14 DAY TRIAL // Google and IBM announced a new initiative supported by both companies which is supposed to lure students and researchers to their technologies and get them involved into a complex software development process that might reveal better technologies for the market. The two giants will provide the entire equipment for the program, aiming to encourage the ones involved to get deeper into the computing development practices.
At this time, several universities confirmed their intentions to join the program while the University of Washington already became its member. Among the other institutions to take part of the initiative, we can mention Carnegie-Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Maryland.
"Google is excited to partner with IBM to provide resources which will better equip students and researchers to address today's developing computational challenges," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. "In order to most effectively serve the long-term interests of our users, it is imperative that students are adequately equipped to harness the potential of modern computing systems and for researchers to be able to innovate ways to address emerging problems."
In the recent period, Google was often tempted to attract young researchers or students to their software development technologies since they can help the super giant reach its goals and bring better solutions for the industry. Using the power of IBM and the help of numerous universities, this initiative is almost a 100 percent success as lots of researchers have the chance to become tomorrow's programmers.
"In 2006, when I helped Christophe Bisciglia, a former UW student now a senior engineer at Google, to develop the program, our goal was to understand the challenges that universities face in teaching important new concepts such as large scale computing and develop methods to address this issue," said Ed Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. "A year later, we've seen how our students have mastered many of the techniques that are critical for large scale-Internet computing, benefiting our department and students."