FIN3502 FinTech
4 Advanced Management Credits

The financial services industry is changing rapidly with the emergence of financial technology (FinTech). This course is designed to introduce key financial technology and its applications in financial services. Students will develop a broad and solid understanding of the recent innovations in FinTech, and their benefits and limitations. Students will also have hands-on problem-solving experiences that are useful in the FinTech venture. Ultimately, this course aims to help students identify entrepreneurial opportunities in FinTech and equip them with relevant knowledge and skills. The course will use a mixture of lectures, hands-on programming, case studies, guest speakers, and group projects. This course emphasizes and builds on Entrepreneurial Thought & Action, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the context of the financial services industry.

Learning objectives for this course:
- Understand key financial technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) & machine learning (ML) & natural language processing (NPL), blockchain & cryptocurrency, smart contract & ethereum. Develop relevant programing skills.
- Explore recent innovations in the financial services industry, including payment, credit, capital markets, insurance, SMB, and real estate.
- Assess the value creation of FinTech. Analyze the limitations and challenges of FinTech (e.g., inclusion, regulation)
- Identify entrepreneurial opportunities in the FinTech space. Propose a FinTech startup idea and develop a business plan.

Evaluation of undergraduate program learning goals:
- Collaboration: Students will work in teams to prepare for the final project report and presentation.
- Communication: The course will be highly interactive. Students need to actively participate in case studies and guest lectures. The final project will require students to pitch a startup idea both through a written report and a presentation. The quality of the written project and oral presentation will be used as a key evaluation criterion.
- Problem-Solving: Students will develop problem-solving skills through hands-on programming and assignments, case studies, and final projects. Students will be able to apply knowledge and skills learned from this course to identify real opportunities and challenges in the FinTech industry, propose new startup ideas, and develop business plans.

Prerequisites: SME2021

SEN1344: First Impressions: How to Present Your Best Self

Instructor: Nairi Enright 

FYS1001 First Year Seminar

1 Credit

This course will challenge students to critically examine important aspects of college student life, such as engaging in scholarly dialogue, becoming a proactive learner, and valuing a diverse and inclusive environment. Students will also be asked to reflect on their own abilities and how they can make an impact on campus and beyond. Additionally, students will develop important relationships with fellow students, peer leaders, faculty, and administrators. Students will earn a grade and one academic credit for their successful participation in this program.

Participation in FYS is a graduation requirement for all Babson students.

FYS1000 First Year Seminar

1 Credit

This course will challenge students to critically examine important aspects of college student life, such as engaging in scholarly dialogue, becoming a proactive learner, and valuing a diverse and inclusive environment. Students will also be asked to reflect on their own abilities and how they can make an impact on campus and beyond. Additionally, students will develop important relationships with fellow students, peer leaders, faculty, and administrators. Students will earn a grade and one academic credit for their successful participation in this program.

Participation in FYS is a graduation requirement for all Babson students.

FIN4535 Fixed Income and Structured Products

4 General CreditsThis advanced quantitative course is designed for students interested in the sales and trading of fixed income securities and their related structured products, as well as students interested in fixed income portfolio management. Topics covered include: (i) bond pricing and day count conventions; (ii) relative value and yield curve construction; (iii) duration and convexity; (iv) pricing and hedging of interest rate swaps; (v) Treasury bond futures, conversion factors, and the concepts of cheapest-to-deliver and implied repo; (vi) the repo (GC and special) market; (vii) credit risk and the pricing of high yield bonds and credit default swaps; and (viii) securitization, mortgage-backed securities, and collateralized mortgage obligations. Course enrollment will be limited to enable extensive in-class usage of Bloomberg and other Cutler Center resources.

Prerequisites: SME2021

CSP2090 Food and the African American Canon

(Formerly CVA2090)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis 4 credit history and foodways course discusses food and space in restaurants, dining cars, street venders and wherever food is made and sold (by whom), and eaten (by whom) at the center. The course will include readings in James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of a Colored Man, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Zora Hurston's Their Eyes Where Watching God, John Washington's The Chaneysville Incident, Paule Marshall's classic essay From The Poets in the Kitchen, and Richard Wright's Man of All Work. Readings on segregated restaurants come from James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son, and in No Name in the Street. A chapter on Ntzoake Shange's novel, Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo and her novel Liliane.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

FME1000 Foundation of Management & Entrepreneurship

4 CreditsThis full-year, introductory course exposes students to key entrepreneurship, marketing, business management and organizational behavior concepts. Central to the course is a _learn by doing" approach in which students teams develop and implement an actual business that the College funds. Profits generated by the business activity are used to support a charitable project that the students also coordinate. Through these activities students will have a personal opportunity to explore the challenges and complexities of creating social as well as economic value. In the organizational behavior stream of this section of FME, students will explore their personal entrepreneurial leadership capabilities and how to work with and through others and effectively participate in their business organizations. This section of FME will meet Babson's undergraduate requirements for a semester long course in organizational behavior.

Prerequisites: None

FME1001 Foundation Management & Entrepreneurship (2 semesters)

4 CreditsThis full-year, introductory course exposes students to key management and information systems principles, vocabulary, and techniques. Central to the course is a _learn by doing_ approach and sensitivity toward social responsibility and ethical behavior. Students organize into groups of 30 and are responsible for developing and implementing an actual business that the College funds. Profits generated by the business activity are used to support a charitable project that the students must coordinate as well. Students are introduced to the central concepts of finance, accounting, management, operations, and human resource management. In addition, they learn how information systems are used to manage and control business organizations and how to use productivity tools such as spreadsheet and database programs to manage business organizations more effectively.

Prerequisites: FME1000 and ACC1000 (may be taken concurrently)

LTA2032 Foundations of Western Art

4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course is designed to introduce students to painting, architecture, and sculpture from the
Renaissance to the early 20th century and to give students an understanding of the general principles governing the visual arts. Topics such as the role of the artist, the functions of art in society, and the nature of visual language, among others, will be discussed as major artists and their works are presented in this survey of Western art. Class lectures and discussions are based on the presentation of slides.

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring or Fall

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

EPS1000 Foundations of Entrepreneurial Management
(Formerly MOB1000)

The content of EPS1000 is equivalent to the material covered in FME 1000 and FME 1001. Students who are enrolled in FME therefore cannot enroll in this course.

Foundations of Entrepreneurial Management (FEM) introduces you to how to think and act entrepreneurially (ET&A). FEM will help you apply ET&A - a method of applying creative and predictive logic to achieve economic and social value creation -- to a variety of business situations you might encounter during your career, including: starting and leading a new for-profit, non-profit or social venture; joining the team of a growing enterprise; or infusing an established organization or family business with entrepreneurial vigor. In FEM you'll learn about Babson's method for entrepreneurial thought and action, giving you the foundation to move on to intermediate level coursework and pursue your own entrepreneurial dreams.

Prerequisites: None