Jackson College Awarded National Science Foundation Grant For Blockchain Technology Project

(August 12, 2024 5:39 PM ET) Jackson College announced that it has received an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant from the National Science Foundation for $349,846! The three-year grant will fund the College’s new curriculum and program for blockchain education.

Jackson will be the first college in the region to offer blockchain courses and credentials that are accredited and eligible for financial aid. The College will develop an innovative curriculum aligned with industry standards and trends, recruit and retain students interested in blockchain technology, and offer professional development for faculty and community members.

“We are so excited to receive Jackson College’s first National Science Foundation grant. Few community colleges receive NSF awards; this is a history-making moment,” said Jackson College President & CEO, Daniel J. Phelan. “Developing a blockchain program on campus will ultimately help our students in this expanding, decentralized network industry. We look forward to being at the forefront of this emerging field.”

Professors Angela Fonseca and Dianne Hill, from JC’s Computer and Information Services area, wrote the grant proposal with support from many departments across the College. They began planning with guidance from FORCCE-ATE, FORTifying Cybersecurity and Computing through ATE Grants. Through the process of learning about the technology, both professors became Blockchain Essentials certified through Cornell University.

What is Blockchain

A blockchain is a new kind of database that is shared across many computers. It is peer-owned and peer-checked for accuracy, with public and private keys offered for access. Once something is added to the chain, it is very hard to change. It was first created for Bitcoin and is often linked to cryptocurrencies, but it has many other uses. Blockchain is a powerful network where people can share and track things like orders, payments, and health records. It is secure, reliable, and can’t be easily altered. More and more people around the world are starting to use blockchain, and its use is expected to grow significantly in the next few years, in energy, health care, manufacturing and many more.

“We are at the very beginning stages of blockchain in this country and world. Adoption of blockchain is rivaling the growth of the Internet,” Fonseca said. “It’s a disruptive technology, just like the way the Internet changed how we do business, blockchain is having a similar impact.”

For example, the education institution MIT launched blockchain use for student credentials in 2017, offering “digital diplomas” that are verifiable, tamper-proof and can be verified by employers and other schools. Other colleges have followed suit, including ECPI University and University of North Texas. The State of Illinois created the Illinois Blockchain Initiative which maintains birth certificates and human services records, and other states are doing the same. Blockchain has important uses across many industries. Amazon Managed Blockchain supports supply chain management. Walmart Food Traceability Initiative uses blockchain in the food supply chain to track where products are sourced and delivered – important for safety recalls. Deloitte’s Blockchain in Commercial Real Estate records titles and deeds for commercial and home real estate sales ownership. The applications for blockchain continue to expand.

Next Steps

With this three-year grant, the academic program will be launched by the third year, 2027. In the interim, faculty will be preparing diligently to get it ready.

“There is much work to be done to develop a curriculum to support our area. We’ll be looking for industry partners who are interested in implementing blockchain, and we will design curriculum to best support them. Then we can provide them with technicians who can help with implementation and ongoing blockchain management” Fonseca said.

   The ATE program focuses on the education of technicians who work in high-tech fields that drive the nation’s economy. Because two-year community and technical colleges are the leading sources of technician education in the United States, faculty from these higher education institutions have had leadership roles in most ATE projects since the program began in 1993.