Three faculty members from the University of Notre Dame’s College of Engineering and College of Science have been awarded seed grants through the Blockchain Initiative. These inaugural grants are funded by a gift from alumnus Chad Cascarilla ’99.
Speaking about the awards, Patrick Flynn, Duda Family Professor of Engineering, chair of the department of computer science and engineering, and chair of the Blockchain Initiative steering committee, said, “The three awardees proposed very different, yet very compelling projects to extend the capabilities of blockchain techniques or apply it to a compelling societal need.”
Professor Marya Lieberman, recipient of a Blockchain Initiative seed grant, in her lab at Notre Dame.
The inaugural Blockchain Initiative seed grant recipients are:
- Taeho Jung, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, for his projected titled, “Towards Blockchain-based accountable and traceable data sharing.”
- Marya Lieberman, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, with Chris Sweet, associate director of cyberinfrastructure development at the Center for Research Computing (CRC) and James Sweet, research scientist at the CRC, for their research called, “The whole world is watching: tracking bad quality medicine with citizen science and an electronic ledger.”
- Fang Liu, associate professor of applied and computational mathematics and statistics, for her project, “Large-Scale data collection and Storage via blOckchAin with differential privacy (SSoaP).”
The most popular current use of blockchain technology is the Bitcoin blockchain, but blockchain can store many other forms of transactional data in a “digital ledger.” A blockchain stores digital information in a way that provides strong guarantees about immutability, security, and permanence. These guarantees motivate the use and investigation for use of blockchains in a variety of domains including the storage of agreements such as deeds, contracts, financial transactions, and academic records.
“I would like to thank Chad Cascarilla for his support of this initiative. His gift will help drive cutting-edge technology research at Notre Dame,” said Flynn.
The three awarded research projects will focus on understanding blockchain technology. Each project was reviewed and evaluated by the members of the Blockchain Initiative steering committee. For more information, please contact Flynn.
Contact:
Patrick Flynn / Duda Family Professor of Engineering & Chair of Computer Science and Engineering
College of Engineering / University of Notre Dame
flynn@nd.edu / 574.631.8183
engineering.nd.edu / @NDengineering
About Notre Dame Research:
The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see research.nd.edu or @UNDResearch.