IBM Z Academic Initiative – So many great offers this year, what will you take advantage of?

As we start the new year, thoughts for many of us trend towards reflections and resolutions. I really don’t like New Year’s Resolutions because they seem like promises already broken the minute I utter them. I prefer to think this time of year about what I tried that didn’t work and what I’d like to try next. It’s not so much of a resolution as a plan.

One of my plans for this year is to help you all “do more with less” as I hear so many of you need to do. I’d like to make sure you’re able to take advantage of free system access, free software, free course materials and free badges all made available through OnTheHub.com/IBM My favorites are using Master the Mainframe as a hands-on lab you don’t even have to grade, using the LinuxOne Community Cloud instead of setting up your own servers and using the free, online Kickstart courses from Interskill so you can focus on the higher value concepts in your limited class time.

Another priority for me this year is making sure students and faculty have more opportunities to meet local industry. For students, these networking opportunities can lead to a job. For educators, these connections can be turned to when you need a guest lecturer or industry support. To that end, we are inviting students and faculty to even more of our client events. I list a bunch of them below.

Our IBM Z General Manager, wrote a terrific blog highlighting the best of 2017 and some of our newer programs. In particular, note is his description of the new IBM Apprenticeship program. It can be difficult for some students to pay for living expenses while studying in college. With the apprenticeship program, they are collecting a salary while they are learning. If you know of any good candidates, they can apply for the IBM apprenticeships on our website.

Want to stay in the know in between these newsletters? We make announcements, share current news and videos on a regular basis in our advocacy hub. We’re planning to use this system even more this year, so make sure you all check it out.

• gives your students visibility and skills to a technology you don’t have room in your curriculum to teach
• gives your students a badge that employers actively search for on resumes
• gives your students basic skills so you can focus your classroom time on deeper understanding and general concepts

If you’re interested, start with the Master the Mainframe Faculty Guide and then take a look at the deep dive written by Packy Laverty in the same folder for how he leverages this program for his classes.

• Paul Cronan, University of Arkansas
• Herbert Daly, Bedfordshire University
• Gangyi Ding, Beijing Institute of Technology
• Philip Grabowski, Pittsburg Technical University
• Packy Laverty, Robert Morris University
• Martha McConaghy, Marist College
• Robert Owor, Albany State University
• Seth Reichelson, Lake Brantley High School
• Cameron Seay, North Carolina A&T
• Zach Steelman, University of Arkansas

And a couple of our non-IBM ambassadors were recognized as well:

• Leonard Santalucia
• Marc Smith

Educator Conferences Let me know if you’re planning to attend any of these and I’ll try to find a way for you to share your IBM Z story.

• SIGCSE / CS for All Feb 21-24 in Baltimore Maryland
• CS Teachers July 7-10 in Omaha, Nebraska
• AMCIS August 16-18 in New Orleans, Louisiana We have a booth and a session.
• EDSIG Nov 1-4 in Norfolk, Virginia
• SWE Invent It Build It Oct 18-20 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Mainframe Conferences These conferences are a great place to get a whole bunch mainframe skills all at once. Faculty and students are often able to register for free or at a discount.

• IBM Index Feb 20-21 in San Francisco, California. Very affordable 3 day developer conference and students are free! Learn about AI, Machine Learning, Analytics, Cloud Native, Containers, API’s, PaaS Next gen Web/mobile and Languages.
• SHARE March 11-16 in Sacramento, California. Free student day on Tuesday March 13th. Send me an email if you want more information.
• IBM Think March 19-22 in Las Vegas, Nevada
• ECC June 17-19 in Poughkeepsie, New York

IBM Z Councils These no-charge regional client events cover just one or two topics at a high level and are a perfect opportunity for you and your students to learn about the latest technologies like cybersecurity and machine learning. They’re also a great way to make connections with local industry for you and your students. New Z Councils are scheduled all of the time, so be sure to check the schedule regularly. The next few currently scheduled are:

• Cincinnati, Ohio Feb 13
• Dallas, Texas Feb 20
• Northern California Feb 27
• Phoenix, Arizona Feb 28

• Here is the brand new Blockchain Workshop in a Box which gives you the resources you need to organize your own blockchain workshop.
• And this is the link to the related Blockchain Hackathon in a Box .

I’m also including some other interesting links for you.

• The Blockchain Educator Guide is generally where faculty should start
• But I also love Nik’s blog with lots of links of resources for faculty and students
• The main IBM Blockchain website where you can find videos, courses, use cases and much, much more.
• An assortment of Presentations and Labs you can use
• The online version of our Blockchain for Dummies book
• LinuxOne Community Cloud where anyone can get 120 days free access to their own Linux system, but faculty and students can renew as often as they need to. Click on Start Your Trial Now to register and get up to 2 virtual CPUs, 4 GB of memory and 45 GB of disk storage.
• Hyperledger Docker container on GitHub you can load onto your free LinuxOne Community Cloud.
• Blockchain Code Patterns you can use as online learning for students (or yourself)
• Hyperledger Composer documentation and tutorials on how to start building a blockchain network
• Information about Hyperledger Fabric itself.

You may also be interested in a few events coming up:

• Albany State University blockchain conference on February 22nd (See attached file: Block Chain Conf.pdf)
• SHARE in Sacramento March 11 -16 (students can attend for free Tuesday)
• University of Arkansas blockchain conference on April 6th