Block Zero Stage | NEAR Campus: Unleashing the Potential of University Partnerships for DevHub

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1. 0:00

   so I'm Bianca from near horizon horizon is a platform within near Foundation that supports early stage startups and I'm excited to announce Boris pania who will be talking about partnering with universities and how dehub is taking a look at that so please welcome Boris to the stage thank you Rea for introduction so we definitely are we are about to start okay so we uh I'm going to to talk a

2. 0:30

   little how uh dep hop is going to influence the near ecosystem through education right oh let me for I forgot the thing so yeah so well uh again thanks I'm Boris pania I'm uh def here in devop and I will talk a lot a little about how we what are we were doing in terms of education and developer engagement through education so first I will start talking about near campus ER right now near campus has three three areas we have the the blockchain clubs

3. 1:03

   uh the blockchain clubs is basically we are engaging existing blockchain clubs in different universities so we can add them engage developers at earlier stage of their career so that's the main focus of of the blockchain clubs we're also going H H doing some research that is the research part we are engaging PhD post doogs and professors H so they can add or used near as a part of their

4. 1:32

   research pipelines either using near as a as a framework of the general research or probably Focus the research in near a specific H subjects but also something called is very recently new called NBS the near blockchain H near near business school is the new business school is our approach to business to University clubs are at not developer Focus I will talk about because it's really new uh I will talk a so the the blockchain clubs this is what we're doing so we have engaged around 50

5. 2:12

   University clubs 10 more coming about by the end of the year we right now we have big names like Caltech like University of California Santa Barbara University of California San Diego we have University of Illinois Arizona State and we also have like a little less known names we have universities in Africa we have universities in Brazil and smaller universities in United States and Canada

6. 2:35

   um we are focused you know more globally and the university that comes by the end of the year will be more universities for Latin America um right now what what is it what is this all about so the the clubs are requesting for funding for expertise for Technical Resources from us ER the first cohort already start to receive Fund in November a few there is one that gets some funding to come here and participate in the hackaton H they are

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   doing this is a we we have some base but H but it's very flexible what they can get the funds for right they are using hackaton in real life online workshops and even some of them are requesting funded to run their own validators notes so they that's said they're coming from them and you know we're flexible we are we're open every region have different needs every college has different needs so we are open to fund them or support them if we can right and every single

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   proposal is being Post in Social in in Social DV you can go to devop social DV and read the proposal did attestation read what they're doing so it's completely public they're all the members everything is there so just just if you need more information a specific Club you can find it there so we're also doing some partn to expand this for example some colleges are asking for they run their own notes H def cannot provide the liquidity so we are just partnered with metapo like we they kind of committing like around half a million

9. 4:10

   dollars initially to fund this validators not so they want to the put H some delegation on the notes that they study by universities that the main plan where also you know keep always talking Horizon so how the next steps how we can bring this uh developers and make it funders so that's that's the kind of a partnership we're doing with trying to working with horiz Horizon H now research research is the the the the PHD the the post dos right

10. 4:42

    so we are now working with three teams they are about to post their proposals H is um University of California Santa Barbara Stanford and a University of Calgary what is this they are requesting for funding for their own for for their own research ER I think the first cohort will come in January 2024 they are working in resarch as Mar Contra security cryptography protocol Etc the reason we're doing this are multiple but one ER and this is

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    something we have discussed with other parts of n foundation not only deop is we want to the community to see we have the numbers like 96 or 97% of the research on blockchain is done either in a Bitcoin or in ethereum so we want the the the near to become a household name when the time comes for doing research if I'm doing my I'm a professor I'm a postdoc and about to do research I know smart contracts uh I want to I I want to I want them to consider rust as a

12. 5:47

    possibility not only solidity and when they consider rust that should be using near stuff like that um and that's know that's what it's you know lead us and hopefully eventually they will this post do the professor will have their own courses and they will you know add near so long-term near should be part of the conver the academic conversation with creating innovation in in blockchain I

13. 6:11

    similarly all every single proposal will be posted before approval in your social so everyone can attest everyone can say what they think U and we also have some Partnerships right the main partnership is the protocol team a bog team where we're working with them they agreed to be the the team that will review on the very technical level will e each research team so they don't they don't necessarily do the reviewing but they will put the other departments in near

14. 6:40

    that will review this proposal for us so they they become like the the Clearing House for analyzing these proposals these the guys are about to to post um they are already looking at the one from Stanford they're already looking for the one University of California and the Santa Barbara will start looking soon now the near business school this this is very new this we thinking about this

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    but many of the blockchain clubs are not developers right are the economies economics schools Business Schools management schools so it kind of didn't fit within the the def Mission because we are about bringing developers but then you know we're not focusing a little more in Founders and this part of of of of helping developers become founders ERS so it started to make more and more sense so we've been talking with multiple you know universities and we are as we'll

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    start to the hearing the first proposals and but we will do it in partnership with other Departments of near right the other areas of near so we don't judge on the on the business man of these ideas but we will rely on the near ecosystem other like near Foundation Horizon H proximity whoever can give it back so this so we can fund this University Globes we already started to talk with LSC mostly in in in England a few schools in England that

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    they have clubs that are not necessarily um blockchain Rel B technical development related also oh we already have the pick up the conversation with in Harvard so there the the interest is there but we needed to make it work within the def overall but that it's happening I think by the spring 2024 we will have the first proposal approved and we're talking mostly in UK but also H University Al in Colombia and one University in Mexico and United States

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    are interested in look into this so yeah I've been talking they're focusing Finance the schools are focusing on finance and business economics and management ER this is the main idea how helping developers become Founders helping these guys to to become you know to launch their their business into within the new ecosystem and you know helping you know cross the CH the custom right make it to the other find a find a a bridge head and start you know

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    getting the their business up and running and similarly the anything else every single proposal will be post on on the social TV and everyone will be able to look at it and give up attestation and their their opinion about it ER we are uh I actually have a recently very recent meetings some buses some accelerator there a busy group in in Du University are really interested in doing this with us so we will bring also strle Partners to help us you know fine

20. 9:45

    tune this so we can as make help these developers become Founders oh and there has also been interest from government that they they they want to see how they can get involved and you know in this process so this H now we have the boot camps the there are students not not only in universities so there are other institutions that doesn't give accredited courses but they do have very good developers very very well very good developers as well so we

21. 10:18

    are also wanting to engage with them so we are already talking with three of them ER mostly two of them in Spain one in Latin America and is the the approach is the following basically they usually have a tracks within existing boot camps or they are open to run a near specific boot camps in any case it will be either an open web stock or a Boss track or full course or rust based tracks or courses so they are they're open to both

22. 10:54

    to both ER tracks right so two there's two ways we can do that right um um we are you know having the near only developer programs is an issue because is not well known in some areas but we're pushing also for that but I think that near only will be based mostly rust smart contracts boss will probably will be a part a track of a 16 course they already have um again every single proposal will be in in in in in near social then

23. 11:27

    so certified developer program um first cohort just started we launch with open we Academy a pilot um and it will be part of the the centralite def RS so we we will run similar with China Korea Korea and Mexico so we're already conversation with with all of them so the idea here is defa creates becomes a certifier the it we don't want to certify students we want to certify projects or institutions or teams of people that want to certify

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    our people so we create a common curriculum it's not it's kind of flexible it's not like very well very rigid curriculum but if one project like for example open wether Academy want to certifi within this program they have to cover a specific areas and we are having even different levels right like uh the level one level two level three is so it can be more difficult it will be more difficult so we want to make it more

25. 12:35

    professional so we created this framework we are trying this framework with open wet Academy is in the is in the proposal in the in in near social you can read it uh and we are trying to make it the standard for every single institution that want to certify developers with us they have to implement the same curriculum is is not very rigid but is there is some at least some baseline for everyone so why this

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    because we talk with a lot of the students and they felt that it wasn't consistency they didn't they didn't know what exactly meant to be a near developer what is boss or what is Ross so we want to give the students a baseline to know that they are putting their time in something that is actually practical and usable within the n sy so we are we are becoming like the beon okay if you want to near learn near this is what you need to learn you pick who

27. 13:37

    it could be open wet Academy the Chinese the fs whoever but this is what it means to learn near so that's that's the the the the reason we're doing it like this again every single proposal will be public available read about it if you want to run your own program there are plenty of examples how to do it you can come to us read it so that's that's the proposal we have Partnerships we are

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    open wear Academy is running the first uh pilot the Chinese death rails are offer it the Korean death rails are really like it as so they want to ruin the Brazil death rails too H so we are partnering with them there are all Partners here there will be the ones actually doing the teaching and we are working with the chard dos because the certificates will be some bound nfts so

29. 14:25

    we are working with them actually creating this the the credentials so that's it that's what what we' be doing H these are the main programs we're pushing for this we only been doing this for a couple three months um I'm I'm you know I'm working heavily on on this program but also a St that is sitting there she's a person you have to talk if you want to get your thing up and running um yeah so knocker door in any of the areas if you want to

30. 14:56

    be a blockchain club if you want to run your own Academy if you want to H more interest on the business side please come to us we're open to hear your your proposal so yeah that's it thank you very much and I'll be around if you need have any questions thank you