Special to The Dallas Examiner
HAWKINS – Jarvis Christian College recently received $2 million in technology tools and training from IBM. JCC’s collaboration with IBM will help students and faculty develop technology skills including training in quantum computing. Jarvis Christian College is one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities that will join a partnership with IBM to help train students and instructors in artificial intelligence, block chain, data science, cybersecurity, cloud and quantum computing.
IBM has designed seven courses and a multitude of industry relevant tools including SPSS, Cloud foundry, Cloudant, Juypter Notebook, Pandas, ArcGIS, MQTT, Watson Studio, Watson IoT Platform, and many more. The initial courses offered to faculty at JCC were the Internet of Things and Enterprise Design Thinking. One major component of the partnership is the virtual IBM Skills Academy. The academy will address topics such as high-capacity quantum computing, artificial intelligence, block chain, cyber security, design thinking, data science, analytics and research projects.
“The partnership between IBM and JCC allows faculty and students to explore new possibilities and test the limits of novel technology (involving analytics and artificial intelligence) and its application to real-world scenarios,” said Shaneka Simmons, assistant professor of Biology and Science Education at JCC.
IBM is giving more than $100 million in content and training to a group of Historically Black Colleges And Universities as part of its Global University Programs. The IBM Skills Academy offers trainings that can result in credentialing and certifications to bridge the gap between classroom instruction and marketable skillsets that can be applied to the industry. Ultimately the IBM partnership with JCC allows for Faculty development and enhanced learning opportunities that will expose students to the 21st century skillsets that align with workforce demands. Through the IBM Skills Academy, faculty can receive specialized training that will allow them to teach and expose students to hands on practices in Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Data Science, Design Thinking, IoT and Quantum.
“I hope that it will allow faculty to provide students with more hands-on application of what students are taught in the learning environment. I also am hopeful that the partnership will serve as a gateway to make students more marketable to both the business and science, technology, engineering and mathematics sectors,” Simmons said.
IBM’s investment in HBCUs like Miles College is part of the company’s dedicated work to promote social justice and racial equality by creating equitable, innovative experiences for HBCU students to acquire the necessary skills to help unlock economic opportunity and prosperity.