IBM Opens Education Collaboration Center on NC State's Centennial Campus

    RALEIGH, NC, May 25, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- -- IBM announced today that it has opened the IBM Education Collaboration Center on NC State University's Centennial Campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Center will be the focal point for collaborations of joint projects between IBM experts, faculty and students using the company's complete portfolio of products and services, including Watson, IoT, blockchain and security, all supported by IBM Cloud services and Systems solutions.

"We seek to collaborate with NC State (and academia generally) on solutions that will make a difference in the world and to absorb the creativity and energy from the students as we transform IBM development," said Fran O'Sullivan, IBM NC Senior State Executive and GM, GBS Global Operation.

With this new center, IBM's RTP Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) will be rolling out IBM@edu, an intensive set of university-focused collaborative programs and activities. Faculty and students will be encouraged to bring forward project proposals, some of which may be startup ideas. The company also expects to present monthly information exchanges and project solicitations on specific technologies and solutions, such as Bluemix, Blockchain, IoT, Watson and Power.

IBM and NC State have a long history of working together on joint projects.

The company has provided NC State approximately $30 million in sponsored research, gifts, equipment donations and other in-kind contributions. These donations have supported programs like Extreme Red, where students from multiple colleges work on in-classroom multi-disciplinary problems defined by industry partners using IBM cloud services. And this summer, RTP CAS will sponsor several IBM@edu "Challenge" projects, soliciting student and intern participation, with support from various IBM solutions teams and their local ecosystem of industry partners. Projects include the creation of cloud-based analysis tools and services (using Watson IoT, Analytics, Health, etc.) for ASSIST low power medical sensors, and the application of blockchain technology in the creation of a rare disease patient database. In addition, NC State graduates represent a significant number of new hires for the company.

"The new IBM Education Collaboration Center on Centennial Campus is especially exciting as it builds upon the longstanding R&D collaborations between IBM and NC State," said Dennis Kekas, associate vice chancellor. "It will enable a new level of student-centric engagement to help solve tomorrow's grand challenges."

About NC State's Centennial Campus
With more than 75 corporate, governmental and nonprofit partners located on 1,227-acres, NC State's Centennial Campus is one of the premier research campuses in North America. The campus houses a number of university colleges, departments and institutes, including the College of Engineering, College of Textiles, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. Situated five minutes from downtown Raleigh and NC State's central campus, Centennial also features student and private housing options and has several middle school and high school programs on its grounds, making it one of the few multi-functional research campuses in the U.S. www.centennial.ncsu.edu

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