Building University Partnerships with DLM ICP Campus Network
I created DLM ICP Campus Network as community-focused initiative that aims to promote the use of Internet Computers (internetcomputer.org). How I got involved with ICP was quite a story. I started to use blockchain technology since 2021. Later, as I was searching for a truly decentralised blockchain technology, I bumped into ICP Blockchain. In April 2023, I contacted Dfinity Foundation (the creator of ICP – dfinity.org) to explore possibility of integrating ICP Blockchain into our system. I was invited to apply for a community grant.
In June 2023, I successfully got the grant and I was invited to be a co-founder with a representative of Dfinity Foundation called SynergyLabs Thai-Malaysia ICP Hub which is based in Thailand. The announcement was made on Linked-in and Twitter.
However, just after seven months (30th Jan 2024), I was told that Malaysia ICP Hub is disbanded temporarily and I would have to continue by myself doing the workshop. Since I have already been in communication with more than 10 universities (some of which still waiting for the Departmental approval), I felt that I should continue my work and focus on building developers and startup community in all universities in Malaysia. With more than 600 participants have already attended my workshops and seminars I felt that it is only appropriate for me to continue to get Malaysians onboard the ICP Blockchain. Thus, I have to start a new community. As a result, DLM ICP Campus Network community was formed on 1st Feb 2024.
With a small team initially, we seek to gain a collaborative effort in promoting a new kind of blockchain technology called ICP or Internet Computer Protocol with all universities in Malaysia. Its aim is to invite them to further embark on this evolving blockchain ecosystem in Malaysia and the potential avenues for collaboration and growth it offers.
I provide a combination of educational programs and free workshops that help raise awareness and understanding of the technology that is redefining the internet experience. Together with my team, we are committed to bringing the latest innovation to the education sector in universities throughout Malaysia.
We also invited the academic staff and students from various fields to apply for developer’s grants from the Dfinity Foundation. These grants are intended to support research and development in various high-tech fields, such as engineering, computer science, and other technologies involving AI or IoT, provided some form of programming is involved. These grants are expected to expose them to the Web3.0 ecosystem. We have already conducted an hour briefing about the grants at several universities such as UM, UKM and UTP.
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I realised that there exist a pure blockchain that emulates bitcoin blockhain network. Thus, my era with ICP blockchain began. that I decided to get onboard ICP Blockchain. I am influenced by the idea of Dominic Williams' Blockchain Singularity. It doesn't depend on big tech clouds. I can appreciate this as I had a bad experience with a blockchain that is parked on AWS. Our data was deleted after 2 weeks of testing and uploading since the agent didn’t pay the fees. My frustration turned into a passionate search for a genuine blockchain. Hence I decided to bring ICP Blockchain into Malaysia.
I am so much into it that I was encouraged by a Dfinity team member (Switzerland based) to apply for a Community Grant which I did. I got offered a grant of 8K to teach the universities in Malaysia. And I was also appointed as a Co-Founder of SynergyLabs TH MY ICP Hub in Jun 2023.
Since then I have approached about 10 universities and have conducted 6 workshops and 2 grant briefings at these universities. I have repeated workshops with 2 universities and they are responding very well. Most of the activities have been shared by the universities in their social media platforms. All in all, we have exposed ICP Blockchain to more than 600 participants in Malaysia.
I have also initiated the get to know ICP developer grant programmes for researchers and postgraduate students at the universities. There are a good number of applicants interested in applying for the grants and some did apply. There are one or two universities interested to run a blockchain lab as node provider. I have one University already interested to form a partnership with ICP to run the first Blockchain Lab in Malaysia after I conducted a workshop with them.
All the current courses that we conduct with the Institute of Visual Informatics, UKM
I have numerous positive feedbacks from the participants. I have been communicating the visions and benefits of ICP ecosystem to many universities in Malaysia and I am still getting invitations from many universities.
To attract investors and developers to participate in ICP ecosystem, I formed relationships with several universities and I am in the midst of forming startup groups at some universities. I even prepared some business proposals to form partnerships with the universities.
I was also invited by University of Malaya to speak at an International Conference on Computation for Science and Technology.
I am currently an adjunct lecturer at Petronas University of Technology, UTP. My passion for design, innovation, and deal-making has proven to be useful in sharing knowledge with society and networking.
