The 2024 API Innovation Hackathon, part of the annual SupTech Week organized by Cambridge SupTech Lab, ran virtually from December 3 to December 13. This year, the hackathon attracted 104 participants from 16 countries, forming 18 registered teams, with 4 teams reaching the final showcase during SupTech Week.
Explore Cambridge SupTech Lab Hackathon & community engagement opportunities here.
This hackathon, Supported by FINOS, focused on developing a cutting-edge API builder for financial supervision, leveraging open standards and tools to revolutionize regulatory frameworks. The goal was to create efficient, adaptable, and future-ready solutions that enhance financial authorities' ability to manage data and intelligence flows.
Participation
Participants brought a wide range of expertise, including data engineers, database architects, product developers, data visualization designers, data scientists, data analysts, and business analysts. The event welcomed teams from 16 countries, showcasing a truly global reach: Canada, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sudan, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America.
Timeline
- Intro & Kick-Off: December 2 (1 hour)
- Online Hackathon: December 3–12 (self-paced team-based collaboration)
- Demo Day: December 13 (1.5 hours)
Challenges Addressed
The hackathon addressed key challenges faced by financial authorities:
- Designing open-source APIs to accommodate diverse regulatory needs.
- Transitioning from aggregate data reporting to granular data exchange.
- Integrating next-generation suptech tools with standardized APIs.
- Enabling effective communication of climate-related financial risks.
- Fostering collaboration through API standards and open-source tools.
Solutions
Teams were expected to present working demos that showcased solutions addressing three core components:
- Schema: Streamlining the development of data standards, utilizing tools such as FINOS’s Morphir, OS-C, and Legend.
- Builder: Crafting API documentation and libraries with tools like Swagger’s open-source editor and the Open API Specification.
- Intelligence: Demonstrating how unified APIs can drive deeper and more efficient analysis, powered by the Lab’s Data Gymnasium.
Awards
An esteemed panel of judges evaluated the prototypes, including:
- Jane Gavronsky, COO, FINOS
- Parimal Kumar Shivendu, Assistant General Manager, Fintech Department, Reserve Bank of India
- Jochen Papenbrock, Head of Financial Technology, NVIDIA
- Muhammad Gouda, Head of Software Engineering, Link Development
The following awards were presented:
- Best Data Schema Design: Team BOT – For seamlessly integrating financial and environmental risk data, enabling smarter, more resilient financial decision-making.
- Best API Builder: Team AI-Phalanx – For building APIs and dashboards to track progress on climate finance indicators, integrating IMF climate finance data, and defining API schemas per Open API standards.
- Best Use of Open Standards: Team SupTech Newbies – For creating tools to detect and prevent mis-selling practices, protecting consumers and supporting financial system integrity.
- Best Insight: Team SupTech Newbies – For demonstrating how unified APIs can enhance analytical depth and efficiency in financial supervision.
- People’s Choice Award: Team AI-Phalanx – For their innovative approach to climate finance data integration and visualization.
Impact: With 23 hackers actively contributing to 4 finalist teams, the hackathon sparked innovative solutions that addressed critical challenges in financial supervision. The ideas and prototypes will guide future initiatives at Cambridge SupTech Lab and potentially influence broader financial regulatory practices.
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