IBM's Power Systems Academic Initiative reached a milestone in February: More than 300 higher education institutions worldwide have signed on to the program.
The initiative delivers access to new technologies that help students dive deep into lessons on Big Data, cloud, mobile and social. Higher education coursework based on IBM's Power Systems gives students a wide range of experiences. IBM's Power Systems servers are used across several industries. The company's Watson computer is even based on these machines and is forging a new path for IBM in the realm of cognitive computing.
Students learning through Power Systems will be oriented to Linux-, IBM i- and AIX-based operating systems. Participating schools are offered coursework, software, access to technical libraries and experts, along with remote, virtual access to a Power Systems environment, according to an IBM news release.
“Linux and other open innovation platforms have become a primary source of development in today’s technology marketplace, and companies are looking to colleges and universities to produce a workforce equipped with the skills required to innovate in these environments,” Terri Virnig, vice president of Power Systems ecosystem and strategy at IBM, said in the news release.
The company's initiative has grown 152 percent since 2012 and is now being used in more than 300 schools around the world, including more than 150 in the U.S.
A graduate-level course in enterprise data management is taught at New York University's Polytechnic School of Engineering using IBM's approach. Raman Kannan, an adjunct professor of technology management at the school, said the academic initiative allows students the chance to "focus on the techniques and principles instead of infrastructure." Learn more about IBM’s Power Systems Academic Initiative on the official website.
IBM Thailand, the local unit of the American IT giant, is working with universities and business partners to provide training for people to level up high-demand digital skills, ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to data science and hybrid cloud, as part of a push to support the country's digital transformation.
"Digital transformation is increasingly becoming one of the most important levers in GDP growth for countries," said Agnes Heftberger, general manager of IBM Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Korea.
"The latest advances in AI and related innovations are also expanding the frontiers of the digital revolution."
According to IT market research firm IDC, 65% of global GDP is expected to be digitalised by 2022.
Investment in digital transformation is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 15.5% from 2020 to 2023, when it is expected to reach US$6.8 trillion, IDC indicated.
"Thailand is one of the leading countries in Asia Pacific where we have continuously witnessed the execution of digital transformation projects, as well as significant adoption of disruptive technologies such as AI, data science and hybrid cloud by businesses," said Ms Heftberger.
Sawat Asdaron, managing director of IBM Thailand, said AI, hybrid cloud, data science, automation and cybersecurity are new areas that are in high demand by businesses.
"Skilled IT workforce is a key enablement for digital transformation," he said.
Citing the World Economic Forum, Mr Sawat said closing the global skills gap could add $11.5 trillion to global GDP by 2028. The shortage of workforce with technology skills is expected to reach 4.3 million by 2030, he noted.
To address urgent need for those with digital skills, IBM Thailand is partnering with Burapha University, Chulalongkorn University, Panyapiwat Institute of Management and Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology to organise training courses to build a high-demand digital skill workforce.
NTT Data Thailand, a business and technology solution provider, is the first business partner to collaborate with IBM under this initiative.
"This ongoing collaboration continues to grow and scale up, with more universities and ecosystem partners joining forces with IBM to make this happen," said Mr Sawat.
"We originally planned to be able to provide job-ready skills to hundreds of students in four pilot universities, but now that more universities and business partners are joining, we foresee more than 1,000 students benefiting from this initiative by the end of 2022."
Kotaro Oshio, director of operations at NTT Data Thailand, said the company signed a cooperation agreement with Burapha University to implement the NTT DATA Critical Resource Preparation Programme, geared towards building qualified and quality IT professionals for the job market, who will become an important force in the development of Thailand's financial industry.
The programme collaborates with IBM under the IBM Academic Initiative to develop knowledge and skills related to Cobol programming, mainframe and hybrid cloud systems by providing courses and training throughout the semester.
Ms Heftberger said building a skilled IT workforce is core to IBM's agenda, and this initiative will be fully supported by IBM.
"This includes resources, funding to make this programme work in a sustainable way, and more learning opportunities like knowledge sharing by IBM's experts or researchers."
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College affordability could be improved by better work-study opportunities, writes Stan Litow.
Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty ImagesAbout the author: Stanley Litow is Accenture professor of the practice at Duke University and a trustee at the State University of New York. He previously served as president of the IBM Foundation and is the co-author of Breaking Barriers: How P-Tech Schools Create a Pathway From High School to College to Career.
Long-lived government programs often need to be viewed through a current lens. If they no longer meet the needs of the American public, they may need to be reinvented or be sunset. But that lens can also reveal just how vital some programs are. President Kennedy’s Peace Corps is a prime example. But there is another example of lesser-known success that needs both to continue and have an opportunity to be reinvented.
In 1964, before there was a Pell Grant program to ease the cost of college tuition for economically vulnerable students, the federal college work-study program began as part of the Economic Opportunity Program. It had broad, bipartisan support. The concept of students “working their way through college” combined Democratic legislators’ wishes to provide financial support for low-income students via subsidized work to help collect enough money to afford college and Republican legislators’ wishes to have students work to earn that support.
Back then a student could earn about 90% of their tuition costs with a work-study position. Today, with escalating tuition costs, students can earn only a small fraction of that amount. Currently only $1 billion is available across the U.S. to pay up to 75% of a student’s wages in a work opportunity, with grants averaging about $2,000 per student. The job is often at minimum wage and overwhelmingly on the college campus, largely in relatively low-level work. Universities pay the remaining 25% or more of wages, obtaining cheap labor with students working in college libraries or cafeteries.
When former President Trump tried to cut the program in half, Republican and Democratic legislators united in support. It survived. It deserves reinvention, too. Inspiration can be found in another legacy of that era.
John V. Lindsay was elected mayor of New York City in 1965. He was a former Republican member of Congress, but he prided himself on being progressive. The federal Peace Corps was extremely popular then as it is today. Lindsay wanted a municipal version where students could work locally in the public interest for the City of New York. Once elected he launched the New York City Urban Corps. It operated out of the Mayor’s Office. To make it affordable Lindsay approached New York City’s university community to ask that a percentage of their students with federal college work-study grants be given the opportunity to intern with the city. Work-study would pay the lion’s share of their wages, about 80%. The city would pay the remainder and would structure the internships, linking them to learning outcomes. Assignments could be to help manage city parks, assist in consumer affairs offices, work on environmental projects—and a host of other significant work assignments for virtually all city agencies. Graduate students often supervised undergraduates in their work assignments. The participants benefited, as did city residents.
I was the program’s executive director in the early 1970s. At its peak, the program employed about 10,000 New York City college student interns during summer vacation and after school. Urban Corps interns came from dozens of colleges and universities in New York City and around the country to perform work-study internships for virtually every City agency. The program became so popular and effective that funding from the Ford Foundation allowed it to spread across almost 100 other U.S. cities.
The Urban Corps met the goal of federal college work-study by allowing students to earn money through their work assignment for the city. That helped pay tuition, keep them on track to complete college and gain experiential learning opportunities through their paid internships. The City of New York also created a pipeline of students who, once they graduated, could then seek full-time employment for the city and a career in public service.
As Lindsay left office and the city went through its fiscal crisis, the Urban Corps and other progressive initiatives languished. At the federal level, funding for work-study stagnated.
In the legacies of the Urban Corps and the federal college work-study program there is a unique opportunity for today. A program that takes the best of both in a programmatic format could help address the urgent need to make school and college more accessible and affordable, and at the same time to make significantly more students both college and career-ready. What if the federal college work-study program were significantly expanded both financially and programmatically to incentivize employers to offer more high-level experiential learning opportunities, via competitive paid internships, for students both in college and those taking college-level courses while still in high school?
Students would earn the resources to support their continued learning, both during the summer and after school, but also acquire the workplace skills that would make them more valuable additions to the workforce. Work for private companies could be in areas directly connected to career success and economic progress, such as cybersecurity or biotechnology. For not-for-profits it could be providing skilled mentors and academic assistance after school for students in need, building both maturity levels and social skills. For the public sector it could resemble the Urban Corps, expanding public service opportunities for all.
Federal matching dollars would dramatically increase the number of employers interested. With federal assistance, they could raise hourly wages significantly and also be held accountable for providing level work opportunities directly connected to the acquisition of needed career skills. The results would be palpable. Many more students would be both economically and socially stable and more likely to understand why they need to study, work hard and do well academically.
What is the next step? Recast federal college work-study as federal work-learn, and make it available for high school and college students, especially those who are particularly vulnerable. Significantly expand the available federal resources, add the considerable unspent Covid relief dollars. Target that funding to subsidized market-rate, paid internships where the federal funding could pay a portion of the wages for students engaged in effective experiential learning with employers adding the rest. Open up the opportunity for employers across the private and public sector as well as not-for-profits, with a focus on those that pay a living wage, and couple those wages with a real high quality learning opportunity in the real world workplace. The result would be more students on a pathway from school, to college to career, with economic benefits provided to all Americans.
Guest commentaries like this one are written by authors outside the Barron’s and MarketWatch newsroom. They reflect the perspective and opinions of the authors. Submit commentary proposals and other feedback to ideas@barrons.com.
Hot on the heels of Watson-themed higher education challenges in America, IBM took its challenge overseas to see what European student entrepreneurs could do with Watson’s brainpower.
IBM has cast a wide net to discover new applications for Watson, the company’s cognitive computing system — from processing thousands of pages of medical research to aiding teachers with virtual tutors. And recently the company has been challenging university business students to test Watson’s capabilities through a series of competitions.
Some students have already reaped the benefits of winning an IBM’s Watson University Competition. In January, a student team from the University of Texas at Austin was awarded $100,000 in seed funding for their entry — CallScout, an app that uses Watson’s cognitive computing to help people access the best social services for a particular need.
In March, IBM took the competition to Paris to host the first International Watson Case Competition. Similar to its North American counterpart, the challenge asked 13 student teams from local universities to identify industry-specific challenges and then pitch use cases for Watson-powered apps to help overcome those challenges.
The three universities involved in the competition, HEC, Ecole 42 and Centrale-Supelec, are the first in France to bring Watson into their classrooms, says Pamela Induni, program director at IBM Watson University Programs, in a March 25 blog post on A Smarter Planet.
“From offering unprecedented access to Watson via full semester coursework to hosting case competitions and Bluemix hackathons, our mission is to advance student skills in cognitive computing and enable the next generation of cognitive computing innovators,” Induni wrote.
Here are the top three pitches in the competition:
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BecomeOne, a job-search app that would use cognitive computing to help job seekers find the right job, based on "a number of professional, demographic, regional and social criteria."
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Blue, an app that would help therapists treat people suffering from depression and other mental illnesses by using Watson's brainpower to provide "clinical decision support, advice and monitoring."
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Aller, a travel-adviser app powered by Watson's text-to-speech and question-answer capabilities, would help travelers create "optimal trip itineraries based on destination and personal preferences" to enhance experiences abroad.
"I’m privileged to have a front row seat as student entrepreneurs take Watson’s capabilities into entirely new directions," Induni wrote.
Blue, a use case designed by four students from the HEC MBA program in Paris, ended up taking home the top prize.
Credit: IBM Watson
Note: An asterick (*) indictates a new course that is being finalized for approval.
CDA 501/EAS 503 Introduction to Data Driven Analysis
This course introduces students to computer science fundamentals for building basic data science applications. The course has two components. The first part introduces students to algorithm design and implementation in a modern, high-level, programming language (currently, Python). It emphasizes problem-solving by abstraction. subjects include data types, variables, expressions, basic imperative programming techniques including assignment, input/output, subprograms, parameters, selection, iteration, Boolean type, and expressions, and the use of aggregate data structures including arrays. Students will also have an introduction to the basics of abstract data types and object-oriented design. The second part covers regression analysis and introduction to linear models. subjects include multiple regression, analysis of covariance, least square means, logistic regression, and nonlinear regression. The students learn to implement the regression models as a computer program and use the developed application to analyze synthetic and real world data sets.
CDA 502/MGS 613 Database Management Systems
This course provides basic understanding of relational databases including normalization, database schemas and relational algebra, create, update, query and delete tables using standard SQL statements, understand workflows such as ETL (extract, transform, and load) to aggregate data from multiple sources integrating it in databases and data warehouses use, manage and customize NoSQL databases including key value, wide column, document and graph stores as well as their application on non-tabular data, use, manage and customize graph databases and apply them to multi-dimensional datasets.
CDA 511 Introduction to Numerical Analysis
A first course on the design and implementation of numerical methods to solve the most common types of problem arising in science and engineering. Most such problems cannot be solved in terms of a closed analytical formula, but many can be handled with numerical methods learned in this course. subjects for the two semesters include: how a computer does arithmetic, solving systems of simultaneous linear or nonlinear equations, finding eigenvalues and eigenvectors of (large) matrices, minimizing a function of many variables, fitting smooth functions to data points (interpolation and regression), computing integrals, solving ordinary differential equations (initial and boundary value problems), and solving partial differential equations of elliptic, parabolic, and hyperbolic types. We study how and why numerical methods work, and also their errors and limitations. Students gain practical experience through course projects that entail writing computer programs.
CDA 531/MTH 511 Probability and Data Analysis
Topics include: review of probability, conditional probability, Bayes' Theorem; random variables and distributions; expectation and properties; covariance, correlation, and conditional expectation; special distributions; Central Limit Theorem and applications; estimations, including Bayes; estimators, maximum likelihood estimators, and their properties. Includes use of sufficient statistics to 'improve' estimators, distribution of estimators, unbiasedness, hypothesis testing, linear statistical models, and statistical inference from the Bayesian point of view.
CDA 541/STA 545 Statistical Data Mining 1
This course presents statistical models for data mining, inference and prediction. The focus will be on supervised learning, which concerns outcome prediction from input data. Students will be introduced to a number of methods for supervised learning, including: linear and logistic regression, shrinkage methods, lasso, partial least squares, tree-based methods, model assessment and selection, model inference and averaging, and neural networks. Computational applications will be presented using R and high dimensional data to reinforce theoretical concepts.
CDA 546/STA 546 Statistical Data Mining 2
This course presents the subject of data mining from a statistical perspective, with attention directed towards both applied and theoretical considerations. An emphasis will be placed on unsupervised learning methods, especially those designed to discover and exploit hidden structures in high-dimensional data. subjects include: hierarchical and center based clustering, principal component analysis, data visualization, random forests, directed and undirected graphical models, and special considerations when n>>p. Computational applications to high-dimensional data will be presented using Matlab and R to illustrate methods and concepts.
CDA 542/CSE 574 Machine Learning
Humans have an uncanny ability to learn from their mistakes and adapt to new environments by relying on their past experience. Machine learning focuses on "How to write a computer program than can Improve performance through experience?" Machine learning has a huge number of practical applications, more so in the present era of Big Data, where staggering volumes of diverse data in almost every facet of society, science, engineering, and commerce, are presenting opportunities for valuable discoveries. For example, machine learning is being used to understand financial markets, impact of climate change on society, protein-protein interactions, diseases, etc. Machine learning also has far ranging applications such as self-driving cars to never ending language learning systems. This course will focus on understanding the mathematical and statistical foundations of machine learning. We will also cover the core set of techniques and algorithms needed to understand the practical applications of machine learning. The course will be an integrated view of machine learning, statistics (classical and Bayesian), data mining, and information theory. A basic understanding of probability, statistics, algorithms, and linear algebra is expected. Familiarity with Python is required for homework assignments and for understanding in-class demonstrations.
CDA 551/MGS 639 Cybersecurity Privacy and Ethics
Present-day terms, philosophies, technologies, and strategies that go into buttressing an organization’s cybersecurity posture. Managing the resources of a corporate information assurance program, while continually improving a risk footprint and response, is an underpinning of all subjects that will be covered. Students will critically examine concepts such as networking, system administration, and system security as well as identifying and applying basic security hardening techniques. Students will gain practical experience through a virtualized lab environment where they will build and secure a small corporate network.
*CDA 561 Major Applications - Health, Social, Finance, Science and Engineering
This course will provide students with an overview of data driven analytics in different industry sectors. The class will have a series of visiting lecturers with the faculty member teaching the class providing overview, continuity and grading of homework and term papers.
CDA 571/ Project Guidance
This course will provide students with a final integrative project experience. The class will require students to obtain an integrative project experience either in industry or at the university. In either case the students will use the skills acquired during the other classes in executing project goals. Students will provide short reports to supervising faculty to ensure that learning objectives are being met.
Ahva Sadeghi, co-founder and CEO of Symba.
getty
Internships are a powerful recruiting strategy for companies to cultivate and invest in talent early. In 2022, employers are expected to hire 22.6% more interns than the year before. The value and benefits of internships are globally realized by companies like Amazon, SAP and IBM, which hire thousands of interns around the world each year.
Today, companies are expanding globally for a variety of business benefits. In fact, 97% of 100 global businesses surveyed are planning on entering new markets by the end of 2023. SAP, one of the biggest business software companies in the world, operates globally, so having interns across multiple countries supports recruitment across their various headquarters. In fact, their current CEO started off as an intern, which is a testament to the pipeline potential of internships.
If your business is looking to expand, planning and investing in your global talent acquisition strategy is a natural next step. Internships can be a game-changer in getting international recruitment off the ground. Here are the four stages for planning a global internship program.
1. Get leadership alignment on your global internship program.
The very first step in mapping out your global internship program is to get alignment from your organization and its key stakeholders. It can take more than 12 months of planning to conduct the proper conversations with various business units, forecast your headcount goals and get the budget and necessary resources to kick off the recruiting process.
To begin, gauge your business’s immediate global needs. You can uncover this information through surveys, meetings or your company’s strategic reports. There may be different standards for recruitment when operating in foreign countries in order to maintain compliance. Work with stakeholders to understand where you can legally hire from as well as the basic skill and physical requirements to get the job done. Research which regions have the most profit potential, the cost of labor in those areas and where there are concentrations of people with the skills you need. Consider if your interns can work remotely; this can expand your talent pool and potentially reduce costs like relocation and office space.
During this phase, consider mapping out a pilot for your global program and a long-term plan for up to five years. Start small before you scale and stay focused on your business’s goals. With a clear strategy in place, you are more likely to win the budget and resources required to launch your global program.
2. Map out your global recruitment efforts.
One key step is building partnerships with international universities to understand their students and hiring timelines. It’s important that you represent your employer’s brand positively throughout this period to ensure a great candidate experience and a sustainable partnership with these universities.
Once you understand your timeline, you can begin to map out your recruiting calendar and strategy to reach your target number of interns. It’s important to meet your candidates where they are so this might mean investing in international travel to attend career fairs or hiring university recruiters in your selected countries. During this recruiting process, you will begin to understand how much investment it takes from your business in order to reach your recruiting goals so you can document and Improve your process for next year.
3. Design your global internship experience.
Recruiting interns for your program is only one aspect of the internship cycle. Designing your program experience requires additional time and thought. Establish how you will host your global program. Will it be remote, hybrid or in-person? Based on your format, map out your onboarding and engagement process. It’s a good idea to document every tool your interns and hiring managers will need in order to be successful in their roles. You can be scrappy with what you currently have at your organization or consider introducing software like an internship management platform. This serves as a home base for interns to access resources, collaborate on projects, digest video content and discuss.
Additional resources should be made available to accommodate interns with different backgrounds whether that is a human resources representative in charge of cultural intelligence training and inclusion, a company psychologist or a translation service. It is highly advisable to provide all employees, including interns, with safe spaces like employee resource groups (ERGs) to gather with peers and allies of their identity groups.
However you choose to manage the intern experience, it’s important that you have a plan in place before your interns begin their program. Keep in mind that you may be able to recycle some of your previous program projects and activities.
4. Launch your program and measure your ROI.
Now it’s time to launch your global program. This is a major win for you and your organization; however, it’s only the beginning. As you continue to invest time and resources into crafting a global internship program, be sure to measure your return on investment. In addition to getting the proper recognition for your work, it'll help the organization Improve your programming and continue to invest resources.
Some key metrics that you should consider tracking include sourcing channel efficiency, cost per intern hire per source, offer/acceptance/conversion rates and cost saved per intern hired. Year over year, you should be tracking the retention of full-time employees that started as interns. You can gather this data through pulse, mid-point and end-of-program surveys, as well as through one-to-ones and group interviews. Track trends across your various internship locations to compare performance. Analyze intern feedback to determine what program elements are successful and where there might be areas for improvement, taking learnings from one program to another.
Over time, you will begin to understand your trends and the long-term benefits of investing in global interns. Use this data to tell a powerful story that informs your leadership team of your program’s success to get more buy-in for your global program. Taking your internship program global is an exciting stage for a company's growth strategy and can strengthen your pipeline by including international talent.
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
(MENAFN- BCW Global) Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, May 25, 2022 - Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI)—the world’s first graduate, research university dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI)—has announced plans for a strategic collaboration with IBM (NYSE: IBM).Senior leaders from both organizations signed a Memorandum of Understandingaimedat advancing fundamental AI research, as well as accelerating the types of scientific breakthroughs that could unlock the potential of AI to help solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges.
Professor Eric Xing, President of MBZUAI, delivered short remarks, as did Jonathan Adashek, IBM’s Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, and Saad Toma, General Manager, IBM Middle East, and Africa.The agreement was then signed by Sultan Al Hajji, Vice President for Public Affairs and Alumni Relations at MBZUAI and Wael Abdoush, General Manager IBM Gulf and Levant.
“We’re excited to to be among the first research universities in the MENA region to host a Center of Excellence for AI research and development with technology and expertise from a world-leading technological giant like IBM. This center will provide highly valuable resource and collaborative environment to our faculty and students to broaden their work in AI. IBM has a long history of technological innovation, and we look forward to joining their latest efforts in our region and together advance AI technology and commercialization for mutual good,” MBZUAI President, Professor Eric Xing said.
Saad Toma, General Manager, IBM Middle East and Africa, said: “This collaboration will help drive innovations in AI which is critical for the future of business and society. We’re bringing together some of the brightest minds across both the industry and academia, while reinforcing IBM’s commitment to promoting knowledge and skills in critical areas for the UAE’s development, where the use of technologies like AI is fundamental.”
Central to the collaborationis the establishment of a new AI Center of Excellence to be basedat the university’s Masdar City campus. The Center will leveragethe talents of IBM researchers,in collaboration with MBZUAI facultyand students, and will focus on the advancement of both fundamental and applied research objectives.
The initiative seeks to develop, validate, and incubate technologies that harness the capabilities of AI to address civic, social, and business challenges.Further, the collaboration aims to provide real-life applications, particularly in the fields of natural language processing,as well as AI applicationsthat seek to furtherclimate and sustainability goals, and accelerate discoveries in healthcare.
IBM will provide targeted training and technologies as part of the initiative,which supports the university’s vision to be a global leader for advancing AI and its application for the good of society and business. For example,through the IBM Academic Initiative, IBM will provideMBZUAI students and faculty with access to IBM tools, software, courseware and cloud accounts for teaching, learning, and non-commercial research. In addition, through the IBM Skills Academy program, MBZUAI will have access to curated AI curricula, lectures, labs, industry use cases, design-thinking sessions, andan AI Practitioner certification.
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College of the Ozarks seniors participated in the annual Celebration of Scholarship presentation.
Each spring semester, a select group of C of O seniors, from six departments, make a presentation at the event. This year the presentations took place in the Silver Dollar City Parlor at the Keeter Center on the C of O campus. The presentations were judged by a panel of 33 judges from companies such as Abbot, NetSmart, JB Hunt, FedEx, ZeroSum, Boston Dynamics, Kyndryl (owned by IBM), BKD, Chick-fil-A Corporate, Classy Llama, and Big Cedar Lodge.
This is the culmination of the spring semester for the seniors from the agriculture, biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, and physical education and health departments, according to a press release from C of O. Eight senior computer science majors presented their final projects to the judges, who were also potential future employers, from a variety of businesses.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Cheri Kembell said the event gives students business and presentation experience, which can be invaluable.
“This is the best real-world experience that our computer science students can participate in prior to graduation,” Kembell said. “Our industry judges ask difficult technical questions and provide honest feedback directly to each student on this day. This year, we had one student who was still actively interviewing as of presentation day. I’m thrilled to report that he was hired by one of the judges who attended. Our industry partners benefit from giving back to students on this day, and they look forward to participating each year.”
The computer science students participating developed mobile applications, websites, and games for a plethora of topics. Students had one semester to prepare the application and to create the apps utilizing various programming technology and languages. Some of the projects developed by the seniors include an app which helps document and organize musical ideas, a gift exchange app, a website to ease chronic illness symptoms by tracking a pattern recognition, a recipe generator, and a nutritional app which tracks both nutritional and emotional well-being as it relates to food.
Graduating senior Tanner Maasen created his app called “Swell” in hopes of helping individuals be more mindful about their nutrition choices, while also encouraging mental health.
“I care about others,” Maasen said. “Before researching this app, I had no idea these other popular calorie-counting and weight-loss apps were causing and/or worsening eating disorders or having other negative effects. Therefore, my priorities shifted at that point from simply wanting to make a more efficient and easier-to-use nutrition logging app.”
During the judged presentations, each participant was asked to prepare a slide show and give a 20-minute oral presentation to explain their design and app. The presentations were followed by questions from the judges. Each presenter also had to prepare a booth with a poster description, progress log, and trial devices for judges to visit and interact one on one with the software created.
Kembell said the presentations were a success for the seniors.
“Many of the students learned a new programming language or technology platform,” Kembell said. “It taught them the importance of meeting a deadline and being prepared. All seniors present their projects no matter what changes in scope had to be made along the 16-week project lifespan.
“They also learned how to communicate technical details professionally and effectively to an audience that is knowledgeable in the subject area. They learned how to communicate roadblocks that they encountered along the way. Judges like to hear the logic behind the strategy for working through a challenge.”
For more information visit www.cofo.edu.
IIT-Madras and IIT-Kharagpur have announced free online learning opportunities for students in quantum computing and cloud computing respectively.
The four-week-long free online course offered by IIT Madras is in partnership with IBM Research and IBM Systems. The course title “Introduction to Quantum Computing: Quantum Algorithms and Qiskit” introduces students to the basics of quantum computation, and discusses the quantum circuit model of computation and basic quantum algorithms. IIT Kharagpur’s 12-week-long free online course on cloud computing would provide an introduction to the different aspects of cloud computing, including fundamentals, management issues, security challenges and future research trends.
Things to know about IIT Madras’s course on quantum computing:
- The course is free and open to students (both UG and PG levels), researchers and faculty from computer science and physics, mathematics and chemistry departments.
- The course provides hands-on experience using Qiskit, a pythonic way of programming and the IBM Circuit Composer.
If required a certificate, the students must register and write a proctored exam at any of the designated exam centres. - The online registration form for the exam has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid.
- The exam fee is Rs 1,000.
- More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published.
- Certificates will be issued based on assignment and exam scores.
- For more details on the subjects covered and the eligibility criteria for receiving a certificate, go through the official notification.
How to apply for the quantum computing course:
- Those interested can enrol for the course by clicking the ‘Join’ button on the official page.
- Sign in using Google, Facebook, Microsoft or SWAYAM accounts.
Important dates:
- Course enrolment – Open now
- Enrolment ends – 1 August 2022
- Course duration – 25 July 2022 to 19 August 2022
- Exam date – 25 September 2022
Things to know about IIT Kharagpur’s course on cloud computing:
- The free online course on cloud computing is open for students (both UG and PG levels) and researchers.
- Those opting for the course should have a basic understanding of computer architecture and organisation, and networking.
- The course would be most beneficial for students and researchers in streams like computer science engineering, electronics and communication engineering, electrical engineering, systems and programming.
- There will be an optional exam for those requiring a certificate after the completion of the course.
- Those who need a certificate must register and write the proctored exam at any of the designated exam centres.
- The exam fee is Rs 1,000.
- Certificates will be issued based on assignment and exam scores.
- For more details on the subjects covered and the eligibility criteria for receiving a certificate, go through the official notification.
How to apply for the cloud computing course:
- Those interested can enrol for the course by clicking the ‘Join’ button on the official page.
- Sign in using Google, Facebook, Microsoft or SWAYAM accounts.
Important dates:
- Course enrolment – Open now
- Enrolment ends – 1 August 2022
- Course duration – 25 July 2022 to 14 October 2022
- Exam date – 30 October 2022
(Edited by Yoshita Rao)
