Curtin’s new blockchain lab will serve at the axis between education, industry and tech research.
Curtin’s new blockchain lab will serve at the axis between education, industry and tech research.
US-based digital consultancy group Natsoft has partnered with Curtin University to establish the Blockchain Research and Development Lab, a new centre for research, education and development of blockchain technologies.
Building on Natsoft’s development capabilities and the work of Curtin School of Management senior research fellow, Vidy Potdar, the lab will help facilitate partnerships between students, academics and entrepreneurs to help them better understand the application of blockchains in business.
“It is important for Curtin to be researching next-generation technologies like blockchain to ensure we are able to successfully navigate this technology and use it to our advantage,” Dr Potdar told Business News.
“The new lab will be critical in ensuring we educate a new workforce for a blockchain-based economy by providing training programs for industry and the broader community.”
Dr Potdar said he had spent the past few years working with industry to help explain the value of the emerging technology.
While businesses were often curious about how the technology would affect them, he noticed they were more interested in the basic concepts behind it.
“That made me think we needed to create an entity for people to go to for [blockchain] information,” he said.
Having completed projects with the likes of WA Country Health Services and Scope Systems, Dr Potdar said the idea behind the lab was to create a one-stop shop for blockchain research and application.
That’s different to his usual process of delivering research to businesses and leaving them to find appropriate software developers to execute the findings.
“When we’ve done that [in the past], businesses would look to us and ask why we didn’t provide full scale, end-to-end solutions,” Dr Potdar said.
“That’s where I thought the partnership with Natsoft was ideal, because there was something we weren’t doing and didn’t have the resources at the university to do.
“So why not partner together and fill that void?”
In partnering with Curtin, Natsoft will provide funding to the lab as well as experiences and case studies that would inform its research.
Launching operations in Western Australia in conjunction with the lab, Natsoft founder Shyam Mamidi said the partnership would help the business develop deeper knowledge of blockchain technology for use with its clients.
“If you do piecemeal research, you lose a lot of time that just isn’t available for disruptive technologies,” he said.
“With that in mind, we set out to create a lab with a university of repute and help bring research and development together.”
Dr Potdar has already secured $1,175,750 in private and government funding for the lab, with money going towards stipends and internships for students, as well as workshops and conferences on the topic of blockchains.
While he said the lab had not yet begun pursuing partnerships with industry, he had engaged with the Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre and Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre with regard to applications of blockchain technology in improving traceability in the agricultural and mineral sectors.
“The majority of queries we receive are in the supply chain industry, providing traceability for products,” he said.
“We hope there’ll be a lot of demand for that.”
Dr Potdar said the lab fitted Curtin’s strategic direction of engaging with industry by providing guidance on the implementation of blockchain technology.
“This [lab] takes them through that journey so they’re comfortable with it and understand the value it will bring to their organisations,” he said.
