Please describe your proposed solution.
The European Business University - Luxembourg (EBU) (<http://ebu.lu/>) is an accredited university by the Accreditation Service for Certifying Bodies (ASCB) and has over 7700 students from over 110 countries with 85% of them coming from African countries.
Also, check out our student testimonials:
<https://www.youtube.com/embed/sV0ym2cdTNE>Most of our students are in our certificate impact program (<https://connect.ebu.lu/>) where students study our courses on a scholarship basis.
Within the program, we offer our Plutus/Haskell course, taught in English for a period of 13 weeks. The course is based on the educational material provided directly by IOG, under the educational strategic partnership established between IOG and EBU (<https://ebu.lu/partnerships/>) - We have over 50 partners with reputable organizations all over the world.
On the final week of the course, students are required to complete a final project challenge. Here, they are given a real-world problem statement and are required to work in groups to develop smart contracts to solve the problem to pass the course. So far we have had over 140 students taking the course with over 25 of them successfully completing it.
To ensure the students continue applying the knowledge and concepts learnt, EBU plans to organize a hackathon for each term. The successful students will build more smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain as they build their possible solutions. The students will also stand a chance to win awards for their proposed solution. Moreover, they will be helping in building the blockchain more thus encouraging more development and adoption of the Cardano blockchain in Africa.
In addition to that, EBU plans to have EBU Hubs where our developers will be linked to corporations/ businesses who require smart contracts to improve their operations. The students will get to intern in these corporations as they build on these solutions. This not only creates future potential employment opportunities for them but also is an avenue for them to work on real business problems.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
Through our hackathon and internship program, businesses will be able to have smart contracts implemented for their operations thus building and empowering them. They will be able to get a level of protection they would otherwise never be able to afford.
Moreover, the potential job opportunities that emerge from this will create a demand for the skill encouraging more people to take on Cardano development.
Thus, the proposed solution contributes to both growing Africa and growing the Cardano ecosystem.
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
Possible Risk: Natural difficulty of the Plutus/Haskell course might limit students from successfully completing the course which is a requirement to benefit from the program.
<u>Strategy of Mitigation:</u> As a respected and established university, our reputation has been baked under the smouldering fire of teaching complex topics to communities under serious socio-economic hardship. Proof of this is the vote of confidence that IOG and other equally respected organisations fighting on the same battlefield give to our work. In the framework of the collaboration with IOG, we have already delivered and continue to deliver the course, taught by a very knowledgable course instructor who was a Plutus Pioneer: Second cohort, and successfully completed the program.
Possible Risk: Not having 100% of our students getting internships.
<u>Strategy of Mitigation:</u> We shall partner with various corporations that will help us in building our EBU Hubs that will act as workspaces where our students will get to build on projects and be connected with businesses to work as interns to build smart contract solutions for them, all on the Cardano blockchain.