In this course, in partnership with the UNICEF Ventures Fund, we will investigate how to assess the potential of new and emerging technologies – in particular blockchain, smart contracts and tokens – and the role they can play in addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing the most vulnerable population in the world: children.
UNICEF has a 70-year history of investing in new solutions that benefit children and throughout its history it had to continuously rethink the tools it employs in a world of rapid technological, political, and social change. To help the organization prepare for change, UNICEF’s Ventures Fund invests in emerging technologies (Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchains, Drones, Augmented and Virtual Reality, 3D Printing, Quantum Computing, etc.) creating portfolios of products and entrepreneurs that push the boundaries of what is possible and that can have a positive impact on a billion lives.
In 2017, no technology had a steeper “hype-curve” or greater promise for solving any conceivable problem than blockchain, digital-crypto assets, smart contracts, and distributed ledgers but how can this technology effectively assist UNICEF in its mission? Can this technology help international organizations and governments be more efficient, transparent and accountable? Can we better show the trail of resources and money? Can we use blockchain data to solve humanitarian challenges? Can crypto tokens work to incentivize or support behavior that benefits humanity? Can we increase access and use of such systems by creating more user friendly and more secure interfaces? And more broadly, how do we experiment with a new technology to evaluate its potential? How do we design for new paradigms and new forms of interaction? How do we envision new systems and services that can scale globally? What design guidelines do we follow for creating and testing prototypes of novel solutions? What are the potential benefits, limitations and pitfalls of currently hyped technologies and tools?
We will research the answers to these questions through experiments, experts’ lectures and speakers’ series, hands-on workshops and a series of assignments that will have students focus on understanding users’ unmet needs and the fast changing technology landscape, culminating in students presenting their work at UNICEF HQ to staff and invited guests at the end of the semester. This class is all about early experimentation, research, ideation, & rapid iterations, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships, learning from failures, feedback, critique and presentations to a larger audience.
No previous knowledge of design or blockchain technology is required.
