COLUMBIA, S.C., Nov. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM),
the University of South Carolina
(USC) and Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR)
today announced the formation of the Center for Applied Innovation.
The Center will provide application services to both public and
private sector organizations across North
America with specialties in the areas of analytics and
higher education industry solutions. As part of the initiative, the
organizations will collaborate on tailored IT curricula and
advanced analytic techniques for personalized learning.
"The Center for Applied Innovation is the realization of the
University of South Carolina's vision
to advance higher education through strong, public-private
partnerships," USC President
Harris Pastides said.
"Through this collaboration with IBM and Fluor, USC students will have unique opportunities to
learn both in and outside the classroom and further hone their IT
skills. By using advanced technologies and data analytics the
collaboration will help students, educators and others in higher
education make intelligent decisions that improve the student
experience and enhance student achievement."
The collaboration is part of an ongoing effort to expand student
skills and understanding of applied computing to meet the growing
demand for highly skilled IT professionals and business leaders.
IBM and USC will develop internship
opportunities that better link the classroom with career pathways
as well as curricula to build analytics skills that support
businesses both locally and across North
America. IBM will work with the Darla Moore School of
Business as well as USC's College of
Engineering and Computing to team with companies in the region on
analytics solutions to their most pressing business challenges.
"IBM and Fluor are two great South
Carolina companies and it is extremely exciting to see them
partner with USC to provide our
students with the tools and training they need to successfully
enter the workforce," said South
Carolina Governor Nikki
Haley. "Making sure our students are prepared for the
thousands of highly skilled jobs coming to our state is one of the
most important issues we are facing and why efforts like the Center
for Applied Innovation are critical to the future of South Carolina."
As a partner in the Center, Fluor Corporation -- a global leader
in engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and project
management -- will serve as a strategic advisor, providing insight
into emerging trends and requirements that will drive offerings
delivered from the center. Fluor also has a major operations center
in nearby Greenville, S.C.
"Fluor is thrilled to be a partner in the Center for Applied
Innovation as we build on our existing relationship with IBM and
USC to create new opportunities for the
region," said David Seaton, Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer of Fluor Corporation. "We look forward
to contributing to the center's growth as well as accessing the
skills, tools, and processes needed to continue adoption of
advanced IT solutions by Fluor, our partners and clients."
USC also will be the first higher
education institution to apply technology from IBM Research --
piloted by Gwinnett County Schools
in Georgia -- to create a truly
personalized learning experience for students and educators alike.
The collaboration will seek ways to apply Big Data and analytics to
help education institutions align intelligent content, student
assessments and learner data. Together, IBM and USC will build the technology foundation and data
needed for personalized learning that improves outcomes for
students and talent management for the university. As the
partnership develops, USC will become
an international center of competency for universities, and
ministries of education using similar solutions around the
globe.
"USC's strength in innovation,
research and IT complements IBM's history of collaborative research
to transform public and private institutions," said Cameron Art, General Manager of Application
Management Services, IBM Global Business Services. "IBM and
USC will team to foster innovation on
campus and off to help promote our strategic agenda to develop deep
centers of competency around industry solutions."
The Center for Applied Innovation will initially be located in
existing facilities on USC's campus and
is expected to move to a new office building in the Innovista
Research District anticipated to open in 2016. By delivering
application services to clients across North America, the Center is expected to
create internships and permanent direct and indirect jobs for
USC graduates and other local IT
professionals. The Center will adopt common methodology and tools
in use across IBM, better enabling the USC Center to provide the same operational benefits
and efficiencies to its clients and enable collaboration with IBM
delivery centers.
"Higher education is the key to developing a twenty-first
century workforce in South
Carolina and this partnership demonstrates that the
students, graduates and faculty at USC
are attractive to the largest and most successful corporations in
the world," said Hugh Leatherman,
President Pro Tempore of the South
Carolina Senate and Chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee. "Creative partnerships like this represent a new way of
doing business while seeking increased opportunity for students and
will ultimately enable our state to attract and retain the best
talent in the country."
About University of South
Carolina
For more information visit www.sc.edu.
About IBM
For more information visit www.ibm.com
Contact
Alicia
Buksar
IBM Media
201-693-7756
aabuksar@us.ibm.com
Wes Hickman
University of South Carolina
803-777-7440
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SOURCE IBM