Most recently, in 2009, Fordham collaborated with IBM to introduce a new business analytics curriculum to help prepare students for careers in key growth industries, including energy, utilities, and healthcare. In 2011, we expanded this effort with the creation of a new IBM-supported Center for Digital Transformation.

This week, we are strengthening our partnership with an IBM academic initiative designed to educate the next generation of developers and users of blockchain technology: one that establishes the first peer-to-peer, global platform for business and personal transactions.

To kick off the initiative, on Thursday, January 26, in conjunction with the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS), we were delighted to host the Fordham-IBM Blockchain Workshop at our Lincoln Center campus. Speakers from the FBI, IBM, Fordham and hedge fund MacKay-Shields offered their thoughts on how academia and students can play a role in advancing blockchain technology in a wide variety of fields and job roles.

Ultimately, this initiative is about the networking of technology and people. Just as blockchain depends on a network of trusted, committed individuals to make it work, so too must private companies, governments and academia collaborate to drive the world’s most promising technologies forward. The IBM Blockchain Academic Initiative is building that community, and I am very pleased that Fordham is at the head of the class.