975100


Course
Blockchain in Business and Society Summer School

Faculty

Blockchain summer school faculty

Course Coordinator
Michel Avital

Prerequisites


Students interested in participating in the summer school must be enrolled in a PhD or master program. Recent graduates are also eligible to apply. At least introductory programming experience is highly recommended.

Applicants must submit a CV, a motivation letter, as well as a project proposal of a blockchain-based application they wish to work on or would like to extend during participation in the summer school. The proposal should be at least 3 pages long but not longer than 5 pages.

As part of the admission process, the organizers will assess the quality of the submitted application material before accepting the participants. Accepted summer school participants must make themselves familiar with the required texts before the summer school starts.

The course requires a perquisite enrolment in Blockchain Summer School. Please see further information here: https://blockchainschool.eu


Aim

Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to disrupt multiple industries. The prevailing interest of global organizations, entrepreneurs, investors, and governments in blockchain technology is evident in spite of the dearth of existing industrial strength blockchain-based applications. The design and implementation of blockchain-based systems requires interdisciplinary knowledge as well as mindful consideration of broader economic and societal issues.

Against the backdrop of the recent development in blockchain technology, the blockchain summer school will focus on the application of blockchain technology for generating business and social value. The participants will learn how blockchain technology is disrupting the prevailing business models and will gain insights from business, organizational and computer science viewpoints. Subsequently, the participants will acquire a toolset that would be instrumental in developing new blockchain-based solutions.

The course underscores how to set up a development environment and how to work with decentralized blockchain application platform such as Ethereum. The participants will learn to design and implement smart contracts and will code decentralized apps. Once the foundations of blockchain have been introduced, the participants will work on their own blockchain development projects, supported by the participating industry partners. The outcomes will be functioning demonstrations as well as support documents that illustrate how a blockchain implementation can address real-world challenges.


Course content


The course underscores breadth and cross-fertilization. It is designed as a high-intensity five-day event that comprises plenary lectures, guest speakers, and industry-sponsored hackathon that focuses on challenges at the forefront of blockchain technology. All in all, the summer school emphasizes constructive discussion and hands-on learning experience aiming toward helping students to acquire state of the art knowledge on blockchain technology and its application.

Teaching style
/

Lecture plan
Day Date    Topic
1 13 August 2018    Introduction to Blockchain technology
2 14 August 2018    Business applications of blockchain
3 15 August 2018    Hackathon
4 16 August 2018   Hackathon
5 17 August 2018    Project presentations and Summit

 


Learning objectives

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Discuss the body of knowledge on blockchain from multiple disciplinary perspectives 

  • Identify blockchain-related research opportunities 

  • Apply scientific methods to design solutions to real-world problems

  • Reflect critically on the underlying blockchain-related controversies across multiple disciplines

  • Demonstrate an ability to develop cross-disciplinary research on blockchain technology  

Exam

A Pass/Fail grade will be based on a project presentation at the summer school and a take-home exam. 

Participants will present and defend their blockchain solutions at the last day of the summer school.

The exam will take the form of an individual take-home 15 pages written exam for 5 ECTS, and 5 pages written exam for 2.5 ECTS.

The exam paper should focus on a blockchain-centered phenomenon in line with the student’s domain of interest. Accordingly, the paper should incorporate the following elements:

  • Description of a blockchain-related topic to be investigated
  • The motivation for the study of the selected topic and the underlying research question
  • Prior research on the selected topic (in brief)
  • Theoretical lens to guide data collection and analysis (e.g., design science, case research, ethnography, legal research)
  • Research strategy being adopted to answer the research question
  1. Possible data source(s)
  2. Protocols for data collection
  3. Proposed data analysis technique(s) to be utilized
  • Potential contributions to theory and practice

Written exams of 5 ECTS should also include the following:

  • A pilot study to demonstrate the viability of the research project

 

All work must be original material that is produced individually. The paper is due three weeks following the last session of the course (7 Sep 2018). Re-take exam, if necessary, will be administered about a month later.


IMPORTANT - Please indicate on the registration form if you are registering for 2.5 ECTS or for 5 ECTS




Other

Start date
13/08/2018

End date
17/08/2018

Level
PhD

ECTS
2.5 ECTS or 5 ECTS (please see more under "Exam"

Language
English

Course Literature
TBA

Fee
DKK 3.250.- for 2.5 ECTS / DKK 6.500.- for 5 ECTS

Minimum number of participants
12

Maximum number of participants
50

Location

Copenhagen Business School

TBA

Contact information


For further enquiries please send mail to Blazenka B. Kvistbo, bbk.research@cbs.dk

Registration deadline
23/07/2018

Please note that the registration is binding after the registration deadline.

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