Over 80 students ready for blockchain summer school

Next week, the 4th international Blockchain Summer School is bringing together students from 16 countries who will work on blockchain solutions for Carlsberg, COWI and the European Commission, among others. The summer school culminates in the Nordic Blockchain Summit on Friday, August 16, an event open to industry professionals with an interest in the business potential of blockchain.

Events Education Blockchain business Roman Beck Business IT Department

Written 7 August, 2019 09:02 by Vibeke Arildsen

While others are still on holiday, 84 PhD and graduate students from around the world will spend next week exploring blockchain technology together with a range of organizations.

Organized by the European Blockchain Center, the summer school is a collaboration between the IT University of Copenhagen, the University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen Business School.

The summer school premiered in 2016 as world's first of its kind. Since then, blockchain technology has become significantly more mature, providing new challenges for the participants to work with, says Roman Beck, professor at ITU and head of the European Blockchain Center.

More and more organizations have an understanding of blockchain and have experience with blockchain projects. Today, many companies are facing challenges around scalability, security and user friendliness.
Roman Beck, Professor at ITU

“More and more organizations have an understanding of blockchain and have experience with blockchain projects. Today, many companies are facing challenges around scalability, security and user friendliness. This means that participants will get to work much more on applicability, and with much more sophisticated solutions, than in previous years,” he says.

Blockchain for coffee and CO2 emissions

The summer school offers three tracks this year: a beginner's track and an advanced track allowing students with different levels of knowledge around blockchain to work on different use cases provided by partner organisations, as well as a technical track for computer science students who will work on improving the underlying technology.

Two days of the week are organized as a hackathon where students will work on use cases provided by different organisations. COWI is challenging students to use blockchain for ensuring traceability throughout the supply chain, so consumers can be sure that their coffee really is organic and Ethiopian, as stated on the package.

The European Commission is asking students to investigate whether blockchain technology can measure and support a reduction in CO2 emissions from European vehicles.

In addition, Carlsberg, WWF, the Max Planck Digital Library, music distributor DiGiDi, and W3F are providing cases.

Conference for industry and researchers

The week culminates with the Nordic Blockchain Summit on Friday, August 16, which brings together more than 300 industry professionals, researchers, students and others with an interest in the business potential of blockchain.

The programme includes keynote presentations from the organisations such as Maersk, Thales and Polkadot, while Roman Beck will present the result of a new analysis of Danish blockchain initiatives and the technology's potential for Danish companies – an analysis which has been funded by the Danish Industry Foundation.

In addition, a panel consisting of Danish business leaders and legal experts on blockchain and DLT systems will discuss the future potential of blockchain for Denmark. What will the future look like with “Business on Blocks”?

Finally, the summer school students will present their best results from the challenges and hackathons and the audience will have the opportunity cast a vote for their favourite solution.

Participation in the Nordic Blockchain Summit is free and a limited number of seats are still available. Registration is required through Eventbrite.

Further information

Roman Beck, Professor, email romb@itu.dk

Vibeke Arildsen, Press Officer, phone 2555 0447, email viar@itu.dk

News

IT University of Copenhagen reveals two new members of management

18 November, 2024

At IT University of Copenhagen, future head of education, Luís Cruz-Filipe (L), and future head of research, Morten Hjelholt (R), will become part of the university management when both take up their positions on 1 February and 1 January 2025 respectively.

Video: Is artificial intelligence the key to human consciousness?

12 November, 2024

"Our future is going to look like science fiction." Associate professor at IT University of Copenhagen, Paolo Burelli, uses artificial intelligence to approach a better understanding of the human brain and consciousness.

ITU researcher awarded Villum Synergy grant for qualitative data project

15 October, 2024

Associate Professor at IT University of Copenhagen, Anna Rogers, and Associate Professor Hjalmar Carlsen at University of Copenhagen have received a Villum Synergy grant from Villum Fonden to develop a new tool for conducting large-scale, high-quality qualitative interviews.

How do we make technologies more efficient and less energy consuming?

10 October, 2024

In the age of resource awareness, ensuring the energy efficiency of digital technologies shaping our world is critical. Associate Professors Pınar Tözün and Zoi Kaoudi from IT University of Copenhagen tackle the issue from a hardware and a software perspective. Catch their session at this year’s Digital Tech Summit, 31 October.

New research project on the datafication of wellbeing in public schools

8 October, 2024

Associate professor at the IT University, Irina Papazu, has received a grant from Independent Research Fund Denmark to conduct research on the use of apps that measure pupil wellbeing in Danish public schools.

ITU researcher develops software to secure Large Language Models

26 September, 2024

As Large Language Models (LLMs) are deployed in thousands of applications, the need for scalable evaluation of how models respond to malicious attacks grows rapidly. ITU Associate Professor Leon Derczynski has developed the hitherto most comprehensive tool for the task.

ITU researcher secures Novo Nordisk grant to advance open data management

19 September, 2024

Associate Professor Martin Hentschel’s project, “Open Data Management for Scientific Innovation,” aims to improve data accessibility and interoperability.

ITU researcher awarded prestigious EU grant

5 September, 2024

Marie Curie Fellow at IT University of Copenhagen, Alena Thiel, has secured the ERC Starting Grant for the project, ModelFutures. The project focuses on the use of statistics and digital quantification in four African welfare systems.

New research project to ensure a just green transition in the Nordic-Baltic Region

2 September, 2024

A new four-year, Nordforsk funded research project, coordinated by associate professor at ITU Vasilis Galis, will partner with Indigenous and local grassroots communities in Greenland, Lithuania, and Sápmi to learn about their experiences and challenges in the context of environmental justice.

IT University of Copenhagen turns 25

30 August, 2024

Today, IT University celebrates its 25th anniversary, marking a significant journey since its inception in 1999 with an inaugural class of 147 students. Since then, the university has grown exponentially to accommodate approximately 2,800 students. According to ITU Rector Per Bruun Brockhoff, this growth is driven by the soaring demand for the skills that ITU graduates possess.

Study: Social media platforms fail to remove illegal hate speech

3 July, 2024

Preliminary results from an EU-supported project shows that most reported hate speech on social media is either not removed or left unanswered. Researchers from the IT University of Copenhagen are a part of the study and responsible for collecting and analysing the data on hate speech in Denmark.

ITU students take on fake news with video game

2 July, 2024

In only 48 hours, Saskia Joanna Rauhut, Giorgio Perri, and Ioannis Maliaras from ITU’s MSc in Games programme completed a video game that tackles fake news in a profound and thought-provoking manner. The game was developed at the “Truth, Lies & Democracy” game jam in Barcelona.

Researchers work to solve healthcare’s growing e-waste problem

19 June, 2024

Associate Professor Daniel Fürstenau and PhD Fellow Camille Rønn lead a 9-million-euro Horizon Europe project aimed at solving the growing e-waste problem in the healthcare industry and closing its current linear take-make-waste operations.

Video: Can Artificial Intelligence be trusted?

18 June, 2024

Artificial intelligence or advanced algorithm? ITU researcher Nanna Inie focuses on how we talk about artificial intelligence in the public debate and which consequences it has for our understanding of the technology when it is described with human characteristics.

ITU Center behind the first ever ethical guidelines for European blockchain infrastructure

13 May, 2024

Europe is building a new digital infrastructure based on Blockchain technology. Representative for Denmark, Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen’s Business IT Department, Roman Beck and Research Assistant Signe Agerskov, have been in charge of convening the ethical guidelines that will ensure the system aligns with European values.

AI driven job matching has a bias problem, new ITU research tackles the issue

7 May, 2024

Algorithms are far from objective. In a new three-year industry partnership with Jobindex, ITU Associate Professor Toine Bogers and Postdoc Mesut Kaya will work to develop job and candidate recommendation algorithms that take multi-sided fairness into account.

Why digital data from our eyes will have significant implications for better or for worse

3 May, 2024

Professor at the IT University, Dan Witzner Hansen, has spent the most of his career researching how we collect and utilize data from our eyes. Now, he is a partner in the EU project, Eyes4ICU, which he hopes will be the fundation of the next generation of researchers in the field.

ITU researchers secure EU funding for research in digital agriculture and affective gaming

15 April, 2024

Professor Steffen Dalsgaard and Assistant Professor Elisa Mekler have collectively secured almost half a million euros from the Marie Sklodowska Curie Programme to fund two postdocs working on projects in digital agriculture and affective gaming.

Professor Sami S. Brandt’s research in audio-visual computing began with a love of music

18 March, 2024

On 11 April at 15:00, newly minted professor of the Computer Science Department at IT University in Copenhagen, Sami S. Brandt will present his inaugural lecture in Auditorium 0 at IT University of Copenhagen.

InnoCollab takes on innovation projects after Open Entrepreneurship

5 March, 2024

Since 2017, Peter Ibsen and Nikolaj Oppermann have built a bridge between ITU's researchers and the business world via the Open Entrepreneurship programme. The project, which was completed at the turn of the year, has been such a success that the IT University has launched an innovation unit, InnoCollab, to continue the work.