OS.University featured by ESTIEM
Originally published in ESTIEM magazine by our community ambassador Denitsa Simeonova, executive director of the Association of Bulgarian Leaders and Entrepreneurs.
We are really happy to have three OS.University team members part of the European students network ESTIEM — Jordan, Momchil from the core team and our community advisor Denitsa Simeonova.
ESTIEM — European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management
It is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-political student organisation that connects European students that combine technological understanding with management skills. The goal of this organisation is to establish and foster relations between students across Europe and support them in their professional and personal development. As of November 2016, the ESTIEM network counts over 8.000 members that are registered in 81 universities of 31 countries.The Publication
Trust is essential in every relationship
I never would have thought I would start my first article on blockchain with such a fluffy sentence, but it describes best why one of the most revolutionary edtech startups (as ranked by Observer.com in January this year) uses the Ethereum blockchain technology.
As the first of its kind platform, Open Source University takes the relationship between Learners, Businesses and Academia to a whole new level by helping learners to connect to the world’s top academic education and professional development opportunities on the Ethereum blockchain. OS.University builds a tokenized market with sophisticated matching algorithms and provides all the necessary resources to every MOOC and academia striving to make academic background transparent and traceable.
What could this mean in real life?
Take as an example these Business Intelligence classes that you have completed at university or the online Machine Learning Course that you took last month. Now imagine there is a company looking for someone with the very same knowledge you acquired at these courses. Then you and your dream job could get perfectly matched, but only if your achievements are verified by the respective educational institution. Until now, this still was a manual job in the education sector, but OS.University plans to change that in the nearest future.Here comes the role of trust which in the blockchain technology is not established through a third party but with clever code and secured communication within a network. This means that we as learners can get verification of certificates and diplomas along with the entire track record of our achievements in real time within the OS.University network. Furthermore, the platform makes our record accessible by businesses excluding personal information which is highly secured and not visible over the blockchain.
How does this work?
This is possible by using smart contracts that on one hand can minimize learners’ effort to find the right opportunities for academic and career development. On the other hand, smart contracts match the current business needs with the right learners in a secure way, excluding middleman. The connections between the counterparties may be shortened as follows: Business to Learners (B2L), Learners to Academia (L2A), Business to Academia (B2A):
- L2B Smart Contract
The Open Source University blockchain is used as a distributed database to store learners’ certifications and acquired skills. Matching algorithms will handle big data calculations to connect businesses with the right candidates, optimising recruitment costs, sourcing time and precision.
- L2A Smart Contract
Learners have all their degree credits safely stored into the blockchain, allowing them to pick their career paths via course suggestion algorithm based on live data business needs (and skill demand projection).
- B2A Smart Contract
Allows businesses to access a new generation of Learning & Development marketplace, where learning content providers are filtered based on their disciplines catalogue and academic rating, both stored in the blockchain.
All of this is achieved by using the EDU Token which will allow the advancement, development and maximum use of this decentralized platform. The tokensale of EDU Tokens will be launched on 4th June to help the OS.University project achieve its milestones while currently the team is working on the Alpha release.
ESTIEM’s role in the blockchain-revolution in education
It may not come as a surprise that among the project’s founders are also two ESTIEMers — Jordan Jambazov and Momchil Jambazov from Local Group Sofia. The two entrepreneurs (for whom this is not the first IT company they have founded) believe that the blockchain-revolution that is happening has the potential to change things around by making education affordable and simple as it is supposed to be.
This is constantly verified by the environment as the project receives worldwide recognition. Among the institutions it is already partnering and aims at making pilot integrations with are Durham University, Brno University of Technology, several Bulgarian universities, companies like Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, Ernst&Young.
Furthermore, the team is continuously looking for new partners. “There is a huge playground for collaboration between OS University, ESTIEM and ESTIEM Alumni as networks and all their members since the development of the project requires global effort”, shares Jordan. He adds that the final goal is to make a platform where everyone from the education sector could interact, including student organizations. As an example, organizations like ESTIEM or student unions could use blockchain to upload documents, vote and take important decisions. “ESTIEM did bring a whole new colour in our entrepreneur lives after the Business Booster events we attended back in 2012 and now we are happy to be able to give back to the organization and to the educational sector”, say in conclusion the two ESTIEMers.