Computer Science in Practice - University of Houston
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Computer Science in Practice

Crypto-Currencies, Icos, and Blockchain: Why Computer Science Majors or Anyone Should Care

When: Monday, October 16, 2017
Where: PGH 563
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Speaker: Dr. Larry Shi, University of Houston

Host: Dr. Omprakash Gnawali

Behind the well-known cryptocurrency systems such as Bitcoin, blockchain is considered as one of the disruptive technologies that hold the promise to transform education, government, academic research, and many industries including financing, supply chain, healthcare, transportation, real estate, sharing economy, insurance, to name just few. According to prediction, the number of blockchain jobs are expected to grow 16x in the next 7 years. Despite its rapid growth since last year, there is a lack of formal education and curriculum in academia to cover this increasingly important topic. In this talk, I will provide a high level introduction of the concept of blockchain and explain why it may profoundly change how we do business and how society is governed. In addition, I will also discuss technical and non-technical challenges that have to be overcome in order to move forward the blockchain ecosystem.

Bio:

Dr. Shi received his Ph.D. of Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2006. He was previously a senior research staff member of the ubiquitous computing division of Motorola Corporate Research Lab, and senior researcher of Nokia Research Center at Palo Alto. In the past, Mr. Shi contributed to the design of multiple Nvidia platform products and was credited to published Electronic Art console game. In addition, Mr. Shi authored and co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications. His current research includes cyber security, applications of big data, computing for humanity, and a broad range of research topics related to blockchain and its applications. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Department of Homeland Security, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and industry. Mr. Shi is a senior member of IEEE.