For decades major technology companies have supported university education. This started with hardware donations for research and classrooms, and now, with a more software oriented society, this has grown to offer schools access to important technologies such as Hybrid Cloud, AI, applications, and education for faculty in leading-edge computer applications.
IBM Research, and its Global University Programs department, has several formats of university support. For a general summary, see https://www.research.ibm.com/university/
IBM Academic Initiative is a self-service program that provides students and faculty at accredited academic institutions with access to select IBM resources at no charge for classroom and non-commercial research purposes. This includes Cloud, Software, and Courseware. Some IBM Academic Initiative resources require a school issued email address. See https://www.ibm.com/academic/home
You can create a new course, add a practical lab, or develop relevant use cases by leveraging the online resources. Feel free to experiment! Have some fun with technologies that might be new to you or your students. And come back often since the offerings are updated continuously. For more on how to leverage IBM Academic Initiative resources for virtual learning see https://www.ibm.com/blogs/global-university-programs/2020/03/leverage-ibm-academic-initiative-resources-for-virtual-learning/
The IBM University Guest Lectures site at https://dais.mybluemix.net/lectures/search/ is where IBM experts have contributed amazing lectures in 28 strategic technology areas, offered in 22 different languages. Faculty can request any available lecture for their classes, and it can be provided digitally. This is the wave of the future, and it’s available to you right now. Use it as session in a university sponsored non-commercial conference, as an invited talk in one of your classes, or a technology introduction preceding a hackathon.
The IBM Skills Academy is an innovative technology oriented online training program for faculty, so they can empower students of various backgrounds to excel in today’s high demand careers. The eight emerging technology tracks leverage industry use cases and encourage experimenting with big ideas. Faculty can earn an Instructor Badge in a technology from IBM, and students can earn digital Practitioner Badges that can lead to job opportunities and internships. Faculty are trained for free by IBM subject matter experts, subject to executing an agreement. See the portal entry page at https://skills-academy.comprehend.ibm.com/?r
The IBM Developer Site has tips, code, forums, and training on many of IBM’s important technologies. It is programmer oriented, and covers microcontrollers to mainframes, categorized several ways. There are more than 100 open source projects, a library of knowledge resources, developer advocates ready to help, and a global community of developers. This is also where Call for Code (of which IBM is the founding partner) materials are found. See https://developer.ibm.com/
IBM Research web pages are your look in to the future, being developed now. There are insights into new technology directions, links to emerging areas such as a web portal in to a quantum computer, and inspirational developments to motivate your students. IBM Research is one of the world’s largest and most influential corporate research labs, with more than 25 consecutive years of US patent leadership. See https://www.research.ibm.com/
The Institute for Business Value has many case studies on how technology gets to work. This can help round out what the end goal of your lectures and labs can lead to in a digitally transformed enterprise. See https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value
IBM Red Books are not your average software manual. They are a collaboration between IBMers and its customers on specific topics, more similar to a guidebook. Red Books, Red Guides, and Red Papers explore integration, implementation, and operation of realistic client scenarios that include IBM products as well as technologies from Red Hat, SAP, Oracle, Linux, and others. See http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/
In addition to these educational aspects, IBM has an Awards Program for faculty and students. This supports research and curriculum innovation. The principal components are the IBM PhD Fellowship, IBM Masters Fellowship, and IBM Academic Awards. These promote research, innovation, and the building of social, scientific, and technology-based collaboration with universities. The award programs are designed to support a spectrum of university needs. See https://www.research.ibm.com/university/awards/
Somewhat related is the very competitive internship program known as Extreme Blue. This leadership program is for future technical and business leaders. It is an intense summer opportunity. Check out https://www.ibm.com/employment/extremeblue for more
