SINGAPORE and ARMONK, N.Y., April 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/
-- The National University of Singapore
(NUS) School of Computing and the IBM Center for Blockchain
Innovation (ICBI), a part of IBM Research, are collaborating
to jointly develop a module on financial technology, to
better equip students with essential knowledge and
skill sets in this area.
Blockchain is a fast growing area across the globe, with
banking, healthcare and the government leading the way in terms of
adoption. According to studies by IBM's Institute of Business
Value, these three industries are investing heavily in blockchain
and commercial solutions are expected to be in place in the next
few years.
- Leading the pack in blockchain banking: Trailblazers set the
pace: Fifteen percent of banks and 14 percent of financial market
institutions interviewed by IBM intend to implement full-scale,
commercial blockchain solutions in 2017. 65 percent of banks are
expecting to have blockchain solutions in production in the next
three years.
- Healthcare rallies for blockchains: Keeping patients at the
center: Healthcare institutions are going all-in – investing
heavily in blockchain pilots, with nine in ten respondents planning
to invest by 2018 across all business areas IBM surveyed them
about.
- Building trust in government: Nine in ten government
organizations surveyed plan to invest in blockchain for use in
financial transaction management, asset management, contract
management and regulatory compliance by 2018.
The Singapore government's
strategic goal to become a Smart Financial Centre1 has
put focus on blockchain for Singapore. Through its Financial Sector
Technology & Innovation (FSTI) scheme, the Monetary Authority
of Singapore (MAS) has committed
S$225 million (US$157 million) over a five-year period to
provide support for the creation of a vibrant fintech ecosystem.
Among the projects that have been backed by the scheme is a
decentralized record-keeping system based on blockchain technology
aimed at preventing duplicate invoicing in trade finance.
The new module on financial technology is expected to
be introduced in January 2018, and
will focus on blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.
It seeks to equip students with
an understanding of the fundamentals of the technology
behind distributed ledgers, and its diverse use cases, from
banking to digital currencies to supply chain management. NUS
faculty members will co-develop the curriculum of the new module
with IBM researchers at ICBI to enable students to
learn about the latest developments in blockchain technology, and
encourage them to contribute to developing the technology
further. The module will be co-taught by NUS academic staff
and ICBI staff who will use financial technology software
such as Hyperledger Fabric, one of the five projects under the
Hyperledger umbrella, to deliver the course content. Hyperledger
Fabric was initially contributed by IBM. Such software will also be
made available to NUS researchers for research purposes. Such
software will also be made available to NUS researchers for
research purposes.
Blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, is a distributed
database of transactions shared across a network of trusted
entities. Blockchain helps create greater accountability,
transparency and potentially trust for all transactions and is
currently being used in business applications across industries
including banking and financial services, supply chain and
logistics and retail.
"Our collaboration with ICBI marks yet another important
milestone in our continuous efforts to bring industry relevant
knowledge to our classrooms and at the same time inculcate
technological responsibility in our students by spearheading the
development of financial technology in Singapore, as the nation strives to become one
of the world's key digital financial hubs. The new module forms
part of the newly enhanced Information Systems degree programme in
which a new specialization in Financial Technology has been
introduced. We are confident that our graduates will be
well-prepared for the wide-ranging career opportunities in this
fast-growing sector," said Associate Professor Hahn Jungpil, Head
of the Department of Information Systems at NUS School of
Computing.
"Blockchain is one of the most disruptive technologies in
computing today, and it is impacting many industries including
financial services, trade, healthcare and supply chain. This
collaboration with the National University of
Singapore School of Computing will help prepare a future
workforce that is born on blockchain, ready to implement, improve
and innovate: core skills required for Singapore to achieve its vision as a Smart
Financial Centre and Smart Nation," said Robert Morris, Vice President Global Labs, IBM
Research.
Under the collaboration, ICBI will provide technology support in
the form of access via the IBM Cloud to the Hyperledger Fabric
blockchain framework. IBM is an early contributor Hyperledger, a
Linux Foundation project, which now contains more than
129 member organizations.
About National University of
Singapore (NUS)
A leading global university centred in Asia, the National
University of Singapore (NUS) is Singapore's flagship university, which offers
a global approach to education and research, with a focus on Asian
perspectives and expertise.
NUS has 17 faculties and schools across three campuses. Its
transformative education includes a broad-based curriculum
underscored by multi-disciplinary courses and cross-faculty
enrichment. Over 38,000 students from 100 countries enrich the
community with their diverse social and cultural perspectives.
NUS takes an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach to
research, working with partners from industry, government and
academia, to address crucial and complex issues relevant to
Asia and the world. Researchers in
NUS' Schools and Faculties, 30 university-level research institutes
and centres, and Research Centres of Excellence cover a wide range
of themes including: energy, environmental and urban
sustainability; treatment and prevention of diseases common among
Asians; active ageing; advanced materials; risk management and
resilience of financial systems. The University's latest research
focus is to use data sciences, optimisation research and
cyber-security to support Singapore's Smart Nation initiative.
For more information on NUS, please visit www.nus.edu.sg.
About IBM
IBM is the leader in secure open-source blockchain solutions
built for the enterprise. As an early member of the Linux
Foundation's Hyperledger Project, IBM is dedicated to supporting
the development of openly-governed blockchains. IBM has worked with
more than 400 clients across financial services, supply chains,
IoT, risk management, digital rights management and healthcare to
implement blockchain applications delivered via the IBM Cloud. For
more information about IBM Blockchain, visit
http://www.ibm.com/blockchain.
Contact:
Hannah
Slocum
IBM Communications
hslocum@us.ibm.com
+1 978 877 0105
1 Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore Financial Centre, Smart
Financial Centre:
http://www.mas.gov.sg/Singapore-Financial-Centre/Smart-Financial-Centre.aspx
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SOURCE IBM