As a leader of E-City's major university, you are learning that sometimes analyses do not yield helpful results. Remember, data can be analyzed in endless ways. Therefore, it is up to you to analyze the data with the proper tools and protocols needed to retrieve helpful answers. This week, you are going to look at how machine learning, blockchain technology, and A.I. are powerful tools that can help play a role in analyzing the data.

As seen in week two, A.N.N. helped you create an artificial neural network (a machine learning tool) that connects the university directly to civic and business leaders to make curricular changes flexible to the local changing economy. You find having data in real-time is useful in creating prescriptive university programs that are adaptive to changing economic landscapes. Local business and civic leaders started to raise alerts on the dashboard that there are now more job vacancies than there are local workers with the skillsets needed for the positions. Therefore, ramping up local recruitment for certificate and degree programs was found to be one area that the E-University could contribute to growing the economy.

However, when addressing the complaints on the dashboard, you just discover that competitor E-Mars University is using blockchain in their admissions department. Blockchain technology moves prospective students to applications quicker, streamlines the transfer of credits, verifies student identity without human interaction, helps students meet enrollment goals and deadlines, and enrolls students in classes. Because one of the goals is to bring a pipeline of educated workers in the region to play a role in economic revitalization, you decide that blockchain technology needs to be investigated further.

1. Reflect on how artificial intelligence helped you to isolate the variables that are within your area of control. Then, argue how these variables can help you to build programs and services to help with economic revitalization.
2. Research blockchain technology and admissions departments. Remember that blockchain technology has many applications. Determine how blockchain could help develop a highly educated workforce for E-City through admissions to the university. How does integrating blockchain technology take the neural network from 1.0 to 2.0?
3. Finally, defend your findings to the legislature in order to try to obtain more funding for blockchain technology.