Blockchain

BLOCKCHAIN / HNRS 300VH-005
WEDNESDAYS , 2:00 p.m.-2:50 p.m., FALL 2021 (first 8 weeks)
COURSE WILL BE CONDUCTED ONLINE

Blockchain, cosponsored by the Sam M. Walton College of Business’s Blockchain Center of Excellence and the Honors College, will feature networking opportunities with leaders in industry.

Blockchains are the next evolution of the Internet. Bitcoin, the first blockchain application released in January of 2009,  and other blockchain innovations that followed are moving us from an "Internet of Information" to an "Internet of Value," where people transact value – money and other assets – directly with each other without relying on trusted third parties like banks. The post-blockchain world is digital, automated, inexpensive and distributed, promising to empower individuals to control their own data.  Companies are already using them to trace food from farm to fork, to prevent blood diamonds from entering supply chains, to allow neighbors to buy and sell excess solar capacity and much more. Blockchains are revolutionizing industry in the same way the internet overturned traditional modes of doing business.  LinkedIn has cited blockchain as the #1 skill sought by employers in 2020. 

Join the Honors College Forum Blockchain and mine the secrets of this global phenomenon. Participate in an innovative conference  where you will not only learn from world-class leaders who are creating the internet of value, but also have the opportunity to connect with fellow participants and sponsoring companies using AI matching technology. Together, we will explore how decentralized information and value exchange online is transforming real businesses today.

About Mary C. Lacity:

Dr. Mary C. Lacity is Walton Professor of Information Systems and director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence. She was previously Curators’ Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.  She has held visiting positions at MIT, the London School of Economics, Washington University, and Oxford University. She is a Certified Outsourcing Professional ® and senior editor for MIS Quarterly Executive. Her recent research focuses on improving business services using Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Cognitive Automation (CA), and Blockchain technologies. In 2014, Lacity became one of only three academics to ever be inducted into the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals’ Outsourcing Hall of Fame. She was the recipient of the 2008 Gateway to Innovation Award sponsored by the IT Coalition, Society for Information Management, and St. Louis Regional Chamber. She has published 30 books, including A Manager's Guide to Blockchains for Business and, most recently, Blockchain Fundamentals for the Internet of Value (2020), which will serve as the course text.  Her publications have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, MIS Quarterly Executive, IEEE Computer, Communications of the ACM, and many other academic and practitioner outlets.  Her work has been cited over 18,000 times and she has an h-index of 54, placing her in the top 2 percent of information systems faculty globally.