Industry News

North Carolina State Centennial Campus Takes New Tenant in IBM

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 05/26/16

IBM has expanded its footprint into Centennial Campus, North Carolina State University's research park and educational campus, which sits adjacent to its other campus sites. The IBM Education Collaboration Center will act as an additional area headquarters for joint projects the company does with the institution's faculty and students. Among the areas of research that will be based there are projects involving Watson, Internet of Things and other technologies.

According to IBM, the center will also serve as a lure to encourage campus members to bring their project proposals forward for consideration, especially those that are startup ideas. The company anticipates holding monthly information exchanges and project solicitations on specific technologies and solutions in its portfolio, such as Bluemix, Blockchain and Power Systems.

This is far from the first time that IBM and North Carolina State have collaborated. Over the years the company has provided about $30 million in research funding, gifts, equipment donations and other in-kind contributions to the school.

North Carolina State also participates in IBM's Research Triangle Park (RTP) Center for Advanced Studies (CAS), which sits midway between the university's location in Raleigh and Duke University's campus in Durham. RTP CAS works with numerous academic institutions. This summer, it plans to sponsor several IBM@edu "challenge" projects related to the creation of cloud-based analysis tools and services for North Carolina State's ASSIST low-power medical sensors and the application of blockchain technology in the creation of a rare disease patient database.

The new collaboration center builds upon that longstanding R&D relationship, said Associate Vice Chancellor Dennis Kekas in a prepared statement. "It will enable a new level of student-centric engagement to help solve tomorrow's grand challenges."