Singapore Management University (SMU) is partnering with Citi Ventures to offer experiential learning on financial technology to undergraduates from next year. 

The program called Citi University Partnerships in Innovation and Discovery (Cupid) will start offering this course from next year. It officially starts in January 2020 and will run through the university's 15-week academic term.

SMU and Citi Ventures, the venture capital arm of Citi, signed a memorandum of understanding to extend Cupid to the university, they said in a joint press release on Tuesday (May 21). This makes SMU the first partner university in Asia for the program.

The Cupid program will enable the students to apply their classroom knowledge to real-world challenges faced by financial institutions. The aim of the program is to build a pipeline of new and diverse talent to foster innovation and accelerate financial services solutions within the bank.

Under this program, the undergraduates will be matched with mentors from Citi Ventures and SMU faculty, and work in teams on a variety of realistic projects leveraging blockchain, machine learning and artificial intelligence, among other technologies.

These projects may include developing new product ideas, improving customer onboarding through digital channels, reducing transaction cycle times and error rates, increasing product marketing yields through real-time customer analytics, and building functional prototypes.

SMU president Lily Kong said: "As the burgeoning Fintech sector continues to expand in Singapore and across the world, it is set to become a significant employer of talent in the future."

Vikram Subrahmanyam, Head of operations and technology for Asia Pacific shared in media, “We look forward to tapping on some of the brightest minds of these students to help us build better solutions that meet our clients' rapidly evolving needs."