According to a recent report, The City University of Hong Kong (CityU) announced that it would be championing the cause for blockchain adoption via a collaboration with the industry’s finest, including the Singaporean blockchain consulting firm.
The firm’s chairman, who is also a director at the prestigious Tsinghua Research Institute German Center, sought the opportunity to share his passion in the blockchain technology with other like-minded academics.
This collaboration with distinguished professors at CityU serves as one of many efforts to make blockchain education more accessible to all.
The symposium was hosted in early January 2019 and took place in the heart of the university along Tat Chee Avenue in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Various high-ranking government officials were in attendance as well as many academics, scholars and industry players. More than 100 professors and experts from the academic field presented their latest advances in blockchain technology at the event.
The line-up for the two-day event consisted of a healthy balance between commercial and academic dissection, presenting insider analysis from both worlds. Respected figures in the industry offered their takes on the market and pace of technological advancements via keynote addresses, whilst panel discussions presented the opinions of honorary mentors and professors from near and far, most notably professors from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Tsinghua University, Harbin Institute of Technology and not forgetting, resident professors at CityU.
Well aware of unpopular mercenary approaches that plagued the blockchain market in the past year, the Symposium on Blockchain Technology and Applications (SBTA) aimed to inject a new approach in nurturing budding blockchain mavens.
The conference concentrated strictly on technology, economics, innovation and blockchain applications, steering clear of the flashy marketing and promotional pitches that are often associated with blockchain events.
CityU has displayed much affection for blockchain technology from very early on, with a joint research centre set up in Chengdu and several more in the pipeline.
This symposium served as a platform for blockchain enthusiasts from both ends of the spectrum to meet and mingle, with the objective to spark off real connections and fruitful conversations for all.
Moreover, it aimed to foster innovation in blockchain and interaction between the industry and academia to explore opportunities and promote collaborations in technology, methodology, applications, tools, concepts, guidelines, and managerial insights.
The symposium sought to also solicit new solutions from the industry as well as high-quality original researches in blockchain technology and applications; it marked the first time in the region that industry and academia are brought together to a fully integrated platform on blockchain.
This event is key in order to push to Smart City initiatives laid out by the HKSAR Government.
According to a report from September 2018, Hong Kong is actively promoting the Smart City concept and was the third country to host the Blockchain EXE Asia Tour in order to enable this. The demand for blockchain technology is extremely high in China, and especially in Hong Kong, which is at the forefront of the technology.
According to the Smart City agenda a smart city calls for close collaboration among the public sector, private sector, academia and citizens over the whole cycle of implementation: from identification of city challenges, formulation of policy and strategy, research and development, conceptualisation of potential projects, feasibility assessment, proof of concept through pilot projects to city-wide implementation.
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are one of the most popular implementation models in other jurisdictions for smart city development. The HKSAR has promised to consider appropriate implementation models, including PPPs, to push the individual smart city initiatives. It is expected that the region will see more widespread implementation of DLT technology in 2019.