IBM encourages university innovation through a variety of outreach programs that range from consultation on curriculum development and open intellectual property, to teaching in the classroom through the IBM Transition to Teaching Program which is building a cadre of well-trained math and science teachers with IBM-honed experience to help develop the next generation of technical leaders in grades kindergarten through 12. IBM deploys over 2,000 University Ambassadors worldwide who lecture on campus and provide mentoring to students.
In India, IBM has collaborating relationships in India with a number of educational institutions including the IITs at Delhi, Kanpur and Chennai, and the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Anna University. IBM has also set up an IT Center in Mumbai in association with Victoria Memorial School for the Blind to impart IT education to visually impaired persons.
IBM has also spearheaded a series of initiatives, inviting hundreds of faculty from universities in a call for action. IBM's University Relations' teams have been partnering with academia to drive evolving open standards-based IT skills, essentially "in demand" skills for an "on demand world". Some of the other activities under the University Relations Initiative include: developing strategic linkages with universities/colleges; assisting colleges with curriculum development and instructional material; helping colleges develop consistent, high quality curricula for leading and emerging technologies; promoting high quality education - by providing state-of-the-art support from IBM; evangelizing Open Standards technologies, critical for the future of IT industry.
IBM provides a broad range of open standards-based offerings and no charge benefits to faculty and students, including the latest technologies in open source and IBM software, remote access to hardware, course materials, training and other resources, and distributes Shared University Research awards that enable professors to focus their research on issues of mutual interest to IBM and universities worldwide.
