In the past month, neow3j representatives have delivered a hands-on workshop at the University of Basel and a presentation to students at the University of Geneva. neow3j is a Java library that aims to provide smooth and reliable integration to Neo nodes/clients. neow3j founder, Dr. Guilherme Sperb Machado (a.k.a. Guil), and co-maintainer, Claude Müller, delivered the workshop and presentations.

Dr. Machado is also a guest researcher with the University of Zürich’s Communication Systems Group and has worked with research projects at the university in the past. Recently, Dr. Machado has delivered technical lectures on Neo blockchain advancements and workshops on how to use software developer kits (SDK) with a focus on the developer experience.

Additionally, Müller contributes his experience co-maintaining the open-source neow3j project, and Java development skillset.

neow3j events

The first event took place on October 29th at the University of Basel, which was organized by Neo Global Development EcoGrowth director, Lili Zhao. The hands-on workshop entitled Neo Blockchain: Concepts and Coding was delivered following a lecture from Dr. Fabian Schär, professor of distributed ledger technology/fintech at the University of Basel’s School of Business and Economics. The workshop consisted of two segments — first, the technical concepts behind the Neo blockchain. Second, setting up a PrivateNet and an introduction to smart contract development. The audience was primarily comprised of graduate students.

In a conversation with Neo News Today, Dr. Machado said, “the workshop was successful in my point of view since we helped the students to install a PrivateNet on their laptops, and also deploy their first smart contract.”

The second event took place on November 1st at the University of Geneva. The discussion and workshop offered credit hours to individuals in the Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) Blockchain certification. The topics of discussion focused primarily on neow3j, the Java ecosystem in Neo, and the developer experience. The audience was comprised mostly of professionals in the software engineering industry.

Dr. Machado says these events often include questions like: How does Neo compare to Ethereum? and How will Neo3 solve ‘X’ problem in Neo2? However, he iterates the neow3j team also gets questions about the developer experience which lead to valuable suggestions that the team seeks to integrate into the Neo community.

Dr. Machado said: “In the end, it’s rewarding to not only give the workshops [and presentations] but also to learn of the difficulties people have with learning to code with Neo. That’s the audience we want to hear from to ultimately help make Neo even better!”

Looking forward

On Wednesday, December 4th, Dr. Machado will deliver a presentation on the Neo blockchain as part of a lecture entitled Distributed Systems Advanced and Blockchain at the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland.

The lecture is part of a series conducted by Dr. Thomas Bocek, professor for distributed systems and ledgers at the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil. Professor Bocek’s series invites individuals to speak with students about the engineering side of blockchain.

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