## 3 QualiChain Architecture, Pilot Concept, Research Questions, and Execution Methodology
### Pilot Execution Methodology  
This section describes the methodology that was followed for the execution of this pilot case. It provides an overview of every step that was completed before the beginning of the pilot's operation and the involvement of pilot users in the platform. The following Figure 2 presents the process that was followed from the very early stages of the project for the preparation and completion of this pilot. Furthermore, in Table 3, we present a timetable for the implementation of the pilot that includes all preparatory steps, data gathering, the pilot execution, and the evaluation of the platform by the participants. The QualiChain project had a total duration of 36 months. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Name of KPI** & **Criteria for KPI Selection** & **How Was Data Collected?** & **Pilot Stakeholder** \\ \hline Student skillset improvement & This KPI allowed us to see the & & \\ (measured from the student’s personal profile before and after the pilot case application) both in terms of number of skills/smart badges and specific skills levels. & This KPI was selected to evaluate the interest of both students and professors to be part of a smart badge ecosystem & From platform databases & Undergraduate students \\ \hline Average percentage of verified skills in a student’s profile (number of smart badges/number of skills in CV) & This KPI was selected to show the value of showcasing a verified skill in a student’s profile & From platform databases & Undergraduate students \\ \hline Number of validated Ph.D. student tasks & This KPI was selected to evaluate the interest of professors in creating Ph.D.-specific smart badges & From platform databases & Undergraduate students \\ Ph.D. student work recognition and profile improvement through smart badges accreditation & This KPI was selected to evaluate the students in the smart badge ecosystem & From platform databases & Undergraduate students \\ Number of smart badges awarded by professors for each course & This KPI was selected to evaluate the interest of professors in creating & From platform databases & Ph.D. students \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Blockchain-related KPIs. Figure 2: Pilot execution methodology. In the following paragraphs, we expand on the timeline presented in Table 3 and offer more details about each individual activity. To begin with, the labor market requirements of popular professions among the school's graduates had to be analyzed and assessed with the current skill/knowledge profile of the average student at the school. As such, the data analytics module of the platform produced several indicators concerning popular careers among the NTUA School's graduates. Following that, the pilot team charted the school's current curriculum to identify gaps and insufficiently addressed knowledge fields as well as the courses in which those gaps may be addressed by updating/enriching the course's syllabus. All the above-mentioned data were used as input for QualiChain's Analytics and Decision Support tools that provide personalized suggestions for students, recommendations to professors who want to update their courses, and overall guidance and decision support for the curriculum update of the entire school. Based on this methodology, the distinct steps that were followed throughout the execution of this pilot are as follows:  
1. To identify popular professions for the school's graduates, the project team defined five target sectors (i.e., Computer/Data Science, Electrical Engineering, Management, Telecommunications, and Teaching) that constitute an amalgamation of potential career trajectories that can be followed based on the knowledge offering of the school's curriculum. Each target sector represents various specific professions and was used for the next step, that of data crawling from job posting sites. 2. Data crawling was performed on job posting sites and helped formulate the job market requirements for each of the target sectors identified. 3.