Co-founder of RealMarket to Teach First Hyperledger Blockchain University Course in Europe

The first Hyperledger blockchain university course in Europe will be offered by the Faculty of Technical Sciences of the University of Novi Sad, Serbia.

The course, titled “Parallel and Distributed Algorithms and Data Structures,” aims to give students the foundational knowledge and practical skills necessary to work with blockchain technology.

To complete the course, students will be required to deliver a capstone project based on the open source Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework and using the Hyperledger Composer tool.

The instructor teaching the course is Dr. Dusan Gajic, co-founder and CTO of RealMarket. Speaking for the Serbian tech news portal Startit, Dusan said:

“Blockchain technology has the potential to uproot the way our entire economy functions. Concepts such as smart contracts and algorithmically guaranteed trust can lead us to a future world of ‘programmable economy’. In order to prepare future generations of software engineers for this change, we have to introduce them to the basics of the technology during their studies.”

The “Parallel and Distributed Algorithms and Data Structures” is a postgraduate course under the Faculty’s Computer Science Masters program module called “High Performance Computing.” The goal of the program is to teach high performance computing methods for performing highly complex scientific calculations and processing of big data.

The introduction of blockchain courses to university curricula reflects a rising demand for experts in this field. Speaking for the Financial Times last year, IBM’s vice-president of blockchain technologies, Jerry Cuomo, said that the best blockchain engineers can command a salary above $250,000, which is “on the high side of what a really talented consultant or software engineer can earn.”

US universities such as NYU, Princeton, Stanford, and Duke were among the first to introduce blockchain courses. European universities started catching up soon after. Last year, the IT University in Denmark offered a Blockchain Summer school. The University of Edinburgh introduced undergraduate course called “Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers.”

What sets “Parallel and Distributed Algorithms and Data Structures” apart from other programs is its emphasis on practical skill and its focus on Hyperledger technologies.

Hyperledger is a Linux-Foundation blockchain consortium with over 100 companies contributing to its open source projects (one of which is the Fabric framework). Its members include tech giants such as Intel, Samsung, and IBM, as well as financial institutions like JP Morgan and American Express. Therefore, proficiency in Hyperledger technologies presents a promising gateway for students looking to break into the industry.