Polkadot’s Gavin Wood to Give Lecture Series as Part of UC Berkeley Blockchain Curriculum

University of California, Berkeley and Parity Technologies are joining forces on several blockchain fronts, including educational development and awareness, by leveraging Parity’s expert team and the Substrate framework as knowledge-building resources.

UC Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator Partners with Parity to Promote Blockchain Adoption

To bring more resources to the University of California, Berkeley community and Blockchain Xcelerator, Parity Technologies and the academic institution are expanding existing ties by forming a resource-rich educational framework for the 2020-2021 academic year.

This deepening cooperation follows Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator’s existing familiarity with Parity and Polkadot ecosystem startups through its program, which has already accelerated 45 high-value blockchain projects since its inception in 2019. These growing ties will see the Parity development team help expose the University’s students to innovation through a multi-pronged approach, starting with efforts centering on a blockchain curriculum.

Parity’s Substrate blockchain-building framework and Polkadot’s second-generation protocol will play a significant role in this educational effort given their usefulness as tools and utilities in the ever-expanding ecosystem. Additionally, Parity’s involvement will cover the advancement of new project ideas and exploration of other valuable educational angles to improve the community’s overall blockchain-engagement.

Taking a Hands-On Approach to Blockchain Guidance

One of the noteworthy developments in this new partnership will be a lecture delivered by Dr. Gavin Wood. Wood, a co-founder of Parity Technologies and the Polkadot network, is well-known within blockchain circles. In his previous role as Ethereum’s CTO and co-founder, he was responsible for designing the Solidity language alongside the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Dr. Wood will be taking part in the A. Richard Newton Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series in March of 2021, granting the Berkeley community a unique opportunity to tap into his breadth of experience.

According to Dr. Wood,

Blockchain innovation moves fast, and as we advance this industry beyond legacy networks into next-generation, production-grade blockchains like Polkadot, it is critical that the next generation of coders, engineers, and entrepreneurs are up to speed on what it takes to make it in this competitive space. If we are to achieve the Web 3.0 vision I outlined in 2015, students like Berkeley’s must-see an alternative to the traditional Silicon Valley Web 2.0 world they are used to diving into straight out of school.

Besides exposing community members, faculty, and students to next-generation technologies via educational programming and the lecture, Parity intends to deepen its support for the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator. This advisory effort will include consultations on Polkdaot development and the growing Web3 ecosystem. To date, Xcelerator has already nurtured several projects designed for the Polkadot network. These include decentralized finance (defi) ecosystem Acala and Stake Technologies, which delivers smart contract capabilities.

How far do we think we are from a full-blown blockchain degree? Let us know in the comments section below.