FinTech @ Rocky Top Vibe Coding Challenge
Identify a problem|Develop the solution|Tell your story
FinTech @ Rocky Top is a vibe coding challenge for UT undergraduates. Each team picks a finance problem it cares about, then builds a working tool to solve it with AI. You don't need a computer science background.
Sponsored by the Department of Finance, the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Haslam College of Business.
Four Fridays to build it.
More than 180 teams registered this fall. Twelve faculty reviewers read every entry at least twice, and 22 teams made the build round. Now they build. Each team works at 121 Tech Hub with mentors from industry. On November 13, every team shows what it has in a lightning demo round. Ten teams move on to Final Demo Day on November 18.
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Build session 111:30 to 2:00
121 Tech Hub -
Build session 211:30 to 2:00
121 Tech Hub -
Build session 311:30 to 2:00
121 Tech Hub -
Build session 411:30 to 2:00
121 Tech Hub -
Lightning demos121 Tech Hub
Judges pick the top 10 -
Final Demo Day3:00 to 6:00
Top 10 teams
- Build session
- Judged
Four to six finalists are announced in early December. Each team gets $1,500 and moves on to the spring, where Take it to Market ends at Launch Day.
121 Tech Hub
Host sponsor
Thank you, 121 Tech Hub
121 Tech Hub is hosting all of our build sessions. Thank you to Brandon Bruce and the whole 121 community for opening your doors to our teams.
121 Tech Hub is a community and coworking space for founders, tech professionals, hackers and creatives in downtown Knoxville. It's where local people go to build and scale companies, so it's a fitting home for the build round.
- Standing desks with 32" monitors
- KUB Fiber Wi-Fi
- Zoom booths
- Conference rooms
- Kitchen and lounge
121 East Jackson Avenue, KnoxvilleAcross from Barley's Pizzeria, half a block from Covenant Health Park and city parking.
About the Challenge
What you'll leave with
Open to every UT undergraduate with a problem worth solving.
An interview-ready project
You leave with a working build and a record of exactly what you did. That's something real to talk about with employers.
Real AI / vibe-coding skill
You learn to build with AI coding tools, on a problem you picked yourself. When an interviewer asks what you've built with AI, you'll have an answer.
Mentors in the room
Finance faculty and startup coaches work every Friday session. Industry veterans and fintech folks come through too.
Cash prizes
Every fall finalist team gets a flat $1,500, and the spring pays $5,000, $3,000, and $2,000 to the top three. Micro-grants also help cover AI tool access while you build.
No CS degree required
Build an app, a dashboard, a workbook, an agent, whatever fits. We judge the finance and whether it actually works, not the format.
A door into the Anderson Center
It's an on-ramp to the Anderson Center: their startup competitions, their coaches, the whole network. Good projects keep going after the Challenge ends.
Broader than you think
Say "fintech" and most students picture a trading app. Sure, but trading apps are a small slice of it. Financial technology is any tool that helps someone decide, move, track, or protect money. You already use it every day: splitting rent on Venmo, the fraud text from your bank, the credit-score meter in your banking app, autopay on a car loan.
Where money moves
What you can build
We don't care what you build it in, or how complex the code is. It just needs to work and tackle a real finance need. The problem doesn't have to come with a market, either: a tool made for one club, one office, or your own family's books counts the same as something the whole world could download.
Most people arrive with no idea yet. That's normal, and it's exactly what the Resources page is built for.
Two phases across the year
In the fall, a large cohort builds together in one room with mentors, then narrows to a handful of finalists. Those few take their project to market in the spring, and it all culminates in Launch Day.
Pitch, then Build
- Open entry for UT undergraduates: a one-page concept PDF (plus an optional visuals page) and a two-minute team video
- Bring your own original idea, something your team owns start to finish
- Twelve faculty reviewers advanced 22 teams to the build round
- Weekly Friday build sessions in one shared room, with rotating finance faculty and startup coaches
- A lightning demo round and Final Demo Day, then 4–6 finalist teams advance, each with a $1,500 cash prize
- Team mergers allowed; early-stage feedback is public, final rounds private
Take it to Market
- Build sessions continue as teams sharpen a working product and its venture case
- Culminates in Launch Day: a live showcase of working products before judges and partners
- Aligned with the Anderson Center's spring competitions (Vol Court, Boyd Venture)
- A play-in path lets strong fall teams that didn't advance re-enter
- Cash prizes of $5,000, $3,000, and $2,000 for the top three teams
- Spring dates and format are being finalized.
Get involved
The Challenge runs on small, well-defined roles: reviewer, mentor, judge, speaker, sponsor, connector. Each one is built to respect your time and still hold students to a high bar.