IBM, the University of South Carolina and Fluor Corporation announced the formation of the Center for Applied Innovation. The Center is expected to create 100 new jobs over the next five years.
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 curriculums and advanced analytic techniques for personalized learning.
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 curriculum 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.
As a partner in the Center, Fluor Corporation – 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.
USC also will be the first higher education institution to apply technology from IBM Research – piloted by Gwinnett County Schools in Georgia – and 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.
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 other IBM delivery centers.