2021 International FinTech Competition for College Students
I、 Introduction
2021 International FinTech Competition for College Students is an international competition jointly initiated by Shenzhen Finance Institute, CUHK-Shenzhen and Shenzhen Institute of Data Economy for undergraduates, postgraduates and PHD candidates from home and abroad. The boom of digital economy of China and continuous breakthroughs of new-generation information technology such as big data have provided strong momentum for China’s high-quality development. According to the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the CPC Central Committee, China will accelerate digital development, promote the utilization of data resources, release of data dividends, and foster new drivers of economic growth. President Xi Jinping also stressed that “Whoever masters the data will be in control of the initiative. We should promote deeper integration of the Internet, big data and artificial intelligence with real economy”. As an important basis for the development of digital economy, data has become an important force to improve financial efficiency, promote industrial upgrading and improve the quality of enterprise operation. At the same time, big data also provides key support for preventing and controlling financial risks, improving business credit, and safeguarding people's real interests.
For the purpose of deepening the understanding of big data among college students at home and abroad, and cultivating outstanding data talents, the 2021 International FinTech Competition for College Students is officially launched in May, 2021, encouraging participants to select one from the two topics of "industrial datamation" and "data industrialization" to design data products or solutions. To demonstrate the innovative applications of data in promoting high-quality economic development and preventing economic and security risks, participants can submit their projects through one of the six sections, including “Industry Chain Mining for Enterprises”, “Financial Application Data Alliance”, “Data Trading Platform”, "Comparison for Smart City Data in Bay Areas ","Inclusive Finance Service System" and “Self-determined Theme”. In this competition, prominent financial institutions and industry experts will be invited to review, guide and support for the participants. Winners will be fairly selected in accordance with their performance in the final.
II、 Purpose
The Competition aims to train university students on the popularization of big data, increase their attention to financial technology, find talents of financial technology, promote in-depth integration of industries, universities and research institutes, incubate excellent projects and promote innovation and development of financial technology industry.
III、 Details & Regulations
● Participants must finish their sign-up online, and each participant can only register once. All the information submitted online must be complete and accurate.
● Preliminary competition and semi-final will be held online. Participants must log on to the competition website (http://fintechcom.cuhk.edu.cn/) within the specified time and submit their projects.
● The finals will take the form of on-site defense（due to the epidemic prevention situation，online defense may be adopted in the final round）. The results of the competition will be notified to each participant via email after the match. Participants may also pay attention to our WeChat public platform and official website for information announcement.
● Participants must ensure that all the information submitted is true, accurate, complete, and original. There shall be no intellectual property disputes involved and no intellectual property, ownership, right to use, or disposal rights of a third party violated. The participants shall take full responsibilities for the consequences that not receiving notification of the competition and their chance of moving to the next stage of competition in time due to invalid information.
● Participants can discuss, divide and cooperate with other team members on the competition project. It is not allowed to seek assistance from anyone other than the team in project completing and submission in anyway.
IV、 Eligibility & Requirements
● Full-time undergraduates, postgraduates, PHD candidates and students have graduated from university for no more than three years are eligible and welcomed.
● Individual and team participation are both acceptable. One student can only join one team. If participants register as a team, there shall be no more than 5 team members, including at least one undergraduate student, and the other team members shall have graduated from school for no more than three years.
● Participants should register with the name of their school. Each team can only select one school, and one school may have more than one team. After registration, team information is not allowed to be changed.
● All materials must be submitted online during the registration round. All submissions and presentations must be in Chinese or English.
V、 Schedules
● Sign-up: Participants should fill in the information of individuals or team members on the official website and upload materials of all team members as required. After successful sign-up, participants may select one from the six sections on the competition website and then submit their project including project introduction, project plans or program proposal. For example, data organization (if any) and operable program (if any), etc. within a specified period. For the requirement on submission materials, please refer to "Competition Topics and Data-Submission Requirements" in our website. The project is allowed to be submitted repeatedly within the specified time, and the final version submitted within the designated period shall be reviewed.
● Preliminary Competition: After the deadline for sign-up, the organizing committee will conduct qualification verification and preliminary project evaluation. Qualified participants shall receive the authorized account on July 5th to access reference materials and move to the preliminary round. Then, industry mentors will score the submitted project plans online against the judging criteria set by the competition. The top 30 projects will enter the semi-final. The results of the preliminary round will be released on our official WeChat public account and the website in early August.
● Semi-final: All projects that have entered the semi-final shall be offered professional guidance from industry mentors in a one-to-one fashion. Participants may modify or refine their project plan on their own according to the regulation of the final and guidance of mentors during this round. They should submit their final project before the deadline of the semi-final. The top 12 project plans will make it to the final. All members who qualify to the final must complete their identity verification by ID card. The results of the semi-final will be released on our WeChat public account and the website in early September.
● Final & Award Ceremony: The final shall take the form of on-site review and defense （due to the epidemic prevention situation，online defense may be adopted in the final round）. Each participant or team that reaches the final totally has 15 minutes, including an 8-minute presentation and a 7-minute defense. Judges will give their scores against the competition judging criteria, and evaluate the total scores as well as the final ranking based on quality and commercial value of project and participants' on-site performance.
VI、 Fees
FREE
VII、 Schedules
● Sign-up and project submission：2021.05.01-2021.07.10
● Preliminary Competition：2021.07.05-2021.07.31
● Semi-final：2021.08.05-2021.08.31
● Final & Award Ceremony：2021.09.25
VIII、 Incentives
● Domestic participating teams or individuals will receive certificate of participation and keepsake.
（For overseas participants, once you have completed the registration you will be eligible when committee choose 5 projects at random to receive $50 Amazon gift cards.）
● During the competition, participating teams or individuals can view training videos of the related experts.
● All participating teams or individuals will access free professional tutoring from industry mentors. During the Semi-final period, all teams or individuals will get one-to-one tutoring at least once a week.
● Excellent participants may have the opportunity to join the research projects in Shenzhen Finance Institute, CUHK-Shenzhen or Shenzhen Institute of Data Economy.
● Excellent participants may have the opportunity to get the offer from sponsors, co-organizers and participating organizations of the competition.
● The top 3 participants will have the priority to visit prominent universities and enterprises in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. (The specific arrangement will be subjected to the competition committee.)
● The Competition Committee will provide each team 2 free tours to Finals in Shenzhen. （Reimbursement upon receipts. The specific arrangement will be subjected to epidemic situation.）
● The top three groups will have the priority to be recommended to the 2022 Summer Camp of SFI, if participants meet the application requirements.
● The top three groups will be awarded RMB10000，6000，4000 respectively.
IX、 Contact Information
● Sign-up Website：fintechcom.cuhk.edu.cn
● Tel：0755-23372611
● WeChat：fintechsfi-cuhksz
● Email：fintech@cuhk.edu.cn
Attention: Please refer tentative competition programme as above. In case of
discrepancy, the confirmed version released in website shall prevail.
