October 9, 2013
Featured by EdTech Magazine.
There’s little garnering more buzz today than Big Data. But there are clues that Big Data is more than just the latest technology fad. One such indicator is the IBM Academic Initiative.
Big Blue has partnered with more than 1,000 universities around the world to create academic opportunities for students interested in studying data analytics. Ranging from assistance in developing stand-alone courses to the creation of entire degree programs with schools of business or engineering, IBM’s involvement telegraphs the importance of Big Data to the future of computing.
“When you have to create data, store it, manage it, distribute it and then build models that predict the future from it, that’s IBM’s business,” says Jurij R. Paraszczak, leader of the company’s Research Smarter Cities program.
“If data science works, and we think it will, it will create an entirely new ability for computation,” Paraszczak says.
New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) was developed in partnership with IBM for input and guidance from its Smarter Cities program and several other academic and industrial partners, in response to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s request for proposals for the Applied Sciences NYC initiative.