ASU Students Win Top Four National Prizes in 'HBCU Students Inform the Block' Short-Video Competition!
- HBCU students competed by entering original videos designed to foster awareness about blockchain technology, used for digital ledger security.
By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU.
A group of students from Alabama State University swept the national competition aside
in a recent contest that pitted students from Historic Black Colleges and Universities
(HBCUs) in a series of video competitions in the HBCU Students Inform the Block video
competition. Undergraduate HBCU students entered original videos designed to foster
awareness about blockchain technology, which is a system of recording digital information
in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack or cheat.
"I am so proud of all of the ASU students we had join us in this double-blind competition
because our students won the top four national awards in the Short-Video category
and won second place in the long-video class," said Dr. Patrice W. Glenn Jones, ASU's
executive director of Online Education and Programs and the faculty sponsor of the
students competing. "ASU's students enrolled in the National HBCU Blockchain and FinTech
Conference competition that had students design and produce both long videos (one-minute
to three-minutes in length) and short videos (30-seconds to one-minute in length),
which were charged to best explain the merits of using blockchains to secure digital
ledgers, which are frequently used in safeguarding cryptocurrency transactions."
ASU's STUDENT WINNERS
The Alabama State University students who won the top four categories in the Short
Video category are Kyla Thornton, first place ($1000); Ruan du Preez, second place ($750); Ja'Miya Choice, third place ($500); and Xavier Moore, fourth place ($350). ASU's student who won second place in the Long Video category
is Lucky Chitundo, who was awarded $1000.
WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
Jones explained that blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on what computer experts call the 'blockchain.' Each block in the chain contains a number of transactions, and every time a new transaction occurs on the blockchain, a record of that transaction is added to every participant’s ledger and serves as the basis of keeping secure and accurate cryptocurrency.
BACKGROUND OF THE PROCESS
Since the beginning of the fall semester, students, faculty and staff at HBCUs across
the country and in the Virgin Islands have participated in blockchain and financial
technology workshops, leading up to the video submission deadline of October 15.
Jones said that the winners and their videos will be featured at the Second National
HBCU Blockchain and FinTech Conference, which will be held virtually on Nov. 12 -
Nov. 13.
PROFESSOR BELIEVES 'WIN' SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT STUDENT SKILLS
"This is an important win for ASU because it demonstrates our students’ skills are
both grounded in technology and are adept at the creative process, which allows them
to communicate a very technical and obtuse subject in such a manner that it is understandable
by those people with little or no technical background," Jones stated.
"Most of all, this win excites me because it is wonderful to see our Alabama State
University students learn and grow."
News media contact: Kenneth Mullinax, 334-229-4104.
###