Please describe your proposed solution.

Any blockchain/ecosystem that seeks to thrive and reap immense positive impact must look for the best and suitable places to sow seeds. Campuses are definitely appropriate grounds with hot cake minds and top notch ideas that can leverage cardano blockchain and return a positive impact. Universities, colleges and SHSs are undoubtedly the best places to empower innovative projects of students.

There is the need to empower students financially so that with their brilliant diversified ideas, they can be able to introduce invaluable innovations and initiatives from their diversified backgrounds which can bring massive impact (positive) to blockchains. Cardano is in a competitive market with over thousand of blockchains, so cardano should embrace and support through catalyst funds, projects that can always keep the ecosystem thriving in such a demanding space. Students have such projects.

In light of this, this proposal seeks to reach out to the door steps of students through our conferences in universities and colleges to get them informed that their projects which are at the verge of dying off because of constraint of capital can actually be funded through project catalyst. Before we kick start our conferences, we will have massive publicity (especially using social media channels) of which we will be able to reach out to students creating their awareness of the upcoming conferences so that they can attend. During conference sessions, the team will take students into details about the cardano blockchain and catalyst, so that their foundational knowledge about the ecosystem will be strong, and upon which they can begin to explore the ecosystem the more and its use cases. To help the students have great insight about cardano, the team will also distribute educational materials of cardano in the form of booklets which will serve as reference materials to them.

Ending quote: “Students cannot be undermined because individuals who have made global impact in any field/sector were once students even if they dropped out”- Benjamin Baani

How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

PROJECT IMPACT ON CARDANO

At the end of the project delivery, it’s our target to:

1. get 100 students with excellent projects become active proposers in project catalyst.
2. get over 300 new user accounts on ideascale taking up catalyst roles.
3. out of the 100 students who become active proposers, about 50 of them get to collaborate or jointly submit proposals with other catalyst community proposers.
4. Get students to submit moderate size budget projects.

PRECISE CHALLENGE ADDRESS

The aim of the project in adherence to that of the challenge is to reduce the competition rate by limiting the proposers to students. Through our conferences, we will be able to address and ensure that students are able to enjoy this advantage by submitting proposals in project catalyst for possible funding. With our project, there will be a mass influx of students into the cardano ecosystem.

How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

1. Student Projects: Measure and evaluate the number of student projects that are available to apply for funding in catalyst fund rounds.
2. Participation/Attendance: Measure the number of students attending our conferences. This measure helps track metrics such as active participants and participants interest.
3. Students feedback: Students’ feedback will be measured by issuing questionnaires and conducting qualitative surveys to determine students’ satisfaction of our conferences or solution in general.
4. Student collaborations: Students coming together to develop projects and build solutions in a collaborative manner with catalyst proposers will be measured as success and even student to student collaborations.
5. Funded projects: Measure student projects that eventually received funding in project catalyst.

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

1. Documentation and compilation of outputs: We will gather all the necessary materials, presentations, reports, data, photographs, videos and other artifacts generated as a result of our project delivery: organize them in our monthly reports in a way that makes them easily understandable by community members.
2. Community engagement (Social media sharing): Outputs will be shared on relevant social media platforms especially on catalyst telegram and discord groups so that community members can have access to them.
3. Open source content: All materials and content used in the project delivery will be made public and hence available to community members.
4. TH: There might be the need to address some issues and questions of community members regarding our project, in such a case, town halls will be organized online to address such issues.
5. Open forum: people outside the catalyst community might want to know about the outcome of our project especially the school communities where we have held conferences, in such a case, a platform will be created to address their concerns and share the project’s outputs to interested parties.

Outputs from the project will help us to know the caliber of projects students from diverse backgrounds have and are interested in and will help us streamline our future activities to fit or match the expectations of students.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

Convened and hosted the 2022 Cardano Summit in Tamale, Ghana<span> which was the largest blockchain summit ever hosted in Tamale. The summit ended successfully and all participants were well educated and nicely received and refreshed. The event wouldn’t have been deemed successful if the funds were not properly used. Have also organized and facilitated successfully community events, some in Northern Ghana and in Kumasi with support from Wada. We have also held campus conferences where students were educated about blockchain and many of the students today are active in the cardano ecosystem. As a result of past events and conferences we have held, we have been able to garner enough experience in hosting and facilitating projects like this successfully. We are also very reliable in terms of using funds for the right tasks to ensure success of our projects.</span>

we have also been PAs and vPAs in project catalyst for some time now.

<https://twitter.com/baanibenjamin>

<https://twitter.com/Jerrybnj>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsQtjgRJSp8&amp;t=101s

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

a. Raise cardano awareness by introducing students to cardano and it’s project catalyst.

Validation: we will be able to validate this goal through our conferences where students will be educated and introduced to cardano.

b. Provide funding avenue for student projects and by so doing increase the number of student projects participating in project catalyst.

Validation: About 100 students get to submit proposals on ideascale.

c. Make cardano vibrant in schools.

Validation: Establish cardano clubs to make cardano vibrant in schools we have held conferences.

d. Establish student-student networking and collaboration.

Validation: Student participants in our conferences get to work together in groups and also work together to develop solutions to real world issues.

Project Launch

The team intends to launch the project in October to the first and second week in December 2023, and after which close out reports will be prepared and submitted to catalyst and IOG. The team intends to hold three (3) conferences (sessions) in different schools.

Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Milestone 1: Project Development, Planning, Marketing and Project Delivery (Phase 1).

Tasks:

1. Objectives and scope of the project get defined
2. Develop detailed project plan with timelines, tasks and resources required.
3. Marketing and publicizing conferences to reach the target audience making use of various channels such as social media, flyers and local media outlet to publicize our conferences.
4. Setup registration and check-in processes.
5. First phase of convening and facilitating campus conferences takes place.
6. Transition into milestone 2.

Number of Events: 1

Estimated Cost: 15,000ada

Timeline: 1 month

Milestone 2: Project Delivery Continued (Phase 2 and 3) and Evaluation

Tasks:

1. Second and third phase of convening and facilitating campus conferences takes place.
2. Collect feedback from participants (students).
3. Analyze events’ success based on predefined objectives.
4. Prepare a comprehensive project report.
5. Evaluate opportunities for future events or initiatives based on the project’s impact.

Number of Events: 2

Estimated cost: 24,400ada

Timeline: 2 months

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Milestone 1: Project Development, Planning, Marketing and Project Delivery (Phase 1)

Deliverables:

1. Project Plan: Develop a formal document outlining project’s objectives, scope, timeline, tasks and resources required to implement it.
2. Effective Marketing Strategy: An effective marketing strategy by which we can reach our target audience for publicity through various channels such as social media, flyers, local media etc.
3. Participation Registration: Help interested participants (students) register their interest and check-in to our conferences. Online link will be created.
4. Conference Convening (phase 1): Students get exposed to how they can secure funding for their projects, i.e via project catalyst.

Outputs:

1. Finalized project plan
2. Developed marketing strategy
3. Attendees registration and check-in received
4. Organized and facilitated cardano education conference.

Intended Outcomes:

1. Well constructed plan with defined objectives, scope, tasks etc.
2. Well defined and effective marketing strategy.
3. Well defined category of student blockchain enthusiasts.
4. Well informed students about cardano blockchain.

Milestone 2: Project Delivery and Evaluation

Deliverables:

1. Conference Convening Continued ( phase 2): Conferences get carried out with students. Students get exposed to the cardano ecosystem and how their projects can be funded.
2. Conducting Surveys: To receive feedback from students to assess their satisfaction about our conferences.
3. Success Measurement of Events: Metrics to be assigned to evaluate the success of our project delivery employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
4. General Evaluation: Assess overall delivery of our project and improving in areas lapses were encountered.
5. Report Preparation: Prepare a report that captures whatever transpired in the project’s delivery.

Outputs:

1. Organized and facilitating cardano education conferences continued.
2. Conducted and completed surveys and questionnaires.
3. Analyzed students feedback for determining project success.
4. Assessed overall project delivery.
5. Summarized report of project delivery.

Intended outcomes:

1. Well-informed students
2. Ascertain students satisfaction
3. Know what success is for this project
4. Improvement in future project delivery
5. Create a reservoir of information for reference purpose in the future.

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

• Advertisement/publicity= 2,000ada

• Creation and printing of cardano T-shirts and informative materials- 300*20 Ada= 7,500 Ada

• Rental of gadgets and conference space 3*2,000Ada= 4,500 Ada

• Conference equipments (projector, screen, cables etc) 1,400ada

• Conference Capture (photos and videos)= 2,000 Ada

• Accommodation, feeding and transportation of team (resource persons) and event organizers= 8,000 Ada

• Honorarium for the team

. Resource persons- 2*833.33= 1,666.67 Ada*3 conferences= 5,000 Ada

. Conference organizers= 2,000 Ada

Sub total= 7,000 Ada

•Refreshment for participants (students).

. Snacks and water 300*3.333= 1,000 Ada

. Lunch 300*13.333 Ada= 4,000 Ada

Sub Total= 5,000 Ada

•Ada rewards for students during Q&A sessions 1,497 Ada.

•Contingency Fund 503 Ada.

Total: 39,400ada

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Benjamin Baani (Team Lead, resource person): Final year student at University of Development Studies, Wa Ghana (now SDD- UBIDS). Email: [email protected]

A cardano community event enthusiast and was a speaker at the 2022 Cardano Summit in Tamale, Ghana.

Challenge Team lead for Startups & Onboarding for Students.

PA and vPA in project catalyst. A member of WADA.

<https://bit.ly/F10-Challenge-Teams>

<https://twitter.com/baanibenjamin>

Jeremiah Baani (resource person): A tutor.

Cardano Ambassador for Ghana and hosted the 2022 Cardano Summit in Tamale, Ghana. Organized and facilitated community events in northern Ghana and Kumasi successfully. PA, vPA and proposer in project catalyst. A member of WADA.

Founder of Cteil Ghana

www.cteil.org

<https://twitter.com/Jerrybnj>

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Contingency Fund: Every project will encounter challenges in the course of its delivery, especially financial wise. There might be need of some push up funds to make relevant expenses (purchasing other Conference materials or equipments that were not captured in the main budget) in order to undertake the project to the end successfully (we want to fully execute the project). The contingency fund of 503 Ada will suffice for unforeseen expenses.

Publicity: To get students to be aware of our upcoming conferences and participate, there is the need to embark on massive publicity using channels such as social media, flyers and local media, which is a demanding process and requires much funds to carry it out effectively, hence the amount of 2,000 Ada.

Accommodation, feeding and transportation of team (resource persons): The condition of the economy of Ghana has caused prices of goods and services to skyrocket. Accommodation, feeding and transportation have been affected by the economic situation and hence an amount of 8,000 Ada will be able to cover these expenses.

Rental of gadgets and conference space: cost of gadget and conferences rental have increased however the amount of 4,500 Ada will be able to cover the expense.

Printing of cardano T-shirts and materials: This component of the budget will make our conferences very unique and more insightful. Aside our conference sessions, students will be able to receive basic education about cardano and project catalyst from the cardano materials (booklets). It requires more funds to get the T-shirts and materials printed, hence the amount of 7,500 Ada

All other components/items in the budget have been careful prepared with respect to current and prevailing economic conditions in Ghana and hence the outcome of 39,400 Ada.

THE COST OF THE PROJECT

The cost of the project represents value for money for the cardano ecosystem considering that the funds requested will aid in the education of students about the ecosystem and giving them opportunities to become catalyst proposers, and hence the membership of cardano ecosystem will increase and also receive innovative ideas from the students to build the ecosystem.