Mastering Blockchain: An Introduction

 

This is a 3-hour intensive class that will give you an explanatory tour of the blockchain organism. Created and led by Ivy League professors and industry experts, this course is geared toward non-IT professionals working in consulting, finance and business, as well as engineering professionals interested in developing and researching blockchain-based products. No prior exposure to blockchain or technical knowledge is required. 

Prerequisite: 

No prior knowledge on blockchain is required.

After completion, what you will be able to do: 

1. Explain what blockchain is, how it works, and why it is revolutionary
2. Understand key concepts in blockchain technology such as mining, hashing, proof-of-work, and the double-spend problem. 
3. Describe design principles and challenges for blockchain technology
4. Identify business opportunities if using blockchain and add values to your team/employer

Syllabus: 

Part I: Fundamentals of Blockchain Technology: 

1. Introduction to blockchain and cryptography
2. An overview on blockchain 1.0 – Bitcoin
3. An overview on blockchain 2.0 – Ethereum
4. Advanced blockchain technology and enterprise blockchain: use cases on IOTA and IBM Hyperledger

Part II: Blockchain Use Cases:

1. Blockchain applications in cryptocurrency: ICO, STO, Facebook Libra, JPM coin. 
2. Blockchain applications in IoT, smart grid, supply chain and social networking

This course includes: 

• Follow-up written assignment - Q&A will be available via Slack
• Your very own badge of course completion that is stored and shared on Blockchain that you can claim by practicing the toolsets you have gained from this course 
• E-Coursebook including lecture slides, recommended readings, assignments and more.
• Access to our Slack group which will continuously within your reach. It will be a safe space to share and discuss blockchain technologies with our instructors and blockchain experts from our community, e.g., share an interesting article, validate your business ideas, ask for career advice etc. 

 

About the Instructor:

Chong Li, PHD (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chongli727/).

Dr. Li is an expert in the field of AI and blockchain technology. He is a co-founder of NTLabs, a blockchain and AI-focused research lab, and also an adjunct professor at Columbia University, teaching graduate-level courses such as blockchain, reinforcement learning and convex optimization. Dr. Li holds more than 200 patents. He’s also the author of the book “Reinforcement Learning for Cyber-physical Systems” (Taylor & Francis CRC press).

In addition to publishing papers on top-ranking academic journals, including Proceedings of the IEEE, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IEEE Communications Magazine, Automatica, etc., he serves as a reviewer and technical program committee for most prestigious journals and conferences in communications and control societies as well. Dr. Li is a grant reviewer for Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He is an IEEE senior member. 

Students who have attended Dr.Li’s Blockchain course have commented:

 “Great professor who is very knowledgeable in the space. The things they’re doing in fog computing are out of this world!” “Good at explaining concepts and giving detailed case study to help student to understand.” “He was so good and creative at delivering.” “Quite approachable and his lecture is well organized.” “I enjoy Professor Chong Li’s Lectures. He is always able to quickly capture student’s confusions and deliver exact answers. His classes are profound and funny.” “Patient and knowledgeable. Available for students” “Prof. Li is very responsible and explain the knowledge very detailed and absolutely has insight to blockchain area” “He is really patient about each question asked by student and gave exhausted answer about it. So I can understand his class quite well.” “Professor Chong Li has great delivery in the classroom, and is able to explain hard concepts clearly.”   

*Should the class not meet your expectation, we’d be more than eager to hear what you have to say and offer you a FULL REFUND of the class.