Majan College faculty member conducts blockchain research at University of Bradford

MUSCAT: At the invitation of Professor Hassan Ugail, Director of the Centre for Visual Computing, Dr Ramalingam, an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information Technology at Majan University College, spent two weeks at the University of Bradford (UK) in July 2019.

Dr Ram is working on a postdoctoral research project entitled “Developing a Trustable System for Digitally Managing and Attesting Academic Records using Blockchain Technology”.

The main aim of the project is to protect the integrity of academic transcripts and degree certificates. Dr Ram is developing a prototype cloud-based system to store, verify, and authenticate academic documents digitally, using the permissioned distributed ledger of blockchain technology. The end goal is to produce a transparent and trustable system with a high level of integrity and security through which all stakeholders (such as students, colleges, degree-awarding universities, regulatory authorities and employers) can participate seamlessly in the verification process.

The main benefit of the system is that it provides transparency in the graduate certificate verification process as well as tamperproof security. This reduces the need for lengthy and burdensome attestation processes. Any interested third party can also verify in real time the accuracy of a hard copy certificate, using the hash code or QR code. An important additional feature of the system is that no time or money are spent by the student or employer in verifying academic documents.