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

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