[C2VN] Promoting Cardano Blockchain Education in Universities

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Hieu Nguyen Van

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

7

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

Our goal is to embed blockchain education within the university landscape. This involves delivering workshops, discussions, and nurturing active research activities focused on blockchain technology.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

All project outputs will be released under the MIT License. This includes:

• Curriculum materials (lecture slides, exercises, lab guides...)
• Sample dApp code and documentation (if any)
• Workshop presentations and video recordings

These resources will be publicly accessible on our GitHub repository. We believe in open-source principles and want to empower the community to utilize and contribute to these resources

[METADATA] Horizons

Education

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

We perceive the lack of accessible and engaging Cardano education as a significant barrier to the growth of the Cardano ecosystem in our academic environment. This project aims to bridge this gap by providing students with the knowledge and skills necessary to become successful Cardano developers.

We believe that collaborating with universities is the most effective way to reach a large and engaged audience of potential Cardano developers. By integrating blockchain education into existing activities, we can ensure that students receive comprehensive training and support.

The impact of our project will be measured through these matrics:

1. The number of students participating in our lectures, workshop
2. The number of students register and contribute in research activites.
3. Number of lectures, workshops and projects held at the university.
4. Number of high quality lectures and workshops the project organized at the university with images at the event

The content of the lectures and workshops we refer to from reputable sources such as: Cardano Blockchain Certified Associate (CBCA) [1], Mastering Bitcoin Second Edition [2], Gimbalab Plutus Project-Based Learning 2024 [3] . Specifically, the detailed content and expected time for each item are as follows:

Our solution is unique because it's built upon a proven model, refined through successful implementations at other universities-[4],[5]. Our experienced team understands the intricacies of integrating blockchain education into academic settings and can tailor the program to fit the specific needs of new environment. We leverage best practices and learnings from past projects [4],[5]. to ensure maximum impact and effectiveness.

This project is important to Cardano because it lowers barriers to entry and accelerates the growth of a skilled developer community in Vietnam by replicating a proven model. Our experience ensures high-quality, tailored, refined education and produces competent developers who can contribute meaningfully to the Cardano ecosystem.

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

The success of our project will provide the Cardano community with a pool of skilled developers who can contribute to the platform's growth and development. By fostering innovation and expanding the Cardano ecosystem in Vietnam, we aim to create a thriving hub for Cardano-based projects and initiatives

We will measure the impact of our project through a combination of quantitative and qualitative metrics. This includes:

• Tracking the number of students trained,
• Assessing the quality of their work
• We will also conduct surveys and interviews to evaluate the project's impact on students' knowledge, skills.

This project is designed to equip 30-50 highly qualified students with the knowledge, passion, and programming skills necessary to work with the Cardano blockchain platform in its first year. Through 7 lectures covering fundamental concepts, demos, and tests, along with 6 hands-on workshops, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of Cardano and its development ecosystem.

Furthermore, the project aims to cultivate a student-led research focused on blockchain technology. These researchers will become valuable resources, supporting future cohorts of students in the years to come, ensuring the project's long-term impact and sustainability.

To ensure widespread accessibility and transparency, all project outputs, including curriculum materials, lecture slides, and lab exercises, will be made publicly available on a dedicated Github repository.

We will also actively disseminate project updates and achievements through our communication channels. This includes regular posts on the official Facebook pages of C2VN or the university, as well as dedicated sections on our website [6].

Beyond providing educational resources, our project actively facilitates connections between skilled students and Cardano projects seeking talent. We will encourage our student to show their portfolios and connect them with potential employers within the Cardano ecosystem.

We believe that these combined efforts will effectively reach a broad audience and maximize the project's impact within the Cardano community

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

1, Activities we have carried out:

The members of the project are the core team who organized the Community-Led Events Cardano Summit 2022 [7] and Community-Led Events Cardano Summit 2023 [8] . We consist of technical experts from Cardano2vn.io and professors from 5 major universities.

Community-Led Events Cardano Summit 2022 in Hanoi

Community-Led Events Cardano Summit 2023 in Hanoi

We also organize Blockchain meetup in Hanoi [9]

As a result of a project funded by Catalyst at Fund11, we established Blockchain lab. Collaborate with the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Transport and Telecommunication to found blockchain club in this University.

2, Understand the academic environment in Vietnam:

C2VN is an active member of the University Blockchain Alliance (UBA). We are fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in discussions, workshops, and scientific research conferences with many different universities.

Contribute ideas at the meeting with East Asia University of Technology to bring Blockchain into official teaching activities [10]

Working with IT faculty of Phenikaa University on supporting students in scientific research and teaching Blockchain [11]

We discussed with the IT department of the University of Industry about compiling the Blockchain curriculu [12]

C2VN conducts the first Cardano Blockchain Hackathon in Universities, gathering the participation of students from 05 Universities [12]

3, Our previous funded projects:

We have a good track record of completing funded projects (Fund6: 1, Fund7: 3, Fund8: 4) . All 8 projects have been successfully implemented, delivering impacts beyond expectations and marked as completed on IOG's tracking board.

[PROJECT MILESTONES] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Duration: 1 month

Milestone outputs:

• Selecting the University in our network
• Formming project delivery team (Lecturer, Marketing team, Project manager...)
• Collaborate with faculty to customize curriculum outline: covering blockchain fundamentals and Cardano-specific topics and labs
• Project managment

Acceptance criteria:

• The criteria to choose the university to deploy project
• The project team is fully formed with qualified individuals in the roles of lecturer, marketing team members, and project manager. 
• Roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures within the team are clearly defined and documented."
• A detailed curriculum outline is finalized, covering both fundamental blockchain concepts and specialized Cardano topics, including lab exercises.
• A comprehensive project management plan is in place, including scope, timeline, budget, resources, risk assessment, and mitigation strategies.

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or partnership agreement with the university
• Meeting minutes documenting team formation, role assignments, and initial project planning.
• Minutes of meetings with faculty documenting the curriculum development and customization process.
• The project management plan document. tracking progress, reporting and A centralized repository for storing project documents

Duration: 1 month

Milestone outputs:

• Prepare and update teaching materials (slides, video, referent documents)
• Prepare practice examples, exercises, tests and final course challenge (Reclaim your course completion NFT from Smart contract)
• Schedule teaching and workshops for outlined topics
• Project managment

Acceptance criteria:

• Education materials are accurate, engaging, and aligned with the curriculum outline, they are accessible to students
• Practical examples, exercises, and tests are developed to reinforce learning, assess understanding annd are aligned with the learning objectives 
• The schedule allocates sufficient time for each topic, it considers student availability and university calendar
• Regular project meetings are held to monitor progress, address challenges, and make adjustments as needed
• Meeting minutes are documented and shared with the team

Evidence of milestone completion

• Review and approval documentation from the lecturer and project team
• Links to online materials or confirmation of printed materials."
• A complete set of practice examples, exercises, tests, and the final course challenge.
• The finalized course schedule, including dates, times, and locations.
• Meeting minutes from regular project meetings. share it among team members and expose non-private information to public

Duration: 1 month

Milestone outputs:

• Conduct lectures and quiz on Fundamental Blockchain concepts, covering concepts such as cryptography, consensus mechanisms, and smart contracts..
• Conduct lectures and quiz about Advanced Blockchain Concepts (Tx models, chain features, reward, tx fee, web3 concepts...)
• Introducing Cardano Blockchain Concepts to Students + Quiz
• Introducing Cardano Ecosystem and concepts of address, staking, CIP, DApps.. and quiz at the end of the session.
• Project managment

Acceptance criteria:

• Lectures are delivered as plan and students demonstrate understanding of key concepts through active participation discussions and result of quiz
• Regular project meetings are held to monitor progress, address challenges, and make adjustments as needed
• Meeting minutes are documented and shared with the team"

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Attendance records, sign-in sheets for the lectures or recording, picture taken from class
• Document of questions and discussion thread in workshops
• Meeting minutes from regular project meetings. share it among team members and expose non-private information to public

Duration: 1 month

Milestone outputs:

• Conduct a workshop to help students get familiar with creating a wallet, restoring a wallet, storing a secure wallet, getting tada from Faucet for the following exercises, and making transactions from the wallet.
• Organize a second workshop for students to experience Cardano nodes, Stake pools, and create transactions using the command line
• Organize a third workshop for students to create Tokens/NFTs using the Command line interface, and get familiar with providers on Cardano
• Organize the 4th workshop to introduce off-chain and on-chain programming languages on Cardano, Get familiar with Blockfrost API, demo with Lucid
• Organize the 5th workshop with in-depth content about Lucid and Mesh
• Organize the 6th workshop to introduce how to write Smart Contract on Cardano, Demo interaction between Offchain code and Onchain code, Introduction to final challenge(Reclaim your course completion NFT from Smart contract)
• Project managment

Acceptance criteria:

• At least 06 workshops are delivered effectively, with clear explanations, engaging activities, and opportunities for student participation
• Students actively participate in workshop activities and demonstrate understanding of the concepts and tools
• Feedback is collected from students to assess their learning experience and identify areas for improvement
• Regular project meetings are held to monitor progress, address challenges, and make adjustments as needed
• Meeting minutes are documented and shared with the team

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Workshop materials (slides, tutorials, code examples) used in the session.
• Attendance records or sign-in sheets.
• Photos or videos of the workshop in progress.
• Document of questions and discussion thread in workshops
• Feedback forms or survey results from student
• Meeting minutes from regular project meetings. share it among team members and expose non-private information to public

Duration: 3 months

Milestone outputs:

• Work with faculty to add blockchain topics to annual Student scientific research activities
• Forming student research groups on Blockchain
• Mentoring students in their projects in two months
• Posting reports and annoucing project achievements to the community
• Project managment, Submiting Completion report and video

Acceptance criteria:

• Blockchain-related research topics are successfully integrated into the university's annual student scientific research activities with guidelines and criteria for blockchain research proposals are developed and communicated to students
• Student research groups focused on blockchain are formed, with clear research objectives and plans.
• Students demonstrate progress in their research projects and address feedback effectively.
• Research findings and project outcomes are disseminated to the Cardano community and wider audience.
• Project is managed throughout its lifecycle, ensuring timely completion of milestones and efficient resource utilization
• A completion report, summarizing project activities, outcomes, and lessons learned, is submitted to the Catalyst team or relevant stakeholders.

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Updated guidelines or calls for proposals for student research activities, explicitly including blockchain topics
• List of student research groups with members, research topics, and advisors
• Meeting logs or records of mentorship sessions.
• Links to online publications, blog posts, or social media updates showcasing project outcomes
• Meeting minutes from regular project meetings.
• The final completion report submitted to the Catalyst team

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Our core team member are:

Nguyen Van Hieu

Bio: Founder of HADA stake pool, member of Plutus Pioneer Program, and Lead Technical Support at many successful startups.

Telegram:

Linkedin:

Facebook:

Do Ngoc Minh

Bio: Computer Science Researcher, and Lecturer at the Information Technology Institute, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Advisor for Open Educational Resources (OER) programs of UNESCO, ASIA, and Vietnam.

LinkedIn

Twitter

Email: minhdn@vnu.edu.vn

Telegram

Hoang Van Thong

Role: Program quality Assurance Officer,

Bio: Lecturer (since 2001) and Dean of Faculty of Information Technology (since 2020), University of Transportation and Communications, computer science experts, developed many websites

• Fields research: fuzzy logic, soft computing, data mining, machine learning.
• LinkedIn
• Email: thonghv@utc.edu.vn
• Facebook

Cao Thi Luyen,

Role: Program Development member

Bio: Lecturer (since 2001) of the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Transportation and Communications, received a Ph.D. in mathematical assurance in computational systems at the military academy of science and technology (since 2018). developed many applications.

• Fields research: watermarking, data hiding, machine learning, blockchain. 
• LinkedIn
• Email: luyenct@utc.edu.vn 

Mai Manh Trung

Role: Program Development member

Bio: Lecturer (since 2007) and Dean of Faculty of Information Technology (since 2004), University of Economic and Industry, computer science expert.

• Fields research: Security, application programing, data mining, machine learning.
• Email: mmtrung@uneti.edu.vn

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

The detailed breakdown of our project’s milestones and activities is avalable at this Google sheet . it is summarized here for your quick reference.

Budget summary:

Milestone 1: First month

Estimate cost for this milestone: 16,200ADA =18,06%

Milestone 2: Second month

Estimate cost for this milestone: 25,200 ADA =28,09%

Milestone 3: Third month

Estimate cost for this milestone: 23,250 ADA =25,92%

Milestone 4: Fourth month

Estimate cost forthis milestone: 24,750 ADA =27,59%

Final Milestone: in 03 months

Estimate cost for this milestone: 25,500 ADA =28,43%

Total Estimate cost: 89,700 ADA

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The project budget is carefully calculated to ensure cost-effectiveness and maximize value for the Cardano ecosystem. The majority of the budget is allocated to labor cost, reflecting the significant time and expertise required to develop high-quality teaching materials, including slides, exercises, labs, and quizzes (caculate base on ADA price: 0.35$, everage labor hour: 25$/hour)

Travel expenses are minimized by leveraging our existing network of universities and utilizing online collaboration tools. Venue rental costs are optimized by selecting non-charged available locations. This investment will result in a comprehensive Cardano education program that equips students with the skills and knowledge to become valuable contributors to the Cardano community.

By fostering a new generation of Cardano developers, this project represents a strategic investment in the long-term growth and sustainability of the Cardano ecosystem