Miami's St. Thomas U Adds Cloud Tools for Student Research

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 05/06/14

St. Thomas University has signed on with a private partner for hardware and academic resources to provide students with opportunities to learn about cloud computing. As part of that push, the university, located north of Miami, has deployed an IBM SoftLayer infrastructure with six virtualized Windows and Linux servers and storage. The school has also joined IBM's Academic Initiative.

The university is making the move to enhance research opportunities for students enrolled in programs under its School of Science, Technology and Engineering Management (STEM). Using IBM's SoftLayer technology, students and faculty are pursuing research supported on the cloud in science, mobile banking, sports administration and electronic medical recordkeeping. SoftLayer consists of a number of IBM products and services related to the delivery of cloud computing. That project was implemented by IBM partner Flagship Solutions Group, a Boca Raton service provider.

"We want to invest dramatically in computer science, and with new faculty interest in cloud computing we sought IBM's help to do something hands-on and that expands our research possibilities and collaboration at the same time," said Wim Steelant, dean of science at St. Thomas. "The project with IBM is precisely the type of quality education we're eager to offer our students; undergraduates at other universities don't have opportunities like this. You'd be amazed at what they can do and how enthused they are."

The Academic Initiative is an IBM program for accredited institutions that provides free access to software, course content, case studies and skill-building opportunities such as research projects and student competitions.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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