Category: Social impact

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South Dallas Soul Rep Theater

Left to right: Dr. Eva Csaky, Executive Director of HI, Soul Rep’s Guinea Bennett and Tonya Hollaway, Kyle Baker undergrad student designer, Dr. Jessie Zarazaga, HI Fellow and project advisor, and Corrie Harris, Assistant Director, Hunt Institute and GDL portfolio manager.

“The biggest dream is to have this as a stake in the ground in South Dallas and always be available to the community,” Soul Rep Co-Founder Guinea Bennett-Price said.

In the Spring of 2019, the Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity’s Global Development Lap (GDL) began a project for Soul Rep Theatre Company. The deliverable was a beautifully bound brochure to help communicate the vision and designs for renovations of a South Dallas building. The proposed building will serve as a community arts center, complete with a multi-use performance space, practice area, and communal gathering space. The project focuses on key areas like resilient infrastructure, the practice of employing human-centered design principles to engage communities, and fostering inclusive economic development which provides an opportunity for small businesses to function out of the area and reinvest into the local economy.

Soul Rep Theatre Company was founded in 1996 to provide opportunities for actors, writers, and directors to develop and share their talent with the Dallas arts community. The company, once run solely by volunteers, is now a professional theater company with a subscription-based season. According to its founders, their mission is to provide quality transformative Black theater that enlightens the imagination, the spirit, and the soul. The theatre also seeks to shift the paradigm of how the Black experience is valued by the world.

With renovation designs provided by this project, Soul Rep hopes to use the multi-purpose space to engage the community and foster collaboration in South Dallas. To help realize this goal, the renovation plans include a front porch restoration which to be used as an open space for neighbors and the Soul Rep community to connect. Soul Rep hopes that the front porch, and Soul Rep Arts Center as a whole, will revitalize Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, a street and area that has been long forgotten. The company envisions the space to be a unique and innovative “home” to curate, celebrate and collaborate as a community. “The biggest dream is to have this as a stake in the ground in South Dallas and always be available to the community,” Soul Rep Co-Founder Guinea Bennett-Price said.

The Soul Rep team hopes that the Arts Center will lift up not only the community but also the presence of Black Art in Dallas itself. Citing the lack of Black Art in the Arts District, Bennett-Price said she hopes that this center will reignite the Black Theatre Movement. “Grassroots is our identity,” Bennett-Price explained. “We want to grow beyond and we want to be the tree instead of the grass and the roots.”

Article was written by Jaclyn Soria, undergraduate Journalist

GDL team:

Dr. Jessie Zarazaga, Hunt Institute Fellow and project advisor

Kyle Baker, undergraduate research analyst and designer

Katherine Linares, grad Project Manager

Corrie Harris, Global Development Lab Portfolio Manager

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2019 Social Enterprise Cohort

Hunt Institute's Social Enterprise Program

Our 2019 Cohort focused on developing and improving food systems across Dallas and around the world. Of the four Social Entrepreneurs in this cohort, only one was unable to continue work during the pandemic. As we approach the end of the year, below is a brief description of each social entrepreneur’s venture along with links to their work in order to read more and/or follow their progress in the future.

Break Bread, Break Boarders

Founder: Jin-Ya Huang

Break Bread, Break Borders is catering with a cause: empowering refugee women to earn a living through their existing cooking skills, while they also share their incredible stories with the community. Huang is an Affiliate of the Hunt Institute and one of our first Social Entrepreneurs​. The Dallas Observer featured her story in their December 19, 2019 edition. In addition, Huang was a member of the 2020 Class of Presidential Leadership Scholars. Most recently, Huang was featured as a TIME Magazine Community Bridge Builder.

Restorative Farms

Founder: Dr. Owen Lynch

Restorative Farms wants to grow a better Dallas. Their mission is to foster a vibrant and viable community-based urban farm system — an agrisystem — in one of the country’s largest food deserts: South Dallas, Texas. Lynch has been featured in several blogs describing his various community engagements and awards. He is a Senior Fellow in the Hunt Institute and has worked in this area of research for many years. Most recently, Restorative Farms was featured in the Dallas Morning News article Urban farm sprouts on unused DART property beside South Dallas station.

Janta Energy

Founder: Mohammed Njie

Janta is determined to significantly improve access to energy in The Gambia, where most rural citizens and institutions like schools have no electric power. One of Janta’s key energy sources is agricultural waste because farming is a primary economic activity in The Gambia. Njie has been recognized as a Grand Challenges Scholar, winner of SMU’s Big Ideas, and is also part of the SMU Incubator. He is the first SMU student to be invited to the Hunt Institute’s Social Enterprise Program receiving the title of Social Entrepreneur.

Garden of the World

Founder: Kunthear Mam-Douglas

Garden of the World aims to bring the connection between nature and mental health to light through a mindful world garden that promotes sustainable food systems in Dallas. This work is suspended until further notice due to the global pandemic. We remain hopeful it will resume soon.

Each of the Social Entrepreneurs has made a mark in their communities and a dent in the work that needs to be done in our sustainable food systems. As we embark on a new year, we celebrate the completion of this cohort and prepare for the next.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Lillie Noe ’20, Hunt Institute Associate

Lillie Noe SMU Alumna

Lillie Noe ’20, joins the Hunt Institute as an Associate, bringing with her a passion for providing quality heath care and advocating for sustainable apparel.

Lillie Noe is a Program Manager for Professional Membership with the American Heart Association. She works with healthcare professionals advancing the AHA’s mission to improve cardiovascular health for all, including identifying and removing barriers to health care access and quality.

Lillie received her MBA in 2020 from SMU’s Cox School of Business, where she concentrated in Strategy. While at SMU, Lillie served as the Hunt Institute’s Program Manager for Social Enterprise, launching the Institute’s first cohort of social entrepreneurs.  She also led SMU’s chapter of Net Impact where she organized volunteer opportunities and speaking events to help MBA students use their skills on behalf of the Dallas community.

Before her MBA, Lillie worked in the apparel industry and had a particular interest in sustainable and local production. She worked for a bridal and evening gown designer manufacturer in Dallas and, as an MBA student, interned for Eileen Fisher, an industry leader in sustainable apparel. Lillie holds a B.A. in Plan II Honors and a B.S. in Textiles and Apparel from the University of Texas at Austin.

Lillie previously explained her interest in sustainable apparel, saying, “In my undergraduate studies, I was struck by the amount of environmental waste and human harm unleashed by the apparel industry as a matter of routine. I believe that we have to use business to promote more than just profit if we are to have an equitable and sustainable future.”

 

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Chris Kelley

Photo of Chris Kelley

Chris Kelley is an award-winning writer with more than 35 years of experience in journalism and strategic communications.

An ardent champion of truth and getting the story behind the story, Kelley began his career as a newspaper reporter fresh out of college, working his way through the ranks of The Dallas Morning News (Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp.) — from street reporter to city editor over the course of 27 years — and ultimately becoming the founding editor of DallasNews.com, the evolutionary step of the Dallas Morning News, as the major news operation entered the new millennium.

A relentless problem solver, Kelley, after accepting a voluntary severance arrangement from A.H. Belo Corp in 2006, formed The Kelley Group to bring his communications skills to select non-profits, humanitarian organizations and visionary corporations to expand the reach of their message effectiveness, using both traditional media and New Media formats to inspire a greater audience worldwide to take positive action on society’s challenges.

Focusing on human causes and social justice issues, Kelley is an expert in media relations and crisis communications, and through his media consultancy he has partnered with the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Refugee Services of Texas, SMU, the Lighthouse for the Blind (Envision Dallas), the Deaf Action Center, and Alliance for Greater Works, among other institutions that engage in what he describes as having a big difference to make but needing some help to make it more efficiently and effectively.

When asked for his motivation behind his impactful work, he replied, “At the start of every day and before sleep every night, I ask: ‘What will I do/what have I done to level the playing field for others who are unable to pursue this aim themselves.'”

As an author, Kelley has traveled the world to get the first-person accounts of those who’ve lived through the indescribable trauma of human atrocities, specifically in an effort to keep the stories of those who’ve survived the horrors of the Rwandan genocide of the late 20th Century from being buried by the passing of time. And, through the friendships he’s forged with people of all walks of life, who’ve endured monumental hardships and nevertheless prevailed to grasp their own purpose and meaning and forge their own successes, Kelley has gained an appreciation for the potential within every person and strives to present the triumph of the human spirit in all his work.

Among his works, Kelley is the author of Rwanda: 25 Years Later: A primer on the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and what’s happened since then (2019, Amazon) and I Was a Stranger: Hope for a Hidden World (2008, Brown Books).

He also served as executive producer of the DVD, JFK: Story Behind the Story, on the 40th anniversary of the JFK assassination. He is executive producer of Tragedy Over Texas: The Columbia Shuttle Disaster. And, he has also helped produce an online resource for KERA-TV and Radio, Living with the Trinity (TrinityRiverTexas.org).

Kelley is a contributing author for Demographics: A Guide to Methods and Data Sources for Media, Business, and Government (2006, Routledge).

Kelley is a graduate of Texas Christian University and is a member of both the News Leaders Association and the Dallas Press Club.

Kelley and his wife, Sheryl, live in Dallas and have raised two children who have both followed in their parents’ footsteps of living to enjoy life with meaning and purpose while striving to be servant-leaders in collaboration with others who are seeking to achieve equity and equality for all persons.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Paola Buckley, Hunt Institute Fellow

Paola Tettamanzi Buckley, is a Hunt Institute Fellow, Senior Lecturer and Advisor at Southern Methodist University.

Paola Tettamanzi Buckley, is a Hunt Institute Fellow, Senior Lecturer, and Advisor at Southern Methodist University. A native speaker of French, Italian, and English, Buckley has taught foreign languages at Southern Methodist University since 2003. She is presently an associate area chair and faculty advisor for the department of French and Francophone Studies. She also designed and directs the SMU-in-France summer program, a five-week faculty-led immersion program in Paris.

She teaches Business French and oversees the internship program for French majors and minors who wish to apply their language skills in a professional setting. She is a Board Member of the Alliance Française of Dallas.
Before becoming a faculty member at SMU, Paola worked at United Nations headquarters in New York and was accredited as both a French and Italian interpreter by the State Department in Washington; she has served as an interpreter at the White House, the Pentagon and other U.S. government agencies.

Paola’s academic interests include Languages for Specific Purposes, Study Abroad and Translation. She is currently translating the book Au Texas by Victor Considérant.

When asked what motivates Paola to do impactful work she said, “When you open your passport, you open your mind: students who are exposed to multiple languages and cultures gain insights about themselves and develop new perspectives that are essential to advance a more balanced and genuine understanding of the world in which they live and the people with whom they interact.”

Her most recent academic presentations include:
French for Fashion and the Diplôme de Français Professionnel: a model for Second Language immersion abroad. ISLSP-CIBER conference:5th International Symposium on Language for Specific Purposes, March 2019

Enseigner le français des affaires en ligne ? Mais oui, c’est possible! Webinaire, Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Paris, September 2020

“Global Literacy and Languages for Specific Purposes: Curricular design for building transferable skills” Southern Methodist University, Research Cluster co-convener

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Global Development Lab

Launched by the Hunter & Stephanie Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity and housed in the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University, the Global Development Lab is a catalyst for projects fostering global development one concept at a time.

The program uses a project-based interdisciplinary engagement model that involves student teams working with experts on solutions for pressing global issues identified by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). An exemplary project team would consist of an Affiliate of the Institute, SMU staff, undergraduate and/or graduate researchers, industry partner(s), a local in-country partner, and an undergraduate project manager.

The Lab is governed by three guiding pillars (1) foster technology, engineering, and market-based ideas with the goal of creating innovative solutions for a resilient humanity addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,  (2) ally with local partners with systemic engagement in their communities working on addressing local challenges, (3) Engage our network of experts for the development and testing of ideas in order to maximize the viability of solutions.

GDL high-impact projects of systemic importance can be categorized into three focus areas within SDGs: (i) transformational technology, (ii) sustainable food systems, and (iii) resilient infrastructure.

Overview of engagement in the GDL:
A. We host student groups or individual students working on research or a project that aligns with the guiding principles of the Hunt Institute without direct management of outcome from the GDL team.

B. We partner to form a project with formal hands-on engagement from GDL’s functional teams and network. A Fellow in the Hunt Institute may apply to create a new project or join an existing one. Funding is available from various sources which will be determined after project eligibility is determined.

C. We pioneer a new initiative with full responsibility to manage the design, implementation, and growth of the project into a program by HI’s leadership and functional teams. Once project grows into program level; further engagement is recruited via partners in government, NGOs, non-profits, and so forth.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn,Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Meet Evelyn L. Parker, PhD

Evelyn L. Parker is the Susanna Wesley Centennial Professor of Practical Theology at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She joined the faculty in July 1998. Parker received the Bachelor of Science from Lambuth College, Jackson, Tennessee, in 1974, and the Master of Science from Prairie View A&M University in 1983. Upon receiving her M.S. she served as a research scientist in the department of Human Biological Chemistry and Genetics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. She attended the two-week Christian Educators Seminar at Perkins School of Theology from 1986 until 1989 and received a Certificate as an Associate in Christian Education in June 1989. The seminars were the impetus for further study in theological education and the transition from a vocation in biological research to one in educational ministry. During the fall of 1989 she became a full-time student at Perkins receiving the Master of Religious Education in 1991. In December 1996 Evelyn earned her Ph.D. from the Joint Program of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary/Northwestern University in Religious and Theological Studies, with an interdisciplinary emphasis in Christian Education, Womanist approaches to religion and society, and education and public policy. While at Garrett Seminary/Northwestern University, she was a Fund for Theological Education Black Doctoral Scholar from 1993-1995.

Parker is the author of Between Sisters: Emancipatory Hope Out of Tragic Relationships, (Cascade Books, 2017) and Trouble Don’t Last Always: Emancipatory Hope Among African American Adolescents (Pilgrim Press, 2003) and editor of The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls: Hard Stories of Race, Class, and Gender (Pilgrim Press, 2006). She has also published several chapters and journal articles on adolescent spirituality, including “Divine Fortitude : A Reflection on God’s goodness in black female child soldiers,” in Susan Willhauck, ed., Female Child Soldiering: Gender Violence and Feminist Theologies. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019.

Parker is a J. William Fulbright Scholar, 2019 -2020, Cape Town, South Africa focusing on the role of religious leaders in preventing and intervening in teen dating violence. She is the President of the Association of Practical Theology and President-elect of the Society for the Study of Black Religion. She is also an active member of the American Academy of Religion, the International Academy of Practical Theology, and the Religious Education Association, where she has chaired groups, presented papers, coordinated segments of consultations and convened sessions. She served as a member of the grant writing team for the Perkins Youth School of Theology, a $1.4 Million theological program for high school youth funded by the Lilly Endowment. She also served as the Perkins School of Theology academic dean from 2013 – 2019.

Parker is a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi where she grew up in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME). She has served the CME church as a local and district Director of Christian Education. She has also taught numerous educational ministry workshops and seminars on local, district, Annual Conference and Connectional levels. She has represented the CME Church on the World Council of Churches (WCC), Faith and Order Plenary Commission from 1996 to 2006. During the WCC Ninth Assembly in 2006 she was elected to the Central Committee. Within the WCC Central Committee she served as co-secretary/reporter for the Nominations Committee. She is also a member of the 10th Assembly Planning Committee that will be held in Busan, South Korea in 2013. During the 10th Assembly she taught bible study and shaped policy as a delegate representing the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. She was elected to the WCC – Commission of the Churches on International Affairs in 2014 and serves as the Moderator of the Statelessness, Migration, and Refugees Group. She is an active member of the Kirkwood Temple C.M.E. Church in Dallas, Texas where she serves as Christian Education Coordinator.

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Ali Beskok, Ph.D., Hunt Institute Senior Fellow

Ali Beskok, Ph.D. is a Hunt Institute Senior Fellow, is the Brown Foundation, Inc. Professor of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Beskok previously served as the former Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering.

Ali Beskok, Ph.D. is a Hunt Institute Senior Fellow, and he is the Brown Foundation, Inc. Professor of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Beskok previously served as the Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering from 2013-2019.

Currently, his research concentrates on the theory, experiments, and numerical modeling of micro- and nano-scale thermal/fluidic transport processes, which have applications in bio-microfluidics, nanotechnology, and energy systems. The Biomicrofluidics Research Laboratory, led by Dr. Beskok, focuses on the study of microfluidic and nanofluidic transport phenomena and the design of fluidic devices with applications in healthcare, energy systems, and biochemical analysis. In the biomicrofluidics lab researchers design, build, and test Lab on Chip devices for biomedical, environmental monitoring, and food/water safety applications. Researchers also perform numerical simulations of mass momentum and energy transport in micro and nano-scales, using continuum based and atomistic methods.

In 2018, Dr. Beskok partnered with the Hunt Institute’s Global Development lab for his research in the Lab on Chip Point of Care Device (POCD). The first phase was completed in the Spring of 2019 and produced a broader impact report titled Bridging the Gap in Diagnostics. Phase II is focused on COVID-19 antibody detection research.

Regarding this cutting-edge research, Dr. Beskok says, “The gold standard for antibody detection is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). However, its application is limited by its portability and high-cost operation. Its detection mechanism relies on receptor/target molecule reactions, which take place through diffusion-dominated transport kinetics. Therefore, the detection mechanism is quite slow and has low sensitivity. Unfortunately, the most recently developed lateral flow assays exhibit low sensitivity and specificity, and these cannot be reliably used for determining the spread of COVID-19 infection. We developed a quantifiable, accurate, fast, portable, and inexpensive diagnostic method based on detection of Covid antibodies from blood plasma. This point of care device will enable testing of the entire or large portions of the population for COVID-19.”

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu

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The Creative Economy Matters

Silvia Rivera is the definition of a world changer. Since joining the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity as a student analyst, Rivera has conducted research on artisan entrepreneurship and inclusive economic development. Rivera recently returned from Washington, D.C. after participating in “The Creative Economy Matters,” a conference hosted by the Artisan Alliance.

For this conference, the Artisan Alliance brought individuals from around the world together to talk about the various challenges and opportunities of investing in and creating artisan businesses. For Rivera, this was the first time that her personal ties to artisan products and academic research converged.

Throughout her childhood, Rivera visited artisan markets with her mother frequently. Even now, every time Rivera goes abroad, she makes an effort to visit small markets. These experiences have led to Rivera’s personal museum of handmade goods and tangible memories.

In college, Rivera started research at the Hunt Institute on artisanal businesses. Artisinal activity is the second largest source of income for the global poor, calls upon existing skills, makes use of available raw materials, and can help preserve cultural traditions. Rivera’s research asks, “What makes artisanal businesses successful? What makes their work impactful?” Rivera often analyzes these questions under the inclusive economy framework, a model created by Dr. Eva Csaky, director of the Hunt Institute.

“I’ll never forget it,” Rivera said when discussing the conference. “Washington, D.C. is such an energizing city.” Rivera went on to talk about her favorite speaker at the conference, DolmaKyap.

DolmaKyap, an artisan entrepreneur, shared his story of creating Chamtsee, a small handicraft workshop in Tibet. After leaving his home in search of the meaning of life, DolmaKyap noticed that people were interested in Tibet and the Tibetan way of life. He had always known that there were exceptional goods and products, like textiles and cheeses, representative of nomadic Tibetan culture. After leaving Tibet, he learned that there was demand for those goods in other parts of the world. This was the critical moment: there was an amazing good and a need in the world, what could DolmaKyap do about it? The result was Chamtsee. DolmaKyap proves that successful artisan products can generate income and represent a person’s culture.

Ideally, the impact of investing in artisanal businesses benefits everyone. By purchasing a handmade good, consumers are able to empower someone in a tangible and direct way. Artisans receive support and, in most cases, a fair wage. Consumers receive a unique product, a conversation piece, and something that is completely their own.

Do you want to start supporting artisan businesses today? The Artisan Alliance’s list of member organizations is a great place to start. Some of the members, like GAIA for Women and The Citizenry, are based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Rivera acknowledges the challenges of ethical buying in general and offered this piece of advice: “A good rule of thumb I use is to just be as curious and inquisitive as possible about what you’re buying and where it came from, and to have fun with that process.”

A cursory glance at Rivera’s resume is enough to turn heads. She is a triple major in business, international studies and Spanish. She is a President’s Scholar, BBA Scholar and McLane Scholar. She has researched artisan entrepreneurship as a student analyst at the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity. It’s no surprise that Bain & Company has offered her a job following her graduation in May.

According to their website, the Artisan Alliance is a network that “works to unlock the economic value in the artisan sector.” They do this through programs with innovative financing, member networking, business coaching and other events. The Artisan Alliance brings business owners, policymakers and consumers together to enact change that no business could achieve alone.

Story Contributors

Written by: Anna Grace Carey

Edited by: Maggie Inhofe

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Applications of Blockchain for Social & Environmental Impact

The Hunt Institute will transform into a conversational hub for computer science, blockchain and social impact during the Hunt Institute Seminar Series on Thursday, February 22 nd.

Xiaochen Zhang, president and founder of FinTech4Good, will discuss the social impact of blockchain. Anna Carroll, a graduate student in the Darwin Deason Institute for Cyber Security in SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering, will join Zhang to discuss the implications of this technology. Chris Kelley, a Senior Fellow in the Hunt Institute, will moderate the discussion.

Before the seminar, Carroll visited the Hunt Institute to explain the use and development of blockchain. She said that blockchain is a system that can be applied to any transaction that should be tracked.

Simply put, blockchain is a system of accountability. If you had to pay a coworker one dollar, it would be smart to pay them in front of an authority figure, for example your boss. That way, the coworker could not later claim that the exchange never occurred. Now, imagine paying that coworker in the middle of a company meeting. Every other employee would be a witness to that transaction. It would be virtually impossible for the coworker to claim that he or she never got that dollar.

Blockchain works in a similar way. By including more people as witnesses to the transaction, blockchain eliminates the risk of a single point of failure.

Blockchain increases in efficacy as the number of users increases. It is better to have 1,000 people using a blockchain than to have ten people using a blockchain. In this system, there is security in numbers. If there are more people invested in the blockchain, there are more people acting as watchdogs for the security of the blockchain. If there was a need for a secure, public transfer, blockchain could be effective.

With both its virtues and challenges, blockchain is an exciting addition to the digital world. Zhang and Carroll will discuss blockchain and its implications at the Seminar Series tomorrow during the 2018 Spring Seminar. Please click here for more information about this event.

 

Story Contributors

Written by: Anna Grace Carey

Edited by: Maggie Inhofe