Winter School on Decentralised Trust and Blockchains
September - December 2025
Organized by CyStar - IIT Madras
A balanced approach to understanding and harnessing Trust technologies
IIT Madras’ Center for Cybersecurity, Trust and Reliability is organizing a winter school on Decentralized Trust & Blockchains. It is designed to provide a solid foundation in blockchain technology and help you navigate the burgeoning ecosystem surrounding this economically valuable but poorly understood technology, particularly in the Indian context.
The target audience for this two-week long workshop are senior undergraduate students, Masters students and PhD/Postdoc research scholars from across India looking to explore and understand Research and Development in the broader context of secure distributed computing and design of decentralized markets & systems. Interested faculty members, industry professionals and startup enthusiasts are also welcome.
Organizers
Centre for Cybersecurity, Trust and Reliability (CyStar), IIT Madras
Program Structure
Phase 1: Online Selection Phase (One-Day Intensives)
Title: Introduction to Blockchains, Byzantine agents, and Decentralized Trust
Dates Available: September 27th 2025, October 18th 2025
Register for either one of the two intensive one-day workshops held on 27th September and 18th October, 2025. Topics covered during each of these days will be an overview of Blockchain Systems, Decentralized Trust and a brief introduction to Byzantine fault tolerance. We will also cover applications/use-cases of Decentralized Ledgers and a brief introduction to programming Smart Contracts. These one-day Intensives consist of four interactive lecture sessions each throughout the day with a quiz to wrap things up.
This phase is open to all interested participants. It serves as both a knowledge-sharing stage and a selection round for the December Winter school. Participants will attend expert lectures online and participate in the end-of-day quiz designed to evaluate their understanding.
Certification & Selection:
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- Active Participants will receive a Certificate of Participation for the online phase.
- Based on active participation & performance, selected participants will be invited for the Residential Phase at IIT Madras.
Phase 2: Residential Winter School on Decentralised Trust and Blockchains (Advanced In-Person Workshop)
Dates: December 8 – 20, 2025
Platform: IIT Madras
This intensive, in-person training phase focuses on advanced concepts and practical skill-building. Selected participants will engage in a mix of expert lectures and hands-on lab sessions
Format:
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- Morning: In-depth lectures by faculty experts
- Afternoon: Lab sessions to complement the morning topics
- Four expert-led sessions per day over the course of two weeks.
- Hackathon at the end of the winter school – no prior experience necessary!
- Expert panel discussions, Q&A sessions, weekend socials & more!
Resources & Support:
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- All teaching materials and lab exercises will be made freely available to participants for use in their home institutions
- Travel and Accommodation support will be provided by CyStar
Program Curriculum
Given the scope for both foundational and translational research/development work in this area, this programme emphasizes a balanced approach of regular lectures and hands-on lab sessions over the course of two weeks. Prominent experts from both academia and industry will lead the sessions. These sessions will not only be on the foundations but also on topics of industrial and practical relevance including case studies, design of decentralized applications and blockchain data analysis.
List of our eminent speakers include Prof. John Augustine (Consensus in Distributed Systems & Blockchains), Prof. C Pandu Rangan (Foundations of Cryptography & Zero-Knowledge Proofs), Deepak Lalan (dApp modeling & architecture), Kamlesh Nagware (Indo-centric applications of Blockchains), Prasanna Lohar (Blockchain & Fintech applications), Garima Singh (Exploring Blockchain Data)
…and more experts to be revealed soon!
Why Participate?
- Learn the foundations from leading experts from both Academia & Industry
- A chance to explore Blockchain applications by building your own.
- Network with peers and build academic collaborations
- Receive a certificate of participation and performance-based recognition
- Opportunity for startup enthusiasts to be a part of the future of Blockchain Technology in India & abroad.
- There is a significant job market for Blockchain developers. This workshop will be an excellent preparation for it.
Who Can Apply?
B.Tech 3rd year and beyond, Master’s Student, Ph.D. Students, Postdoctoral Researcher in CSE and related fields. Faculty Members, Industry Professionals and Entrepreneurs are also welcome.
Registration
Ready to enhance your skills in securing modern systems? Participate in the Winter School on Decentralised Trust and Blockchains (Phase 1)
Deadline: Thursday 25 September, 2025 11:59 PM IST
Note: Registration for the 2nd Edition of Phase 1 will remain open until Wednesday, 15th October 2025, 23:59 IST. Participants who register by this date will be eligible for the October 18th, 2025 edition.
Contact Us
For any questions or clarifications, feel free to reach out to us at info@cystar.iitm.ac.in
Sponsors
IDBI Bank
IDBI Bank
Information Security Education and Awareness
