Lugano, Switzerland

Writing Smart Contracts

blended course
when 13 February 2023 - 17 February 2023
language English
duration 1 week
credits 3 EC
fee CHF 290

Smart contracts require a distinct way of thinking and a novel programming approach, different from standard procedural programming.
This course introduces students to the relevant theoretical concepts and provides a hands-on introduction to writing smart contracts on a modern blockchain using the Python programming language. The goal is to equip students with the necessary skills and theoretical background for creating simple smart contracts and for deploying them on the Algorand blockchain.

Course leader

Peter Gruber has PhDs in financial economics and particle physics. He is Senior Lecturer at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano. He has been teaching programming to economics and finance students at USI, St. Gallen, Geneva and Bocconi.

Target group

Master or advanced bachelor students in economics or finance as well as practitioners and PhD students.

Course aim

After completing the USI WSC winter school, participants will be able to interact programmatically with the Algorand blockchain, extracting information and executing transactions. They will have learnt how to create their own tokens and NFTs as well as how to express simple governance structures, business processes and financial assets as smart contracts. They will be able to implement these smart contracts in Python and to deploy them on the Algorand blockchain. Beyond the technical skills, they will have learnt how to plan and organize individual and group work on smart contracts.

Credits info

3 EC
USI students from selected programs receive 3 ECTS for participation. Students from other universities must ensure crediting themselves.

Fee info

CHF 290: Students (including PhD students)
CHF 990: Practitioners and non-students

Scholarships

Reduced rates for USI students are available. A limited number of scholarships for young professionals and students from developing countries are available.