On Campus: Professor Cesare Fracassi on University of Texas Austin’s Expanding Blockchain Initiative

On Campus: Professor Cesare Fracassi on University of Texas Austin’s Expanding Blockchain Initiative
фото показано с : ripple.com

2018-11-29 21:35

On Campus is a new Ripple Insights series that highlights the institutions, people and research that make up Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), launched earlier this year to promote greater understanding of blockchain, crypto and digital payments through deeper engagement with academia.

Institutions like McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin with its campus-based Blockchain Initiative and annual blockchain conference are at the heart of this UBRI effort. We sat down with Professor Cesare Fracassi, the director of this initiative at the University’s new Center for Analytics and Transformational Technologies, to learn more about the work underway at UT Austin and the impact of UBRI on the program.

Professor Fracassi’s ultimate goal is to leverage UBRI to accelerate what he sees as lagging understanding of blockchain in academia. By expanding its presence on the UT Austin campus and building an interdisciplinary approach to its study, he believes students will be best set up to advance blockchain innovation after graduation.

A Campus Ripe for Further Blockchain Exploration

Driven by a personal interest in the interplay between finance and technology in business applications, Professor Fracassi has long taught fintech courses at the University and was instrumental in creating the campus Blockchain Initiative.

In recent years, he has observed a growing interest amongst students in fintech, and especially blockchain, as evidenced by their eager participation in related coursework and the founding of a graduate blockchain society.

This unique combination of existing blockchain coursework, dynamic leadership and student engagement make UT Austin ripe for further blockchain exploration, and a perfect home for UBRI.

Separating Hype from Reality

At the Center and within his courses, Professor Fracassi touches on three main topics: machine learning and AI, Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain. He pointed out that each of these technologies is at a different stage of development within industry, with blockchain being earliest in its adoption and in a proof-of-concept phase.

He believes the primary UBRI program outcomes at UT Austin should be to advance blockchain beyond this initial phase by helping students learn about the underlying technology and its potential applications in the real world — so they can better separate the hype from the reality. He says that as academics, they do not have businesses at stake and so can cast a more critical eye on the space.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Blockchain

Professor Fracassi suggests that one reason blockchain is so important to the University is its interdisciplinary nature. He observed that academia is traditionally a highly specialized world where teams and students focus on one area of study.

By contrast, a subject like blockchain spans multiple topics such as science, engineering and law, while also having application in distinct industries such as finance, identity and healthcare. Its study allows the University to provide students with exposure to a variety of colleges within UT Austin.

The addition of funds through UBRI has allowed Professor Fracassi and the Center to expand the range of students taking this blockchain-related coursework. This fall, the university expanded course offerings to include MBA, graduate level business analytics and computer science, and undergrad students. He expects about 200 students enrolling in these classes in the spring semester.

This expansion is both exciting and challenging because the same material must be taught in very different ways depending on the students and their areas of study. The MBA, CompSci and undergrad courses cover much of the same ground, but each group has distinct needs and interests. For example, business students are more interested in the applications of blockchain, while computer science students are more focused on the technical coding elements.

Beyond just offering these new classes, UBRI funds will allow for a new fintech-focused track, the addition of more faculty to focus on the topic, and more professional development and subject matter expertise among existing faculty. All of this is geared to funding three UBRI program goals: support for research, support for teaching, and outreach to the community in Austin and Texas more broadly.

A Growing Hub for Research

UBRI will also allow Professor Fracassi to lead more university-wide research into blockchain. He is currently spearheading an effort to review proposals from students and faculty across campus that are interested in receiving funds for blockchain research projects. He is enthusiastic about UBRI because it allows UT Austin to jumpstart their program and to work in tandem with other universities in the UBRI program.

Ultimately, he hopes to have the Center operational and research projects funded within the next six months. By year two or three, he envisions having fully embedded blockchain into the University and its coursework as machine learning is now. He acknowledges that blockchain remains niche today, but his goal is to make it core to the University — in a way that reflects its reach and use in the real world.

To learn more about UBRI, please visit our UBRI website and look for monthly Insights posts in the On Campus series.

The post On Campus: Professor Cesare Fracassi on University of Texas Austin’s Expanding Blockchain Initiative appeared first on Ripple.

Similar to Notcoin - Blum - Airdrops In 2024

origin »

High Performance Blockchain (HPB) на Currencies.ru

$ 0 (+0.00%)
Объем 24H $0
Изменеия 24h: 0.00 %, 7d: 0.00 %
Cегодня L: $0 - H: $0.0064459
Капитализация $0 Rank 99999
Цена в час новости $ 0.3527 (-100%)

blockchain university initiative campus texas ripple research

blockchain university → Результатов: 126


Nick Assimenos Of University Of Nicosia Talks on Blockchain Education Importance

Nick Assimenos Of University Of Nicosia Talks About Importance Of Blockchain Education University Of Nicosia, the Cyprus based university which is the first in the world to offer formal education in blockchain and digital currency, has a specific department named the Institute for the Future, which offers initiatives in the blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual […]

2018-9-29 20:42


Oxford Researcher Wants to Open World’s First Blockchain University in Malta

Researcher Joshua Broggi envisions a new university powered entirely by blockchain technology, and is seeking accreditation in Malta to establish what will be a world’s first. Oxford Researcher Seeks Accreditation in Malta Broggi aims to build the world’s first ever “Blockchain University” and is hoping to set up shop ashore the European island nation of.

2018-8-28 00:00


Ethereum [ETH] blockchain based digital certificates to be introduced in Italian University

The University of Cagliari based in Cagliari, Sardinia, in Italy will soon join a host of other organizations that are implementing blockchain technology to produce digitized certificates. The system is said to be introduced to the graduation session of Computer Science on the 20th July and will, later on, be implemented for all the other […]

2018-7-22 05:28


US health care companies begin exploring blockchain technologies

Finding ways to link health care data in a secure and confidential way. PopTika/Shutterstock.com Ana Santos Rutschman, Saint Louis University The sprawling U.S. health care industry has trouble managing patient information: Every doctor, medical office, hospital, pharmacy, therapist and insurance company needs different pieces of data to properly care for patients. These records are scattered […]

2018-7-20 07:27


IBM and Columbia University are tag-teaming the blockchain

IBM are showing no signs of slowing its rampage across the blockchain sector: now teaming up with prestigious Columbia University to solidify its role in the industry. Inventively named the Columbia-IBM Center for Blockchain and Data Transparency, the partnership is looking to leverage Columbia’s academic and scientific networks to further develop blockchain technology.

2018-7-17 18:13


Monero Sidechain Tari Debuts ‘Tari Labs University’

Tari, the recently-announced blockchain platform being built as a “merge-mined sidechain of Monero” has debuted a new educational resource called ‘Tari Labs University‘. The new initiative is described on the University’s official GitHub page as “an open source, curated set of materials developed by the Tari Community to help facilitate knowledge transfer and education.

2018-7-11 23:36


Consortium Project Involving IOTA Wins EU Commission Approval to Roll Out Smart Tech in Several European Cities

Internet-of-Things crypto platform IOTA has just announced that the EU Commission has given the green light to a smart city initiative, which will have IOTA involved. The smart city consortium called +CityxChange is a project to be hosted and led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and to be funded by the […] Consortium Project Involving IOTA Wins EU Commission Approval to Roll Out Smart Tech in Several European Cities was originally found on [blokt] - Blockchain, Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

2018-7-10 17:19