Our R&D Funding Scheme aims to provide funding for scholars in HKU to conduct research and development (R&D) on FinTech related work. These projects highlight a wider range of areas of expertise than that would be found in any other HK universities.

2024 Research Projects

TabGPT: Pretraining a Tabular Generative Pretrained Transformer Model for Heterogeneous Tabular Data in Finance

PI: Dr Qi LIU, HKU

Metaverse Connect: Empowering Connection through a User-Centered Metaverse

PI: Dr Loretta Yi-King CHOI

Progress work package on chain: automatic payment and incentive collaboration

PI: Dr LI Xiao

The Economics of Creator Royalties: Big Data and Sentiment Analysis in Non-fungible Tokens Market

PI: Prof Chen LIN

Incentivizing Robust Blockchain-FL FinTech Services for Heterogeneous Financial Institutions

PI: Dr Edith Cheuk Han NGAI

Privacy-aware Data Trading in Smart Cities

PI: Dr Xianhao CHEN

Towards Robust and Interpretable Graph Learning for Online Financial Services

PI: Dr Chao HUANG

Controllable and Personalized Non-fungible Tokens (NFT) Art Creation with Generative AI

PI: Dr Xihui LIU

2023 Research Projects

TabGPT: Pretraining a Tabular Generative Pretrained Transformer Model for Heterogeneous Tabular Data in Finance

PI: Dr Qi LIU, HKU

Metaverse Connect: Empowering Connection through a User-Centered Metaverse

PI: Dr Loretta Yi-King CHOI

Progress work package on chain: automatic payment and incentive collaboration

PI: Dr LI Xiao

The Economics of Creator Royalties: Big Data and Sentiment Analysis in Non-fungible Tokens Market

PI: Prof Chen LIN

Incentivizing Robust Blockchain-FL FinTech Services for Heterogeneous Financial Institutions

PI: Dr Edith Cheuk Han NGAI

Privacy-aware Data Trading in Smart Cities

PI: Dr Xianhao CHEN

Towards Robust and Interpretable Graph Learning for Online Financial Services

PI: Dr Chao HUANG

Controllable and Personalized Non-fungible Tokens (NFT) Art Creation with Generative AI

PI: Dr Xihui LIU

2022 Research Projects

This year, the Academy has funded 15 FinTech projects with a total amount of HK$4.4M, covering topics including but not limited to anti-money laundering, blockchain, big data, digital finance, and non-fungible tokens.

Asset Pricing in Non-fungible Tokens and Big Data Analysis

PI: Prof. Chen Lin, HKU
Co-I: Dr. Yang You, HKU

BitAnalysis: A Visual Analytical System for Bitcoin Wallet Investigation

PI: Dr. Yujing Sun, HKU
Co-I: Prof. S.M. Yiu, HKU

Blockchain Enabled Peer-to-Peer Multi-Energy Trading

PI: Dr. Yi Wang, HKU

Data Detecting money laundering through Bitcoin mixer by traces

PI: Dr. K.P. Chow, HKU

Deep learning methods for constructing sparse mean-reverting portfolios and cointegration of financial time series

PI: Dr. Zhiwen Zhang, HKU

FINO: Achieving High-performance and Reliable Transaction/Analytical Processing for Enabling Financial Big-data Analytics in Edge Computing

PI: Dr. Heming Cui, HKU

Hardware acceleration of high-frequency trading strategies with memristor crossbars

PI: Dr. Can Li, HKU

In Bitcoin We Trust: Social Media Sentiment and Cryptocurrency Returns

PI: Prof. Tse-Chun Lin, HKU

Learning from Financial Transactions with Graph Neural Networks for Anti-Money Laundering

PI: Dr. Qi Liu, HKU
Co-I: Prof. S.M. Yiu, HKU

Narrowing the Gap Between Ethereum’s Specifications and Implementations via Model Checking

PI: Dr. Chenxiong Qian, HKU

On-chain storage of personal genome to enable programmable privacy: why, what, where, and how?

PI: Dr. Ruibang Luo, HKU
Co-I: Prof. T.W. Lam, HKU

Private Set Intersection for Data Exchange

PI: Dr. John T.H. Yuen, HKU

Secure Blockchain-Empowered Federated Learning for FinTech

PI: Dr. Edith C.H. Ngai, HKU

Stock Recommendation, Contributor Information Disclosure and Stock Abnormal Returns in Online Investment Communities – A Signaling Theory Perspective

PI: Prof. Yulin Fang, HKU

The FinTech Workforce

PI: Prof. Roni Michaely, HKU
Co-I: Prof. Jillian Grennan, UC Berkeley

2021 Research Projects

This year, the Academy has funded 14 FinTech projects with a total of HK$4M, covering a wide range of topics such as digital finance, non-fungible tokens, digital footprints, financial inclusion and sustainable development.

A Deep Learning Model for Stock Return Prediction Using Social Media Data

PI: Dr. Michael Chau, HKU
Co-I: Dr. Wenwen Li, Fudan University

Assessment of SME Credit Risk using Advanced Machine Learning and Big Data Methods

PI: Prof. Chen Lin, HKU
Co-Is: Dr. Luo Ye, HKU & Dr. Mingzhu Tai, HKU

Computational model to enhance the admissibility of Bitcoin tracing heuristics at the Court of Law

PI: Prof. K.P. Chow, HKU

Crypto-token incentive mechanism to construct ESG Index

PI: Prof. George Q Huang, HKU
Co-I: Dr. Yelin Fu, HKU

Cryptocurrency with Enhanced Security: Post-Quantum and Threshold Cryptography

PI: Dr. Allen M.H. Au, HKU

Data-Driven Labor Market Analysis, Modeling and Prediction

PI: Dr. Jia Pan, HKU
Co-I: Dr. Wenfeng Wang, City University of Hong Kong

Digital Finance and the Changing Patterns of Crime

PI: Dr. Zhuang Liu, HKU
Co-I: Prof. Yan Shen, Peking University

Fake News Detection in Financial Markets: Methodology and Capital Market Implications

PI: Dr. Peeyush Taori, HKU

Investor Sentiment and Cryptocurrency Return

PI: Dr. Fangzhou Lu, HKU

New Systems and Algorithms for Realizing Efficient, Scalable, and General Permissioned Blockchains 

PI: Dr. Heming Cui, HKU

Personal genetic data as non-fungible tokens on layer-2 Ethereum to enable self-governance and incentivized exchange

PI: Dr. Ruibang Luo, HKU
Co-I: Prof. T.W. Lam, HKU

SocioLink: Leveraging Knowledge Graph for Startup Recommendations in Venture Capital

PI: Dr. Hailiang Chen, HKU
Co-I: Prof. Jianliang Leon Zhao, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

The Economic Applications of Firm-Specific Digital Footprints

PI: Dr. Alan Kwan, HKU
Co-Is: Prof. Andrew Karolyi, Cornell University, Dr. Ben Matties, Notre Dame College, Dr. Yukun Liu, University of Rochester & Dr. Gaurav Kankanhalli, University of Pittsburgh

The Role of International Human Rights Law at the Intersection of FinTech, Financial Inclusion, and Sustainable Development

PI: Prof. Douglas Arner, HKU
Co-I: Dr. Kuzi Charamba, HKU

2020 Research Projects

In 2020-2021, the Academy has funded four exciting projects in FinTech with a total of HK$3.3M in the first year. These projects highlight a wider range of areas of expertise than that would be found in any other HK universities, and also addressing timely issues like financial fluctuations due to COVID-19 and next-generation digital currency.

Digital Finance, Financial Inclusion and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

PI: Prof. Douglas Arner, HKU
Co-Is: Dr. Giulian Castellan, HKU
Prof. Ross P. Buckley, UNSW, Australia
Prof. Dirk A. Zetzsche, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

HKU Coin: Towards Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Cryptocurrency with Accountability

PI: Dr. Allen Au, HKU 

Financial Volatility and Digital Finance

PI: Prof. Chen Lin, HKU

A visualization assisted abnormal trading detection system for multi-crypto currencies

PI: Prof. SM Yiu, HKU
Co-I: Prof. TW Lam, HKU