At the new UVU FinTech Center, students build career-ready skills through research projects, industry partnerships, and expert mentorship.
Developments in artificial intelligence are redefining what it means to be a business professional, especially in the corporate world of finance and wealth management. Executive leaders are automating operational tasks that once took more time and resources to manage and complete. Clients expect tech-enabled, personalized service for managing and curating their finances, and the gap between what the traditional curriculum of higher education in business teaches and what employers require for organizational success has never been broader. Utah Valley University (UVU) is closing that gap and the new Financial Technology (FinTech) Center at the Woodbury School of Business (WSB) is where that work is happening.
On Jan. 8, 2026, the university unveiled the new UVU FinTech Center, located in the Scott C. Keller Business Building on UVU's Orem campus. The ribbon-cutting ceremony brought together university leadership, faculty, students, and key industry partners, including representatives from the Charles Schwab Foundation, whose multi-year grant helped make the center possible. For the students and broader community, the center represents something larger than a new lab, but rather the institution’s passionate commitment to building the next generation of leaders in financial technology.
Founded and directed by Dr. Rachel Bi, chair of the Finance and Economics Department at the Woodbury School of Business, the center's core mission is to prepare students for careers at the intersection of finance and technology by combining rigorous academic training with the kind of real-world, applied experience that contemporary employers are looking for.
“I believe the value of higher education, especially in the age of AI, is in providing students with a unique educational experience that prepares them for future success. Some of the most high-impact moments happen outside the classroom, when students engage with professionals, work on innovative projects, and gain hands-on learning experiences like those we provide at the UVU FinTech Center,” Dr. Bi remarked.
The center unites the Finance and Economics Department with the Computer Science within the Smith College of Engineering and Technology, creating a meticulous, enriching interdisciplinary environment that mirrors how the financial services industry operates in the modern day.
Students majoring in Finance, Wealth Management and Personal Financial Planning, Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, and Marketing are all eligible to engage in experiential learning opportunities at the UVU FinTech Center. The current student team includes 20 student staff members, representing nine different majors across the university.
Participating students will have the chance to take part in hands-on experiential learning opportunities with the center through two primary pathways: research projects and industry projects. Conducted under Dr. Bi's supervision and mentorship, research projects give students the opportunity to explore emerging technologies including artificial intelligence in financial planning, InsurTech, cryptocurrency, and blockchain applications. Industry projects will connect students directly with organizations and companies, where they will work on authentic, real-life challenges, granting both students and employer partners a meaningful, collaborative experience.
The work already actively underway at the FinTech Center illustrates the exciting, new innovations this kind of interdisciplinary, hands-on synergy can produce. Wealth Management and Personal Financial Planning student Howard Chuang is researching whether AI-powered financial literacy tools can meaningfully improve college students' confidence in managing personal finances, while Terry Zambrano, a junior studying Computational Data Science, is building a platform that enables AI agents to make automatic cryptocurrency payments when accessing online services. Mackenzie Jackson, an alumna of UVU’s Personal Financial Planning program and current Professional MBA student, is developing an InsurTech system that uses real-time data to improve risk prediction for insurers. Ferron Prete, a senior studying Wealth Management and Personal Financial Planning, is developing “EquiBasis”, a tax-aware asset division platform designed to help legal professionals calculate the true after-tax value of assets during settlement proceedings.
Rising beyond the practical limitations of textbooks and classroom exercises, the UVU FinTech Center fosters and highlights original research and development projects aimed toward addressing the very problems that financial services professionals are actively trying to solve — all created by ambitious, future-focused students before they’ve completed their degrees.
Beyond individual research projects, the FinTech Center empowers students with a full calendar of professional events designed to build industry fluency and enhance professional networks. The center hosts a lecture series featuring practitioners and technology leaders speaking on topics including AI in finance, machine learning, blockchain, the RIA technology stack, and data security. Attendance also helps students satisfy requirements toward a FinTech certificate: a formal credential in active development alongside an in-depth, comprehensive FinTech minor program.
Students also attend national industry conferences. This year, FinTech Center students participated in the T3 Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the FinTech Xchange Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Looking ahead, the center will host its inaugural annual FinTech Conference on March 5, 2027, bringing together students, faculty, and industry leaders from across the Utah System of Higher Education for a day of research presentations, panel discussions, and networking.
The center's physical lab space grants participating students access to the same tools used throughout the financial services industry. Bloomberg Terminal licenses provide access to professional-grade financial data and market analysis. Students also work with AI software subscriptions and data analytics tools, with additional AI development resources currently in development. Secure server access supports ongoing project and research data management. As a community hub intended to inspire collaboration and creative synergy, the lab also functions as a collaborative meeting space for weekly team check-ins, workshops, and donor engagement sessions.
By ensuring graduates enter the workforce not only with strong academic preparation but with direct, hands-on experience, the UVU FinTech Center empowers the business school’s ever-growing momentum as the WSB’s Financial Planning and Wealth Management programis already ranked third in the nation and first in the west among undergraduate financial planning programs.
The future of the financial services industry isn't waiting for curricula to catch up. AI-powered advisory tools, automated compliance systems, blockchain-based transaction platforms, and real-time risk modeling are already reshaping what it means to work in finance and the professionals who understand both the financial fundamentals and the technology driving change will have a significant advantage.
The UVU FinTech Center is founded on the belief that students don't have to wait until after graduation to develop that advantage. By combining faculty mentorship, industry partnerships, professional tools, and a collaborative research environment, the center prepares students to advance onward from active learners to seasoned professionals shaping the future of finance.
