FinTech Incubator

FTI will act as a matchmaker by bringing together enterprises, entrepreneurs, students, data services, training and consulting services, and AI/ML processing services in a way that will benefit students, entrepreneurs, and the local and state FinTech ecosystem.

1. Assist in the growth of the FinTech talent pool in Massachusetts through a two-fold approach that prepares our students to enter the workforce as well-qualified FinTech professionals, while also upskilling the existing labor force.
2. Maximize the economic impact of a healthy, thriving, and growing business sector. This can be achieved by:
   • Helping local enterprises improve their financial and operational performance through AI/ML-based FinTech applications.
   • Developing and supporting strategies for Small and Mid-size Enterprises (SMEs) for business transition and sustainability.
   • Providing targeted support to SMEs, nonprofit organizations, and underserved businesses to facilitate equity, diversity, and inclusion in the marketplace.
3. Incubate and hatch Massachusetts-based FinTech start-ups.

The FTI will have three important functions: providing FinTech workforce development, being a technical resource for qualified local FinTech start-ups, and serving as a platform for research collaboration with local enterprises.

FinTech Training & Development

The FTI will help with the development of skills needed to support the FinTech ecosystem in the Commonwealth by:

• Preparing WNE students for careers in AI/ML and FinTech by teaching hands-on classes with the most current information.
• Providing financial markets, social media datasets, and computer power for model building to WNE students who want to complete capstone/research projects in AI/ML and FinTech12.
• Providing datasets and AI/ML platforms that are optimized and automated based on ML pipelines for model development and deployment to local colleges.

Promote & Support Local FinTech Initiatives

• Host local events to promote FinTech innovations in the local communities./li>
• Work with local start-ups focused on FinTech who may be seeking to develop pre-commercialization/proof-of-concept projects.

Foster Industry Partnerships

• Work with industry partners on sponsored research in the FinTech space.
• We see opportunities for applying FinTech to sports, gaming, and other forms of entertainment, as well as bringing the power of FinTech to small businesses and nonprofit organizations.

• Lambda Echelon cluster hardware, consisting of multiple NVIDIA A100 GPU systems that can be used to build AI/ML models.
• Dell servers to build a PostgreSQL server cluster for database management.
• 500TB VAST data storage system to store the stock market, social media, and news datasets, as well as datasets from business clients.
• Equipment storage space in the data center on the WNE campus that is equipped with air conditioning, UPS, and internet connectivity.
• Dedicated meeting space for FTI activities on the WNE campus.

The FTI will provide the following services:

Data Services

A data platform where datasets from different sources are harmonized, secured, and easily accessible to users via standard SQL queries. The FTI will work with providers to continuously update these datasets so that the data available to users is current.

AI/ML Processing Services

The AI data center will be built around the Nvidia DGX A100 infrastructure, which is a universal system for all AI and machine learning (ML) workloads. It will allow the FTI clients the ability to run the model training, inference, and analytics workloads necessary to develop new AI/ML-based FinTech applications, without the cost and time constraints typically associated with cloud-based development platforms.

Training Services

Courses on AI/ML model building, evaluation, and deployment will be provided to undergraduate and graduate students at WNE and other regional institutions.

The FTI will also hold a series of training workshops for local enterprises to familiarize them with the financial and operational benefits of AI/ML adoption and the services available via the incubator.

Twice a year, WNE will hold in-person training workshops for interested clients and emerging and existing entrepreneurs. Attendees will be trained on AI/ML model building, evaluation, and deployment using the FTI infrastructure.

Consulting Services

The FTI will work with clients to explore ways they can use their data to help them improve performance. Based on these conversations, the FTI can work with enterprises to bring their data onto the FTI data platform. Then student teams or local entrepreneurs using the AI/ML processing resources can help these organizations build AI/ML models. Other services may include helping clients refine data collection and formatting; assisting them with understanding data storage and management; and assuring they address issues of data security, privacy, and cybersecurity.

The FTI will work with the organizations to anonymize the data before uploading it to the FTI data platform. FTI personnel will also work with clients to ensure that internal organizational protocols, data management, privacy, compliance, and cybersecurity issues are raised with clients as appropriate, and recommendations to address any issues are delivered to the client as part of the FTI client intake.

WNE has several committed project partners:

• Polygon.io (primary financial market data provider)
• Finnhub.io (secondary financial market data provider)
• Scott Investments (additional support)

Our Management Team is highly qualified with well-established relationships with local and regional enterprises and community organizations that will be directly leveraged to promote and broaden the use of the FTI.

Executive Director: TBA

Director of the WNE FinTech Incubator: Dr. Charles Mutigwe, Associate Professor of Business Analytics and Information Management, Western New England University

Associate Director for Entrepreneurship: Dr. Mary Schoonmaker, Associate Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Western New England University

Associate Director for FinTech: Dr. Bryan Schmutz, Associate Professor of Finance, Western New England University

Western New England University is committed to creating and sustaining a campus culture that exemplifies the ideals of a diverse, pluralistic, and interconnected global society. Specifically, WNE will focus on the advancement of social justice, diversity, and scholarship to create a campus culture that supports all members of the community with a strong sense of belonging.

To that end, the University has partnered with NITE (the National Institute for Transformation and Equity), led by Dr. Sam Museus of the University of California, San Diego. NITE conducted a benchmark assessment in the spring of 2022 and is providing professional training for students, faculty, and staff.

The FTI management team and College of Business are committed to ongoing programming and events designed to introduce STEM programming to traditionally underrepresented populations in STEM and FinTech. Current collaborations include:

• Annual Women in Business event with College of Business student organization, Women in Business.
• Digital Connectors Program and SUL Youth STEM Enrichment Program with the Urban League of Springfield.
• FinTech Bootcamp for area high school students, hosted at WNE.