Abstract: 

A blockchain is essentially a distributed database of records or public ledger of all transactions or digital events that have been executed and shared among participating parties. Each transaction in the public ledger is verified by consensus of a majority of the participants in the system. And, once entered, information can never be erased. The blockchain contains a certain and verifiable record of every single transaction ever made. Bitcoin, the decentralized peer ­to ­peer digital currency, is the most popular example that uses blockchain technology. The digital currency bitcoin itself is highly controversial but the underlying blockchain technology has worked flawlessly and found wide range of applications in both financial and non-­financial world.

The main hypothesis is that the blockchain establishes a system of creating a distributed consensus ​in the digital online world. This allows participating entities to know for certain that a digital event happened by creating an irrefutable record in a public ledger. ​It opens the door for developing a democratic open and scalable digital economy from a centralized one. There are tremendous opportunities in this disruptive technology and revolution in this space has just begun.

This talk will describe blockchain technology and some compelling specific applications in both financial and non-­financial sector. We then look at the challenges ahead and business opportunities in this fundamental technology that is all set to revolutionize our digital world.

Bio: 

Bhairav Mehta is Senior Data Scientist with extensive professional experience and academic background. Bhairav works for Apple Inc. as Sr. Data Scientist.

Bhairav Mehta is experienced engineer, business professional and seasoned Statistician / programmer with 19 years of combined progressive experience working on data science in electronics consumer products industry (7 years at Apple Inc.), yield engineering in semiconductor manufacturing (6 years at Qualcomm and MIT Startup) and quality engineering in automotive industry (OEM, Tier2 Suppliers, Ford Motor Company) (3 years). Bhairav founded a start up DataInquest Inc. in 2014 that is specialized in training/consulting in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain and Data Science.

Bhairav Mehta has MBA from Johnson School of Management at Cornell University, Masters in Computer science from Georgia Tech (Expected 2018), Masters in Statistics from Cornell University, Masters in Industrial Systems Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology and BS Production Engineering from Mumbai University.