Duke Engineering Students Awarded for AI-powered anti-money laundering

In a remarkable achievement, Duke University students have been recognized at the inaugural DTCC Hackathon, Innovate.DTCC, for their innovative project in AI-powered anti-money laundering (AML) for digital wallets. The team, known as Cipher Sentinel, comprised master’s students from two of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering master’s programs: the FinTech Master of Engineering and the Master of Engineering in Artificial Intelligence for Product Innovation (AIPI).

Luciano Juvinski, Cartier Huang, Yifei Ren from FinTech, and Haochen Li and Yiqing Liu from AIPI showcased their expertise and creativity, earning the Academic Institution Overall Award.

Luciano Juvinski, an interdisciplinary student pursuing a Master’s in FinTech at Duke, shared his excitement on LinkedIn. With a diverse background in Computer Science, Law, and Management, and experience as a CTO co-founding a startup with clients like Google and Microsoft, Juvinski highlighted the significance of their project. He emphasized the urgent need for AI-based fraud detection tools in the crypto and DeFi sectors, especially with upcoming U.S. regulatory frameworks mandating stronger AML practices.

The Bybit incident served as a wake-up call for the industry, demonstrating that without proactive AML monitoring, platforms remain vulnerable to sophisticated attacks. Cipher Sentinel’s project aimed to safeguard digital finance through AI, ensuring the industry stays ahead of regulatory requirements. The team’s work will continue to evolve through FINOS.org, maintaining its open-source nature.

The Innovate.DTCC Hackathon, held in partnership with FINOS.org and Broadridge, was a collaborative effort to address pressing challenges in Capital Markets. Over 250 participants from 35 teams and 46 organizations, including banks, software providers, and top universities, joined the event. DTCC committed over $250k in grants to fund the ongoing development of winning solutions through FINOS, ensuring these projects make a lasting impact. The Innovate.DTCC Hackathon showcased the transformative potential of AI and ML in financial markets, fostering creativity, collaboration, and innovation. Participants explored new opportunities, engaged with diverse perspectives, and expanded their professional networks, setting a new benchmark for capital markets technology.

As the financial industry continues to evolve, contributions of Duke University’s Cipher Sentinel team and other participants at the Innovate.DTCC Hackathon provide innovative solutions to enhance financial markets’ efficiency, transparency, and resilience. Duke’s Hackathon team was guided by FinTech professors  Jimmie Lenz, John Church, John Fimbel, Marvin Chang, and Alessio Brini.