Introduction to Financial Technology
Introduction to the foundations and applications of Financial Technology, with a focus on decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain systems. Potential topics include blockchain fundamentals, permissioned and permissionless protocols, DeFi primitives such as AMMs, lending, liquidity staking, MEV, and stablecoins, market microstructure and on-chain data analytics, as well as emerging applications including institutional DeFi, real-world asset tokenization, and AI integration. Emphasizes both theoretical concepts and empirical design, giving students practical experience analyzing and working with blockchain and DeFi data.
Topics
- blockchain fundamentals
- permissioned and permissionless protocols
- DeFi primitives such as AMMs
- lending
- liquidity staking
- and stablecoins
- market microstructure and on-chain data analytics
- as well as emerging applications including institutional DeFi
- real-world asset tokenization
- and AI integration
Topics explicitly listed in official catalogue description
Prerequisites & course information
Prerequisites: Students should have a good background in calculus, probability, and linear algebra. Some basic prior knowledge of finance will be helpful (but not necessary).
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027