and related disciplines into the core activities of the business school to better prepare our students for the business environment of tomorrow.”
The use of the lab will vary depending on field, with a number of ways for the user to gain practical experience through the use of simulations and access to virtual data sets.
“We are encouraging our corporate partners to think of the fintech lab as an innovation garage where they can bring complex problems and collaborate with our data scientists and students to gain insights,” Phillips added.
Georgia is one of the nation’s leaders in fintech employment, following only New York and California, according to the Technology Association of Georgia. Fintech pulls in annual revenue of more than $70 billion for Georgia, employing more than 30,000 residents.