This conference was held on
Date: November 16, 2018, 8:00 am to 7:00 pm
Location: AAAS Headquarters, 1200 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005.
Pictures from the Workshop
MISSION
The rise of blockchain has attracted the attention of academia, industry, government, and state agencies. As of 2018, over 1500 startup companies and corporations are working on blockchain solutions in different sectors such as finance, supply chain, manufacturing, healthcare, etc. Despite its transformative potential, blockchain technology is yet to become mainstream. This is partly because the development and adoption of blockchains desire involvement from developers and researchers with established experience in cryptography, security, and the theory of distributed systems. In addition, blockchain research has several challenges, such as scalability and interoperability. Different challenges will also arise when deploying in different applications.
This workshop discussed Blockchain technology research and development challenges by involving efforts from academia, industry, and government and state agencies. Specifically, it will have the following goals:
- Provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art blockchain technologies
- Bring together various stakeholders in academia, industry, government and state agencies, and non-profit organizations to share their experience in research and deployment challenges and opportunities;
- Leverage the opportunity to foster inter-agency collaborations on blockchain research and adoption.
- Discuss the challenges and opportunities of deploying blockchains in different sectors such as food safety, IoT, and healthcare.
This workshop offered a comprehensive view of both permissionless and permissioned blockchain technologies to participants with different expertise levels. It also summarized the blockchain research challenges and future directions and made recommendations for blockchain adoption and development.
The workshop was organized by NSF CARTA Center, US Department of Commerce National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). Our workshop is sponsored by NSF.
WORKSHOP AGENDA
8:00 am 8:20 am Registration 8:20 am 8:30 am Opening remarks:
The workshop will open with opening remarks from representatives from AAAS, and CARTA.Speakers:Dr. Yelena Yesha, Distinguished Professor, CARTA Center Director.Dr. Jennifer Pearl, Science & Technology Policy Fellowships Director, AAAS.Dr. Karl V. Steiner, Vice President for Research, UMBC8:30 am 9:00 am Invited talk 1 A distinguished speaker to discuss blockchain innovation from the government perspective
Mr. Anil John, Technical Director, Silicon Valley Innovation Program, Science and Technology Directorate, US Department of Homeland Security
9:00 am 10:00 am Lightning talks Lightning talks and discussion to share real-life applications from government, industry, and academia.
Dr. Chaitan Baru, Senior Advisor of Data Science Research Initiatives, UC San Diego
Ms. Sherri Sokol, Innovation Lead, Defense Information Systems Agency (DOD)
Dr. Karuna Pande Joshi, Assistant Professor, CARTA UMBC Site Director, UMBC
Mr. Andrei Lebedev, Engineer, Soramitsu
Ms. Heather Flannery, Co-Founder, Blockchain in Healthcare Global and Consensys
Moderator: Dr. Joanna Chan, Data Scientist, National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Department of Commerce
10:00 am 10:30 am Coffee Break 10:30 am 10:50 am Invited talk 2 A distinguished speaker to discuss blockchain innovation from the industry perspective
Mr. Gari Singh, CTO for blockchain. IBM
10:50 am 12:05 pm Use case roundtable Panelists to share experience on blockchain use cases
Mr. Craig Fischer, Program Manager, Office of Financial Innovation and Transformation, Department of Treasury.
Mr. Jose Arietta, Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Ms. Michelle White, Director, Shared Services & IT Products Contract Operations, General Services Administration (GSA)
Ms. Silvana Rodriguez, Director for Strategic Partnerships in the Americas, ConsenSys.
Moderator: Dr. Justin Li, Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
12:05 pm 12:25 pm Invited talk 3 A distinguished speaker to discuss ethical issues on blockchain applications
Dr. Cara LaPointe, Senior Fellow, Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation, Georgetown
12:25 pm 1:30 pm Lunch (provided) & networking 1:30 pm 1:40 pm NSF remarks Introduction and welcome by Dr. Keith J. Bowman, Dean, College of Engineering and Information Technology, UMBC
NSF program director to share the research funding direction
Dr. Ann Von Lehman
1:40 pm 2:05 pm Research talk Discuss blockchain innovation from the academia perspective
Dr. Haibin Zhang, Co-Director of Distributed Systems and Security Lab, UMBC
2:05 pm 3:20 pm Research Deep-Dive Talks on the research findings and new directions in blockchain research
Dr. Jacob Mendel, Managing Director, The Hogeg Blockchain Research Institute, Tel Aviv University
Dr. Sisi Duan, Asst. Professor, UMBC
Mr. Michael Mylrea, DOE, PNNL
Moderator: Dr. Vandana Janeja, Associate Professor, UMBC
3:20 pm 3:45 pm Coffee Break 3:45 pm 5:00 pm Parallel roundtable discussions & report back
- How can I bring blockchain to my organization? – to connect gov’t and industry
- What is the next frontier in blockchain research? – to connect academia and industry
- Other topics suggested by participants (unconference topics)
5:00 pm 5:10 pm Closing remarks Dr. Keith J. Bowman, Dean, College of Engineering and Information Technology, UMBC
5:10 pm 7:30 pm Reception and Networking
Organizing Committee
