Spartan Blockchain — May 2019 State of Ledger
Introduction
As the initial semester of establishing our umbrella organization, Spartan Blockchain, comes to a close, we thought it would be a good idea to reflect on our accomplishments over the past year. This article begins with a brief history of Spartan Blockchain, transitions to summarizing our initiatives this past spring, and concludes with our vision for the 2019–2020 school year and beyond.
Outline
- History of Spartan Blockchain
- Spartan Blockchain Today
- Looking Ahead…
- Connect with Spartan Blockchain
History of Spartan Blockchain
Established in January of 2018, a small group of blockchain and cryptocurrency advocates founded Spartan Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Club. Our first meetings provided members with a forum to discuss cryptocurrencies, debate use cases of blockchain as a technology, and network with other like-minded individuals interested in learning more about emerging technologies. At that time, our membership attendance was directly correlated with Bitcoin’s price, which continued to plummet from its all-time high of $19,665.39.
Realizing that pegging ourselves to cryptocurrencies was not a sustainable vision for our organization, the Spartan Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Club rebranded to Spartan Blockchain during the fall of 2018 with a newfound focus to spread awareness and adoption of blockchain technology around MSU. Complimented by Michigan State University offering its first academic course introducing blockchain technology (MGT 491: Blockchain: Foundations and Applications), we first built out a backbone of diverse stakeholders for managerial guidance while simultaneously partnering with other student organizations to host workshops introducing blockchain technology to the general MSU community. Through refining our vision for blockchain at MSU and taking a goal-oriented approach in accomplishing our initiatives, Spartan Blockchain managed to increase its active membership from 10 to over 50 members between September 2018 and December 2018.
Additionally, we were instrumental in negotiating MSU’s inclusion in IBM’s Academic Initiative, giving students and faculty access to IBM’s suite of open-source computer technologies, and advocating for the construction of a physical blockchain research laboratory on Michigan State University’s campus. Being a joint venture between the MSU College of Law and the Eli Broad College of Business, the state-of-the-art laboratory opens its doors to students looking to have a dedicated space to work on impactful blockchain projects during the fall of 2019.
To conclude our fall 2018 semester, we formalized the research and advisory arm of Spartan Blockchain, Spartan Blockchain Solutions, and signed MSU-owned, student-operated Land Grant Goods as our first client to implement a blockchain/supply chain visibility solution for their business.
By first spending the entirety of the fall 2018 semester on building a structurally sound foundation for our organization, we were able to recoup dividends of our initial investment throughout the spring of 2019.
Spartan Blockchain Today
In 2019, Spartan Blockchain is a registered student organization and nonprofit blockchain research and advisory firm on Michigan State University’s campus that provides extra-curricular education to students who are interested in blockchain technologies. By leveraging prominent blockchain educational resources, industry-leading partnerships, and establishing our nonprofit research and advisory arm, Spartan Blockchain Solutions, Spartan Blockchain helps jumpstart Michigan State University’s ecosystem to become a leading academic institution in the blockchain space. Our organization is broken down into two components:
Spartan Blockchain (RSO)
Split between being a student group and nonprofit research and advisory firm, the Registered Student Organization division of Spartan Blockchain focuses on spreading blockchain literacy around the East Lansing community. In doing so, we offer a variety of collaborative events including our Blockchain Essentials Workshops, IBM Hyperledger Development Workshops, and public meetup events such as our inaugural Innovation Competition this past spring.
Spartan Blockchain Innovation Competition
In March of 2019, we hosted our first annual Spartan Blockchain Innovation Competition. This event brought together sponsors including IBM, Deloitte, Spartan Innovations, Lake Trust Credit Union, A.J. Boggs & Company, and EOS Detroit, community members, and student teams from Spartan Blockchain, Blockchain@IU, and Blockchain at Michigan to pitch their most innovative use cases of blockchain technology.
Friday, March 29th — Think Tank and Community Meetup Events
The first day started with a private roundtable discussion where 40+ representatives of sponsors, MSU faculty, and students developed a process for Michigan State University to become a leading academic institution in the blockchain space. Pillared around continued curriculum development, strategic industry partnerships, and interdisciplinary research and implementation opportunities for students and faculty, Michigan State University has already begun executing their outlined initiatives to grow the blockchain ecosystem around East Lansing.
Immediately following our Think Tank session, we hosted a Greater Lansing Blockchain Community Meetup event at the Broad Art Lab, giving 100+ attendees the opportunity to network with invited blockchain & fintech firms from around the Metro Detroit area.
Saturday, March 30th — Spartan Blockchain Innovation Competition
The next day began with a pitch competition where student teams had 10 minutes to present their ideas to a panel of judges composed of diverse industry sponsors followed by 5 minutes of Q/A. The four competition prizes and prize winners were:
Most Innovative Idea ($1,500 prize sponsored by Lake Trust Credit Union) — SmartiFi (Spartan Blockchain): A solution for the student loan crisis
Best Pitch ($250 prize) — Nebulous (Spartan Blockchain): Student transcripts on the Blockchain
Most Feasible Idea ($250 prize) — Folio (University of Michigan): Dapp onboarding for mass adoption
Most Impactful ($250 prize) — PresDig (Blockchain at Michigan): A prescription fraud project focusing on opioid abuse
The competition was immediately followed by workshops from angel investor David Smith, Louise Hemond-Wilson & Yogesh Saxena from IBM, and Philip Wiszowaty from EOS Detroit discussing their work in the blockchain space. The event concluded with a fireside panel discussion detailing how to have a successful career in blockchain from distinguished entrepreneurs and experienced industry professionals.
Being the first of its kind hosted in the Midwest combined with the success of our weekend-long Innovation Competition event, we’re already hard at work planning for our second annual Innovation Competition next March. Going forward, we plan to host significantly more events around the Midwest in hopes to continue our mission of educating and engaging with the surrounding emerging technology community. We envision the RSO Spartan Blockchain to continually grow in tandem with both Michigan State University and Spartan Blockchain Solutions.
Spartan Blockchain Solutions
Spartan Blockchain Solutions is our student-run nonprofit blockchain advisory and research firm that provides organizations and businesses with customized blockchain solutions. By reinvesting the proceeds of our engagements back into the cross-functional development of our members, we aim to prepare our student consultants and developers for careers in the blockchain space. SBS is currently broken down into two teams:
Research Team
Our research teams at Spartan Blockchain Solutions explore innovative applications of blockchain technology. Our analysts develop skills through internal workshops, client engagements, and networking with professionals working in industry. Through open conversations with our stakeholder network, we determined that the first SBS research projects should outline how to go about tokenizing physical assets and recording student records on the blockchain.
Asset Tokenization
Our Asset Tokenization Team worked on a proof-of-concept research project describing how to go about converting the right of ownership for physical assets into a digital token. Following the success of Spartan Blockchain’s research teams during our Innovation Competition event, our Asset Tokenization Team pivoted to create a platform to match students with vendors for emergency student loans. Our team plans to demonstrate their MVP to our primary stakeholders later this summer with a full system implementation already in the pipeline for the fall semester of 2019.
Student Records on a Blockchain
Our Student Records Team worked on a POC permissible project which gives students the opportunity to digitally own their educational credentials. The final deliverables for our Student Records Team were to develop a finalized project plan, pitch an implementation recommendation, and develop a working POC to showcase how to seamlessly integrate student records on a blockchain. We’re currently in talks to transition our student records project into a client engagement for the fall 2019 semester.
Consulting Team
The SBS Consulting Team interacts with clients to identify value-add opportunities for blockchain inclusion in their organizations while solve complex business problems by leveraging some of the best software platforms in the space. Our first client engagement with Land Grant Goods is to develop a full stack supply chain visibility solution for the production of honey using IBM’s Hyperledger Blockchain Platform.
Land Grant Goods Engagement
Land Grant Goods (LGG) is a student-operated business that is funded through Michigan State University. LGG’s product offerings include honey, organic tea, and other related products made from locally sourced agricultural goods.
Previously, LGG has no formal ERP, CRM or inventory systems in place. This lack of technical structure has caused minimal issues for LGG in the past. However, the LGG management team explored the possibility of integrating a blockchain system to increase operational efficiency, product quality, and visibility of their honey to the customer.
The first couple of months of our engagement were spent defining LGG’s standard operating procedures, establishing controls to overcome the garbage in, garbage out dilemma, and giving customized identities to each vendor in LGG’s supply chain.
We’re currently in the final steps of completing a full-scale implementation of our designed user interface and hardware integration. By the end of August, LGG consumers will have the ability to scan a QR code on LGG branded honey jars, revealing key metrics about their product’s supply chain. At each step in LGG’s honey production process, information is being recorded on SBS-developed, LGG-owned internal blockchain.
With the continuation of our Land Grant Goods and Platform for Emergency Student Loans projects coupled with the eagerness of SBS’s personnel to continue their extracurricular involvement in developing blockchain applications, we’re in the process of formalizing the logistical details of a third engagement for the summer of 2019. Finally, we’re currently sourcing engagements for the 2019–2020 school year.
Looking Ahead…
Agnostic of the success of blockchain technology and the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, Spartan Blockchain is dedicated to developing its members to guide the next generation of collaborative leaders. To complement our 3–4 client engagements each semester, we’ve partnered with IBM to develop internal workshops focused on combining case-based strategical problem-solving and professional development opportunities for our analysts. With the convergence of once compartmentalized academic, ecosystem, and consulting curriculum developments, Michigan State University is poised to become a global thought leader in the blockchain and emerging technology space. And we’re just getting started!
Connect with Spartan Blockchain
Visit our website, LinkedIn, and Instagram
Submit a Spartan Blockchain Solutions RFP — spartan@msublockchain.org
Michigan State University Students
Our Fall 2019 recruitment cycle is coming soon. Stay updated by following our LinkedIn here!
