Interview - Ermo Täks - Workshop in Tartu | CHEDTEB Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership

Interview - Ermo Täks - Workshop in Tartu

We would like to share the full interview with the third speaker of our Workshop in Tartu, Ermo Täks, who is an Associate Professor at the Tallinn University of Technology!

 

What made you interested in blockchain or smart contracts technology in the first place?

My own research interest focus on AI and law domain, smart contracts and enabling blockchain technology is quite integral part of it. CHEDTEB gave an excellent opportunity to get more involved. 


What has made the technologies (especially cryptocurrencies) so popular in the last year in your opinion?

Free movement of money, without central control has made money transfer quicker, safer and less visible to authorities.  Criminals must love it...


Do you think that companies are open (or will be open) to implement these technologies?

It is quite a cultural change, I think the underlying technology must mature before widespread use. It depends form the company, area of business, change culture and from many other issues.  


To what extent the technologies could potentially improve the efficiency of the company?

A very great deal, at least as much as industrialisation has changed manual labour-based work. Predicting is a challenging subject, hard to tell. 


Where do you see the technologies in 5 years?

It is puzzling question. Which technologies? If blockchain is chosen, then applied in most vulnerable areas like giving the loans and in e-commerce broader.


What is most important from your specialization that the students should know in order to apply them later in the company/practice?

Basic principles and main weaknesses of chosen technology. Plus some experience in working with IT people and knowing when to trust them. 


Do you think that the topic of technological transformation is more suitable to be taught in a form of a short course or as a part of a complete master’s degree?

It seems that such kind of radical changes are taking much of efforts from organisations, yet being short-termed, change oriented approaches. Whether to train skilled specialists only for such focused time period- perhaps it undermines students future prospective. I would love to see them surviving also aftermath of the organisational reform and moving into more stable development period. Perhaps the agile approach is something to be taught in special part of Mater degree-  organising constant flow of minor changes to respond to the changing environment. 


What are the other relevant fields/subjects that should/can go hand in hand with your specialization?

Some underlying principles of programming, basic knowledge of ICT functioning (history, infrastructure, computing logic etc).


How would you propose a course for your specialization, what it should include? 

The logic behind blockchain is pretty simple but technologically can quite challenging. Saying so, I do not expect students to be able to develop their own versions of basic blockchain technologies rather than seamlessly integrate before mentioned technological puzzle pieces into technological ecosystem of chosen organisation. This depends again from the organisation and its specifics, so common components of such solutions should be identified and based on that we could say something more about training subjects. This analysis is by large not done because there is lack of successful implementation of blockchain and lack of research papers. Students however should have advanced skills in programming, cyber security, text data mining and basic knowledge on cryptoalgorithms.


What skills/background should the teachers have in order to pass the subject to the students?

Management, organisational change, financial principles, ICT related skills and ability to imagine where the technology could be of help.

 

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This project shared by the three partner universities Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences/D, Brno University of Technology/CZ and University of Tartu/EST aims to provide the framework for a future joint master's degree on Digital Transformation of Corporate Business.

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