OPTIMIZED SYSTEMS

Innovation Awards Inspire Solutions to Global Problems

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 05-17-11 | Comments

IBM has awarded universities worldwide for developing real-world solutions to urban problems like education, transportation and health care. With the awards, professors have the chance to teach classes that expose students to Watson-like technologies and encourage innovation from students.

At universities around the world, faculty and students are focusing on real-world solutions to global challenges like health care and transportation. Now, IBM is recognizing these groups with Smarter Planet Faculty Innovation awards, $10,000 prizes to help universities continue to develop this kind of curriculum.

At Pace University, students are focusing on problems related to growing populations, such as urbanization and overwhelmed infrastructure systems. The project, called �Across Cities for Cities,� involves the development of mobile applications to address transportation, education and other issues in urban areas. Students from New York; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Delhi, India; and Dakar, Senegal, are involved in the project. Apps help users find nearby public transportation, emergency rooms and other public facilities.

Fordham University students Abhishek Mehra, left, and Allison Murray, right, with Professor R.P. Raghupathi, center, who won an IBM Smarter Planet Faculty Award for helping students design high-tech solutions to global problems. (Source: IBM)

Students at the University at Buffalo are using advanced technologies to analyze U.S. border control data in hopes of creating more sustainable transportation systems, especially on local highways, which are particularly prone to traffic congestion.

In Australia, students at RMIT University are working with students from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to develop solutions for urban planning by applying advanced technologies and sensors to important city services, like transportation.

In total, IBM recognized 50 professors from 40 universities in 14 countries. Courses created by the innovation awards will expose students to Watson-like technologies in the classroom. The curriculum focuses on leadership and collaboration.

�We need to focus on developing more advanced skills so that students around the world are equipped to tackle real-world issues when they enter the workforce,� said Jim Corgel, general manager of IBM Academic and Developer Relations. �The work of these 50 award recipients should help change the face of education by enabling students to work on pressing issues facing cities today�and at the same time prepare them for leadership in industries like health care and transportation.�

New classes will be taught during the 2011-2012 school year. IBM is currently accepting applications for the Fall 2011 Smarter Planet Faculty Innovation awards. Learn more and apply here.