Last updated 2 weeks ago
Few Latin American universities offer practical blockchain education. Lack of labs, faculty training, and resources limits Cardano adoption, smart contract dev, and node operations.
Pilot Cardano labs in universities with low-cost gear, merging theory and hands-on training in nodes, cryptography, and DApps to drive adoption, research, and sustainable growth.
Please provide your proposal title
ALBA: Cardano U-Labs Chile–Mexico Pilot for Node Ops & DApps
Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA
60000
Please specify how many months you expect your project to last
6
Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated
Yes
Original Language
en
What is the problem you want to solve?
Few Latin American universities offer practical blockchain education. Lack of labs, faculty training, and resources limits Cardano adoption, smart contract dev, and node operations.
Supporting links
Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?
Yes
Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'
The success of ALBA depends on a few external conditions: University Commitment – Both Universidad de Chile and Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas must maintain their institutional support (hosting servers, providing lab space, connectivity). This has already been confirmed, as evidenced by the official letter of collaboration from the Innovation Department of Universidad de Chile. Faculty Champions – Each campus needs at least one faculty lead to remain engaged and available to run the labs and courses. To mitigate the risk of turnover, each site will also train a teaching assistant (TA) to ensure continuity. These dependencies are manageable and already partly secured. With institutional backing and trained faculty, the project is designed to minimize risks and ensure sustainability beyond the Catalyst grant.
Will your project's outputs be fully open source?
Yes
License and Additional Information
MIT License
Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal
Training
Who you’re targeting, how you’ll reach them, and why this matters for Cardano.
We target students and faculty in Chile and Mexico who lack practical blockchain experience. By equipping universities with low-cost labs and training faculty Champions, we enable recurring courses and applied research that produce real Cardano developers, node operators, and dApp builders. We’ll reach them via partner universities, faculty-led classes, and open bilingual resources. This matters because it turns regional interest into sustainable Cardano talent, infrastructure, and adoption.
Provide a list of key activities of your project?
Deploy servers in Chile and Mexico as Cardano relays with monitoring and ALBA peering. Build Raspberry Pi clusters with Aiken, node clients, and docs for low-cost classrooms. Train Faculty Champions and TAs in node ops and Aiken to secure sustainable teaching. Deliver an 8–10 week Aiken-first pilot course with demo projects. Publish all assets open-source and bilingual. Conduct a research proof-of-concept on DIDs + Hydra for access-control, producing code, notes, and a small demo app. Conclude with a cross-border hackathon linking students and the global Cardano community.
What are your success metrics?
Success will be measured by launching two university labs, training at least two Faculty Champions, and delivering one pilot Aiken-first course. Metrics include students completing validator projects, nodes maintained with monitoring, and open-source materials published in Spanish/English. A hybrid hackathon will showcase applied learning, while a research PoC on Hydra + DIDs will explore feasibility and document findings. The aim is clear: sustainable, entry-level Cardano capacity in LATAM.
Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem
Problem Statement
Few Latin American universities offer practical blockchain education. Most courses are limited to theory or business perspectives, with no labs for node operations or smart contract development.
Solution Overview
We propose to pilot Cardano University Labs (U-Labs) in Chile (Universidad de Chile) and Mexico (Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas), inspired by the ALBA lab started in Buenos Aires. These labs will combine:
By the end of the pilot, students will have:
Value to the Cardano Ecosystem
This project bridges the gap between academic theory and blockchain practice.
Ultimately, these labs create a self-sustaining academic network that supports Cardano’s long-term growth.
Feasibility & Deliverables
Pilot Universities (Year 1):
Infrastructure:
Curriculum:
Outputs:
Partnerships:
Auditability
Success will be measured through clear, trackable deliverables:
Regular progress updates will include:
Scalability & Long-Term Vision
The vision is to create a network of Cardano labs worldwide, starting in Latin America, that nurtures developers, researchers, and node operators, ensuring Cardano’s adoption grows in academia and beyond.
Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community
Positive Impact on the Wider Cardano Community
These labs are designed to create lasting, compounding value for the Cardano ecosystem by converting “interest in blockchain” into trained people, running infrastructure, open teaching materials, and new community bridges. The positive impact extends far beyond the pilot universities, reaching the global Cardano community in several key ways:
Graduates will not only understand blockchain theory but will also be able to:
Design eUTxO flows
Write and test validators in Aiken
Run nodes responsibly
Ship small dApps and prototypes
This directly feeds talent to SPOs, tooling teams, open-source repos, and ecosystem projects, strengthening Cardano’s developer pipeline. Unlike most academic programs that stay abstract, we focus on creating contributors ready to build and maintain on Cardano from day one.
All materials produced (lab images, runbooks, slides, starter repos, reference scripts) will be published open-source in Spanish and English. This creates a reusable foundation for any university, meetup, or community group. Instead of reinventing the wheel, others can build on tested, well-documented resources, accelerating adoption globally.
By running Raspberry Pi relays and modest on-prem servers, students and faculty learn real infrastructure operations: monitoring, backups, upgrades, and healthy ops practices. These low-cost labs expand the geographic distribution of competent node operators, nurturing the next wave of SPOs and strengthening Cardano’s decentralization.
Faculty-led labs will produce a steady stream of applied content:
Technical notes on validator patterns and budgeting
Demo projects and student experiments
Testing strategies and reference scripts
This enhances the practical quality of Cardano educational content, particularly in Spanish, a language where resources are scarce.
The Faculty Champion + TA model ensures that knowledge stays on campus. Labs do not disappear when initial funding ends; they become institutionalized teaching and research hubs. This transforms universities from occasional spectators into ongoing contributors to the Cardano ecosystem.
The project produces a clear, low-cost blueprint for setting up Cardano labs. This lowers the entry barrier for other Latin American universities, local meetups, or hacker spaces. No expensive hardware, no proprietary stacks, just a replicable, open, and affordable model.
This proposal fosters cross-campus collaboration: study groups, code reviews, AMAs, and meetups. These connections bring students and professors directly into dialogue with global maintainers, SPOs, and developer communities. The result is fresh contributors to open-source repos, documentation, and forums, reinforcing Cardano’s collaborative culture.
Through these labs, students will learn to frame problems, scope deliverables, and ship working prototypes. This builds a pipeline of higher-quality Catalyst proposals from Latin America, increasing diversity in governance and innovation within the Cardano ecosystem.
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?
ALBA is designed to succeed because it blends proven Cardano expertise, institutional commitment, and a transparent, milestone-driven delivery model. The feasibility of this project rests on clear strengths:
This progression minimizes risk: even partial completion leaves behind infrastructure, trained faculty, and open materials for Cardano.
By embedding the labs into university programs and curricula, ALBA ensures continuity beyond Catalyst funding. Once initial infrastructure and training are in place, universities continue running labs as part of their academic offering. This secures sustainability and long-term value for Cardano.
Milestone Title
Procure & deploy university servers (Chile + Mexico) + connect to ALBA network
Milestone Outputs
2 on-prem servers purchased, racked, and installed (U. de Chile + Mexico partner)
Cardano node stack (relay/monitoring) installed
Peering to ALBA network established
Project management: coordination with vendors, QA, reporting
Acceptance Criteria
Servers reachable at static public IPs
Relays fully synced, visible to peers
Monitoring (Prometheus/Grafana) live 24h
Evidence of Completion
Purchase invoices, rack photos
Public IPs/hostnames, gLiveView logs, Grafana screenshot
Deployment runbook committed to repo
Delivery Month
1
Cost
11184
Progress
20 %
Milestone Title
Build Raspberry Pi lab clusters for classes (Chile + Mexico)
Milestone Outputs
Portable Raspberry Pi clusters assembled and inventoried
Classroom images pre-loaded (Aiken toolchain + node client + docs)
Faculty Champion approves transport/safety checklist
Project management: hardware assembly oversight, repo documentation, reporting
Acceptance Criteria
All devices boot, connect to LAN, pass checklist
**Master classroom image reproducible from repo/script **
Evidence of Completion
BOM + invoices + photos
Git repo with image script + README
Inventory sheet with serials/MACs
Delivery Month
2
Cost
19737
Progress
30 %
Milestone Title
Train-the-Trainer (faculty Champions + TAs)
Milestone Outputs
2–3 week intensive training (node ops, Aiken/eUTxO, classroom runbooks)
Faculty deploys demo Aiken validator and runs relay from the lab
Project management: agenda, coordination with faculty, QA and reporting
Acceptance Criteria
Faculty brings up relay from scratch using runbook
Faculty compiles, tests, submits validator on testnet
**Course kit localized (ES/EN) **
Evidence of Completion
Attendance log + agenda, slide decks/recordings
Git commits from faculty accounts
Testnet tx IDs of demo validator
Delivery Month
3
Cost
10289
Progress
20 %
Milestone Title
Pilot course delivery (Aiken-first cohort)
Milestone Outputs
Pilot cohort delivered on campus (8–10 weeks)
Student teams produce validator + demo projects
Lab nodes used in at least 2 practical sessions
Project management: monitoring course delivery, support reporting, QA
Acceptance Criteria
Course syllabus, labs, assessments published (ES/EN)
≥1 public demo day with recorded presentations
**Faculty debrief with lessons learned & next steps **
Evidence of Completion
Course site/handbook, lab guides in repo
Demo day video, sample project repos
Faculty debrief document
Delivery Month
4
Cost
6579
Progress
10 %
Milestone Title
Research PoC: DIDs + Hydra access-control
Milestone Outputs
End-to-end demo: VC issue/verify, Hydra log + anchor
Reference architecture + small demo app/CLI
Public repo with bilingual setup steps
Technical note or research paper reporting results
Project management: research coordination, documentation, reporting
Acceptance Criteria
1 VC issued and verified in demo flow
1 Hydra access event logged + anchored
Repo includes feasibility notes & gaps
**1 technical note or research paper published **
Evidence of Completion
GitHub repo with code, scripts, docs
Screencast (2–3 min) of demo
Testnet tx IDs or logs
Technical note published or research paper submitted
Delivery Month
6
Cost
8684
Progress
10 %
Milestone Title
Hybrid Hackathon (Chile + Mexico)
Milestone Outputs
Small-scale hackathon (on-campus + online participation)
Basic prizes & logistical support
Community showcase of student/team projects
Project management: coordination, reporting
Acceptance Criteria
≥5 teams submit working projects
Repo with submissions available to the public
**Short feedback survey from participants **
Evidence of Completion
Repo link with team projects
Participant feedback summary
Photos or short video of event
Delivery Month
6
Cost
7632
Progress
10 %
Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources
Servers (2 units, one per site) — USD 7,500
Specification, procurement, setup, monitoring hardening; mainnet-ready nodes.
Raspberry Pi lab kits (2× sets of 16) + portable racks + setup — USD 13,000
eUTxO/Plutus training cluster, power/ethernet, imaging, documentation.
Flights to Mexico (2×) — USD 1,700
On-site lab deployment + faculty workshops.
Lodging & meals (3 weeks × 2 people) — USD 4,200
Bootcamps, curriculum co-delivery, campus engagement.
Professors’ stipends (Mexico, 2×) — USD 1,200
Local faculty time for course prep and lab operations.
MX→CL mentorship (faculty mentoring & support) — USD 1,500
Peer coaching, office hours, handover runbooks.
Project management (coordination, reporting, QA) — USD 5,000
Single point of accountability; budget control; Catalyst reporting.
Research PoC: DIDs + Hydra access control — USD 6,000
Design + prototype + demo using a Cardano Wallet; repo, README, and brief tech note or research paper.
Hybrid Hackathon — USD 5,000
Prizes, mentors, logistics, streaming, comms collateral.
FX/ADA slippage & incidentals — USD 500
Totals
Total USD: 45,600 (≈ 60,000 ADA)
Cost discipline: 3 quotes for major buys; reuse open materials; publish configs/runbooks to reduce future opex.
Outputs covered by this budget
Two operational Cardano labs (infrastructure + runbooks).
Trained faculty capable of running semester courses (Plutus/Aiken, nodes).
Public PoC (DIDs + Hydra) with minimal docs and demo.
Community hackathon to activate students and local builders.
How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?
This project delivers lasting academic capacity at low cost, creating multiplier effects that extend far beyond the initial Catalyst grant.
Most blockchain workshops fade after the trainers leave. These labs equip two universities (Chile + Mexico) with permanent, faculty-led labs that continue teaching semester after semester. A single grant funds infrastructure + training that turns into multi-year output.
We standardize on Aiken-first smart contract training, Raspberry Pi clusters, and open-source tooling:
No software licenses
No proprietary stacks
No ongoing cloud bills
All runbooks, system images, starter repos, and teaching materials are published open-source and bilingual (Spanish/English). This means every additional campus, meetup, or community group can adopt the lab’s framework at zero marginal cost.
Catalyst funds are used to upskill one Faculty Champion + one TA per campus. Once trained, they deliver future cohorts independently, driving down the per-student cost with each semester. This creates a flywheel of self-sustaining teaching rather than dependency on repeated grants.
The infrastructure purchased (servers + Raspberry Pi clusters) serves dual purposes:
Teaching aids: students learn node ops, monitoring, backups, upgrades
Practical infrastructure: nodes run as public relays on Cardano testnet, supporting decentralization
This makes each hardware investment a two-for-one: educational + ecosystem utility.
Universities commit to providing:
Classrooms and labs
Connectivity and electricity
Institutional backing for lab integration
Additionally, we coordinate with IOG Education for content alignment. Catalyst funds focus only on gaps (hardware + faculty training), making every dollar more impactful.
The deliverables are not marketing campaigns or awareness videos. The outputs are deployable skills, working validators, documented eUTxO patterns, and operational nodes. These are assets the Cardano ecosystem immediately needs, with a higher ROI than ephemeral “awareness efforts.”
We’ll publish a clear, low-cost blueprint (including a bill of materials, network layout, and course kit) so that the next university can replicate the model without incurring repeat setup costs. The impact of each replication compound, excluding compounding costs.
We commit to transparent indicators that are cheap to collect and easy to verify:
Cohorts delivered
Students who pass validator assignments
Nodes maintained
Artifacts (guides, repos, syllabi) published
This keeps reporting overhead low while ensuring value is visible to the community.
Terms and Conditions:
Yes
Rodrigo Oyarzun (Project Lead) is a seasoned business development manager and an active member of the blockchain community. As a Stake Pool Operator (SPO) at Chile Stake Po, he manages the Cardano blockchain infrastructure and provides staking services. He actively works on the development of the Cardano ecosystem and shares his knowledge on blockchain technology through his podcast, "Descentralización Total."
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigo-oyarzun-chil/
Ignacio Javier Ramírez Silva (Lab Lead - Coordinator in Chile) is a Co-Founder & CEO of EmbedX, a company that connects the insurance industry to digital platforms. He has extensive experience in innovation and entrepreneurship, which he applies both as a startup founder and as a professor at the University of Chile, where he teaches courses on entrepreneurship, innovation, and project management.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ignacioramirezsilva/
Sodel Vázquez Reyes (Lab Lead - Coordinator in Mexico) is a professor-researcher in Software Engineering at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas. He leads research in Text Mining and Software Engineering, holds a Level I position in Mexico’s National System of Researchers, is PRODEP-certified, and heads the “Data Science for Software Engineering” group. He also serves as academic secretary, evaluator, and accredited reviewer for national accreditation bodies.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sodelvr/
David Alvo (Technical Lead Institutional Strategy) is Director of innovation the Vice-Rector of IT at Universidad de Chile, where he architected the transformation from departmental IT function to strategic vice-rectorate—Chile's first university IT Vice-Rectorate. With 20+ years leading organizational change across sectors, he brings critical expertise in institutionalizing innovation within academic bureaucracies. As founder of Conexión Ingenieros, a recognized engineering recruitment firm, and university-level entrepreneurship instructor, he ensures ALBA labs achieve both technical excellence and sustainable institutional integration.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalvo/
Sergio Estada (Technical Advisor) is an IT consultant with over 5 years of experience in the crypto space, and he has been involved in the development of web3 solutions. He also has over 10 years of experience as a project manager in enterprise solutions (ERP) and integrations with all types of third-party systems. Furthermore, with over 5 years of experience as an enterprise solutions developer and serving as a Product Owner.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergio-estada-diez-27114553/
Jose Arturo Mora (Educational Advisor) is a computer scientist with 15 years of experience in software engineering and education. He is currently an Educational Lead at IOHK, where he focuses on the Cardano blockchain, and an Associate Professor at Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (Spain), specializing in data science and software development education. He is passionate about using technology and data to solve problems and improve the world through education.