22 UT teams turn finance ideas into working tools at the inaugural FinTech at Rocky Top Challenge
UT students turn finance ideas into working tools as part of a Haslam College of Business vibe coding challenge.
About 60 University of Tennessee undergraduates on 22 teams are spending their Fridays this fall at 121 Tech Hub building finance tools from scratch, many with no coding background. The teams were selected from more than 160 that applied for the inaugural FinTech @ Rocky Top: Vibe Coding Challenge.
The challenge pairs students with faculty and industry mentors as they build their ideas using AI-assisted coding. The program is sponsored by UT’s Department of Finance, the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and the Haslam College of Business.
Eric Kelley, a professor of finance at UT, spearheaded the effort to launch the program on campus.
“We have about 60 participating students spread across 22 teams,” Kelley said. “They came in with problems that they wanted to solve and proposed solutions. Over the next few weeks, they’re building those ideas out.”
According to Kelley, many students arrived with strong ideas but didn’t have the experience or technical depth to bring them to life. That’s where the program’s mentors come in. Some teach students how to use technology tools, while others focus on the entrepreneurial side.
“The first week, students were visibly nervous. They didn’t know what they were getting themselves into,” Kelley said. “This week was totally different. Many of them got here early, and they walked in the door acting like they owned the place, ready to get to work.”
Projects range from gamified budgeting software to a platform that helps people quit sports betting.
Finance majors Jackson Venkataraman and Ruffin Ausman built a Chrome extension that sits on top of investing platforms such as Robinhood to help users make better-informed decisions.
“You can use it to help you identify price targets, and it will alert you when the stock drops to that price,” Venkataraman said.
The pair built the system in a single session using OpenAI’s Codex. They plan to use the remaining sessions to add features and fix bugs.
Kelley said this team is a perfect example of why he felt so passionate about launching the competition in the first place.
“It’s beyond anything that I could have expected, and their creativity is blowing me away. I have five kids ranging from 15 to 25, so this generation is very close to my heart. To see these kids find their confidence is so exciting,” Kelley said.
The build sprint runs through November 13. Then, during demo week, November 16-20, the top 10 teams will present their products and an external panel will select four to six finalists.
Each finalist team receives $1,500 and advances to a spring phase, where first place earns $5,000.
Learn more about the competition.
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