Blockchain@UBC lead introduces vision, aims

Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and matched by the University of British Columbia (UBC), Dr. Victoria Lemieux, who leads the UBC’s recent research effort, Blockchain@UBC, introduced the project’s vision and aims in a strategic workshop that preceded a successful wine and cheese event of the endeavor with industry partners and entrepreneurs on Thursday, January 26th, according to a press release CoinReport received.

Dr. Lemieux was awarded the Knowledge Synthesis Grant by the SSHRC last year. She is pushing towards building a more robust and sustainable community, said the release.

Blockchain@UBC, which is supported by UBC Bitcoin Club, launched in Sept., 2014, is a collaborative research cluster concentrating on blockchain technology as one component of investigating the broader research question “How can emerging technologies be leveraged to benefit Canadians?”

“Staying in step with the market, research and training for Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies is a priority for UBC as a leading institution in Canada,” said the release.

Beginning at noon, the workshop covered the over-all landscape of what can be seen and expected from work in this field and identified threats and opportunities. The down-to-earth conversation recognized the hype and concentrated on the pain points and breakthroughs of participants and partners.

Participants included Human Data Commons Foundation, Blockchain Intelligence Intelligence Group, Vanbex, UbitQuity, Blockchain Canada, Ledger Labs, Time:Beat, NeuSwyft and Data Witness Online.

“Collaboration is key to innovation and taking Vancouver up as a world-class hub for technology and startups,” stated the release we received.

Dr. Victoria Lemieux
Blockchain@UBC Lead & Associate Professor, Archival Science, iSchool, University of British Columbia.

In the workshop, Dr. Lemieux broke down action items into:

• Training
• Research
• Community/Knowledge Sharing

The target metrics, elaborated the release, could be tied with:

• Number of students trained or working in the industry
• Number of papers or patents published and cited
• Number of companies formed and products knowledge shared in
• Number of community participants in terms of partners, students and press coverage.

The release stated that with feedback from the workshop and ongoing communication, Blockchain@UBC will come up with the best approach to accomplish the greater vision and meet the challenge of organizing, and gaining buy-in and funding support to deliver on the strategy.

Images via Blockchain@UBC website