Ripple’s UBRI (University Blockchain Research Initiative) was launched in June last year for fostering the development and growth of the blockchain industry by partnering with top-tier academic institutions. The initiative by Ripple has now collaborated with 29 universities to further increase academic research and various advances in the crypto-sphere.
Last year, Ripple’s UBRI only had 18 academic institutions on its radar, but it has expanded its reach by collaborating with 11 new schools to further increase the academic interest of post-doctoral and graduate students also.
Ripple invested more than $50 million on tech resources to the first set of top-tier academic schools in partnership with UBRI, which included 18 institutions from all over the world.
The new set of partnership by Ripple’s UBRI includes top-notch universities and colleges that represent different academic fields. The new partners include:
- Duke University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Cornell University
- University of Michigan
- Georgetown University
- University of Kansas
- National University of Singapore
- Northeastern University
- Institute for Fintech Research, Tsinghua University
- University of Sao Paulo
- Morgan State University
Ripple’s initiative through UBRI is poised to nurture future engineers, business professionals, and owners to apply blockchain technology to their field. The initiative has also been aimed to create awareness on the influence of blockchain on all sectors of the world.
However, Ripple’s SVP of Global Operations, Evin van Miltenburg stated:
“We created UBRI back in June 2018 to provide the best support for 17 different universities around the world to help progress their study of blockchain technology, cryptography, digital assets, and Fintech”
Evin added,
“The blockchain is an incredibly transformational technology and helping advance the best minds in the world, who are already showing interest in the field, sure to benefit the entire ecosystem. We’ve added 11 new universities this time around and now have 29 schools involved with the program. Expanding the ecosystem to a more global, diversified network of UBRI partners will only continue to enrich these projects.”
Ripple’s funding on UBRI is intended to boost the initiative in different ways and in various academic areas spanning from business, law, engineering, and so on. UBRI resources from Ripple looks to help these schools to launch new courses, award scholarships and incentives to students who have an interest in blockchain technology.
Evin van Miltenburg further said that Ripple aims to ignite the spark among students in these universities knowing that “they are the most capable individuals in the field.”
Ripple Boosting Innovations Through Academia
Even though Ripple’s UBRI program was launched just last year, all institutions in partnership with this initiative have expressed an immense sign of improvement, thus, indicating Ripple’s ambitions to boost innovations in the blockchain industry.
Ripple’s UBRI relationship with the University of California, Berkeley, has fostered departmental collaborations in the school. Additionally, it has enhanced the creation of research projects and funded activities that are led by students – including the forthcoming blockchain UI/UX hackathon.
Another institution benefiting from Ripple’s UBRI program is the University of Texas at Austin. UBRI lead in the school, Professor Cesare Fracassi, has emphasized that the program has helped U.T Austin in 3 different ways:
“Firstly, it has permitted the funding of faculties and Ph.D. students who are interested in blockchain technology. Secondly, it has increased the curriculum on the blockchain, thus, helping students to gain more knowledge on blockchain technology. Finally, the program has helped to fund important research for people who want to know more about blockchain technology.”
This year, however, the schools in partnership with UBRI initiative will conduct lots of programs on blockchain related matters. On the other hand, Ripple aims to sponsor lots of student-led activities this year to boost innovations in top-notch academic institutions around the world.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.