Takreem El-Tohamy, GM, IBM Middle East and Africa

By Takreem El-Tohamy

There’s a wonderful word in Swahili that I think expresses one of the imperatives for the future of Africa. The word is “harambee.” It means pulling together, collaborating and supporting each other. I believe that one of the key factors in the ability of African countries to create sustainable and equitable economic growth will be the emergence of innovation ecosystems. Harambee perfectly captures an essential element of such ecosystems—the ability of institutions and individuals to pull together and build a mutually supportive environment.

Innovation ecosystems are complex organisms that are difficult to create yet tremendously powerful when they work. Think Silicon Valley. They require a melding of all of the capabilities of governments, businesses, financiers, universities, and individuals. Together, these organizations and individuals provide the web of support that makes it easier for startups to launch and grow quickly, and for established companies to innovate more aggressively. With that kind of support, African entrepreneurs and businesses will find it easier to produce new products and services, or even create whole new industries. You can think of an innovation ecosystem as a collective intelligence—harnessed for the good of society.

IBM is committed to helping Africa build successful innovation ecosystems. The latest sign of this willingness is our new IBM Innovation Center in Nairobi, Kenya. It’s a place where people from established companies, universities and startups can tap IBM technology and expertise to help them create solutions to the country’s business and societal challenges. We’re dedicated to helping Kenya fulfill its Vision 2030, which provides a strategy aimed at helping large numbers of Kenyans emerge into the middle class. Here’s a video about the center..

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our company has been doing business in Africa since 1921, when we helped out with the South African census. Today, we are expanding rapidly. We have offices in more than 20 African countries, including South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and my native Egypt. The company has helped deliver everything from online banking and dependable mobile phone services to technologies for improving city services and government transparency.

In 2012, IBM established its first research laboratory in Africa—in Nairobi. It’s one of only one dozen such labs worldwide. Here’s a video about the impact we believe the Nairobi lab will have across Africa.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My IBM colleagues and I understand that expanding in Africa comes with a unique set of challenges. Our company must aid in building the capacities of Africa’s people and institutions—including knowledge, technology infrastructure, business sophistication and governance. These are the underpinnings of innovation ecosystems.

What’s the key role for IBM in Africa? To help feed the momentum. As a strategic partner with governments, universities, established businesses and startups, IBM can provide a wealth of technology know-how and problem-solving expertise that helps kick start initiatives and accelerate the speed of change.

Africa is coming into its own. The spirit of harambee is helping to drive progress. And IBM is dedicated to helping African countries, companies and individuals achieve their aspirations.

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Here’s an IBM Blue Paper about what it takes to build innovation ecosystems in Africa.

Technorati Tags: africa, IBM

James Kobielus, Senior Program Director, Big Data Evangelist, IBM

By James Kobielus

Big Data is a bit like our solar system. It’s a brilliant system of information and analysis that emerges from the inchoate gas, dust, rocks and crystals known as “data.” Cloud computing is the galaxy wherein the stars, rocks, and particles exist and interact.

To play this analogy out, data scientists would be the astronomers. They’re the ones who explore the spinning, interconnected, system, much of which consists of scattered matter that we lump together under the term “unstructured.”

But what exactly is a data scientist? Simply put, the data scientist is among the most important developer in Big Data. The discipline includes statistical analysts, data miners, predictive modelers, computational linguists, and other professionals whose job is to find deep insights in large, complex data sets. You can’t unlock the full value of Big Data in your business if you don’t bring together your best and brightest data scientists and give them the tools they need to do their job with maximum productivity.

While you don’t need a Ph.D. in statistics to be a data scientist, you do need curiosity, intellectual agility, statistical fluency, research stamina, scientific rigor and a skeptical nature. You must also be articulate, because no one will accept the validity of the patterns you surface if you can’t explain clearly how you built your model, what variables and data you used, or what the results truly mean in the context either of some business problem or scientific endeavor.

Though some in the industry are concerned about a shortage of business-oriented data scientists, research shows the opposite. Smart people are flocking to the data-scientist profession in greater numbers to advance their careers and to be leaders in solving complex global issues. And academia is responding with new coursework and programs designed to train and educate the next generation of technorati.

For example, IBM’s data scientists are using Big Data analytics to help manage precious water resources in South Africa, Florida, Indiana, and many more places. Eoin Lane is a Smarter Water architect who’s working on finding other ways that data and technology can solve water problems around the world.

Another IBM scientist, Michael Haydock, Chief Scientist, IBM Global Business Services, is helping retail brands forecast sales trends up to 4 times more accurately using 22 years of historical data. IBM researchers at the IBM Customer Experience Lab have launched a prototype technology called the Virtual Closet, which uses data to customize recommendations for customers based on items they’ve recently purchased or shown interest in.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, cloud computing, data scientists, IBM Smarter Planet, research, smarter analytics, Smarter Cloud

Andreas Heinrich, Team Leader, IBM Research, Almaden

By Andreas Heinrich

It wasn’t my idea to make the world’s smallest movie, but I’m really glad we did. I hope that the two-minute video animation, A Boy and his Atom, which was made by painstakingly moving individual atoms on a microscopic surface to create simple images of a boy and his world, will inspire young people everywhere to study science and to seek careers in science and technology. Working with artists and animators, my team at the Almaden lab put 10,000 atoms in place in a 10-day work marathon.

Here’s the Atom movie, which was made public today:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s a Web site loaded with interesting background info on the movie, including how it was made. And here’s the IBM Research blog, where scientists explain how the microscope works.

We have already used our atom-moving techniques to produce scientific advances that could have far-reaching effects. Future storage systems based on atomic-scale memory, for instance, would be capable of storing massive amounts of Big Data. Being able to capture insights from such a vast pool of data sources in real time would transform many aspects of business, industry, government and society.

Here’s a video about combining technologies to build products from the atoms up.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Let me tell you a story that helps explain why I’m so passionate about this movie project. When Susanne Baumann, a research associate on my  team,  was a little girl growing up in Switzerland, she read an explanation of atoms in a science book. Susanne was shocked by what she read. She raced to her mother and demand to know how atoms could be in the air and in metal and in her. How could they all be made of the same thing? That was the beginning of her intense interest in science that ultimately led her to become a scientist.

One of the things in the book that excited Susanne was a photograph of the IBM logo made with 35 individual atoms. The image had been produced in 1989 by Don Eigler, one of the pioneers of nanotechnology, who at that time ran the atomic science program at the Almaden lab–as I do now.

Don was the first person ever to move a single atom. He did it using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), a device for visualizing and manipulating atoms which had been invented by two IBM Research scientists, Heinrich Rohrer and Gerd Binnig, in the early 1980s. The two later received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. Don’s work was a huge breakthrough. He demonstrated that scientists would be able to create new molecules by building them from the atom up.

When that image of the IBM logo was published, it made a big splash. It garnered massive media coverage, and I like to think that it inspired many young people to study science–as it did Susanne Baumann.

So, today we have the movie, A Boy and His Atom. While our atom-moving feat might not compare in import to Don Eigler’s achievement 24 years ago, I hope the ha movie provides the same kind of inspirational impact that his IBM logo did.

I have already impressed my own kids, who are seven and 10 years old.  They know that daddy makes his living moving atoms, but when I made a printout of one of the images from the animation and took it home to them, they were wowed. They took the printout to school to show their friends. They made me promise to present the movie to their classmates when it was done.

I’m going to do a lot of presenting in the coming months, starting with an event at Disney’s Epcot Center next week. The movie and presentation will be broadcast live to classrooms all over Florida. Ultimately, we hope that the movie will be used in schools all around the world to pique students’ interest. We’re planning other activities aimed at helping the general public appreciate the incredible wonders of science.

The goal is to blow people’s minds.

I myself live in a state of perpetual mind-blownness. I grew up in Germany during the Cold War–near the border with East Germany. Back then, the world seemed to be stuck in concrete. Nothing would change. But, inspired by a brilliant physics teacher, I studied science and ultimately got a PhD. in physics and found my way to the Almaden Lab, where the possibilities seem to be endless. Every day, I work on projects that excite and amaze me. As experimental scientists, my team isn’t expected to produce results that will be transformed into products next year. We are free to go where the science takes us. The way I see things, the atoms talk to me when I see how they respond to our experiments. They tell me where to go next.

That’s the big kick for scientists: We have the freedom to explore the world and discover how it works–so, ultimately, we can make it work better. I hope you enjoy the movie and that some of you decide after seeing it to become scientists, too.

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If you’d like to see how the STM works, view this video of Susanne explaining things:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Technorati Tags: A Boy and His Atom, IBM, STM

Richard Koubek, Dean of the College of Engineering at Louisiana State University

By Richard Koubek

The year 2007 was a watershed year for the engineering and computer science academic community – marking the end of a long decline in computer science enrollments that had plagued the industry since 1999. While the United States and many industries slipped into a major recession, it was as if American students finally opened their eyes to see that engineering and computer science disciplines held the keys to building stable, sustainable and successful careers.

As unemployment rates climbed, state budgets faltered, public funding for higher education declined and college tuition rose, engineering and computer science college enrollments skyrocketed.

While it’s true that a student’s pragmatic side may direct his or her attention to explore engineering and computer science, starting salaries alone usually do not “close the deal.” Students must envision a rewarding and challenging career ahead. In the past students were inspired by – and wanted to be part of – grand challenges such as the Apollo program to land a person on the moon.

While we don’t have an Apollo mission to serve as an inspiration today, industry is traversing a variety of new frontiers and offering challenges to the brightest minds. Using “Big Data” and analytics to find cures for infectious diseases, develop innovative solutions to traffic congestion, and uncover hidden patterns to improve public safety is today’s “moon shot.” As in the past, academia, government and industry must work together to tackle these grand challenges.

The good news is that the most recent CRA Taulbee report shows computer science enrollments increasing again this year. At my university, LSU, we have experienced a 41 percent enrollment increase over the past four years, with repeated years of record-setting freshman classes. Looking at the projections for Fall 2013, we anticipate another 10 percent enrollment increase in our freshman class.

As we look further ahead, we see that the university’s long-term viability is dependent on the quality of partnerships it can forge with industry and the community. These public-private partnerships will be dependent on attracting top talent to computer science and engineering careers, and the strength of these partnerships will be predictors of our long-term success. In Louisiana, a new benchmark has been set with a unique alliance between Louisiana Economic Development, IBM and LSU to attract and educate the next generation of computer scientists in our State. This partnership is fueling our revival in engineering higher education.

To appeal to the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s top students, the academic community must partner with industry to deliver innovative curricula and provide enriching real-world experiences to apply the lessons learned in the classroom. I am proud to say that LSU is collaborating with IBM to do just this, while building a steady pipeline of talent for the technology jobs of the future.

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Technorati Tags: Big Data, Citizen IBM, Computer Science, higher education, higher learning, IBM Smarter Planet, LSU, Smarter Education, STEM

Stanley S. Litow, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs, IBM

By Stanley S. Litow

In his February 12 State of the Union address, President Obama gave a lengthy mention to Brooklyn’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), and the need to replicate the P-TECH model to connect American education to jobs more effectively.

“Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they’re ready for a job. At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, The City University of New York, and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering….

We need to give every American student opportunities like this. Four years ago, we started Race to the Top – a competition that convinced almost every state to develop smarter curricula and higher standards, for about 1 percent of what we spend on education each year. Tonight, I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy. We’ll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math – the skills today’s employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future.” – President Barack Obama

The President’s call to action signals widespread recognition of our opportunity to make American education more academically rigorous and economically relevant as we close the skills gap and position the U.S. for long-term economic growth.

Even in the midst of stubbornly high unemployment, there are hundreds of thousands of jobs unfilled because applicants lack the proper skills. P-TECH is helping to close that skills gap with technical and workplace education that’s preparing graduates for real jobs in today’s economy, and to pursue higher education if they choose. In fact, fully half of P-TECH’s current 10^th graders (members of the school’s inaugural class) will complete an average of 14 college credits by the end of this school year. That’s solid, meaningful progress toward an associate degree and career readiness.

Click here to view the embedded video.

President Obama’s comments on P-TECH begin at 27:42.

In Chicago, IBM and other companies are collaborating with five more P-TECH-model schools, with curricula focused on preparing graduates for a variety of in-demand jobs. And plans have been announced to replicate the P-TECH model elsewhere in New York  City and in other states.

With so many of our high school graduates lacking the skills to succeed in community colleges, higher education or the workforce, the time has come for P-TECH’s innovative approach to preparing a generation for long-term, middle-class careers. P-TECH represents the next stage of the ongoing evolution of America’s educational system to meet and master the challenges of a changing world. It’s an idea whose time has come, and our partners at the New York City Department of Education and The City University of New York, P-TECH’s visionary principal and dedicated faculty, the school’s motivated students and the IBM volunteers who mentor P-TECH students, faculty and staff couldn’t be more excited!

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Note: This story first appeared on Citizen IBM under the title: President Praises P-TECH in State of the Union Address.

Technorati Tags: IBM Smarter Planet, p-tech, President Obama, race to the top, Smarter Education, Smarter Planet, smarter_planet

Yet for Africa to fulfill it’s potential and emerge among the world’s economic tigers, social and business leaders agree that much more innovation must happen there. The continent’s cities, universities, entrepreneurs and commercial R&D organizations can become engines of innovation producing new products and services that are tailored for the African experience.  And,  in order to make this transition, African institutions and businesses–plus multinational corporations –must work together to create innovation ecosystems that foster this kind of creativity.

At IBM’s Smarter Planet Leadership Forum today in Nairobi, Kenya, CEO Ginni Rometty said IBM hopes to work collaboratively with the people and institutions in Africa: “We want to be seen as a citizen of the countries, essential to the government, companies and people.”  Rometty said IBM’s decision to locate an IBM Research laboratory on the continent–beginning with an office in Nairobi–sends the strong signal about the company’s commitment to Africa.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The message is clear: Rometty wants IBM to play an active role in building innovation ecosystems in Africa.

California’s Silicon Valley is the prototype innovation ecosystem. It benefitted from the combination of good universities, entrepreneurial companies, government incentives and robust supplies of venture capital. Many of other places have tried to copy Silicon Valley’s formula—some quite successfully, among them Bangalore, India, and Singapore.

Kenya is among the countries in Africa that have the potential of creating a vibrant innovation ecosystem. Students and entrepreneurs dream of tapping science and technology to solve social and business problems. Universities aim to expand their research and teaching programs in science, math and technology. Business leaders are creating startup incubators to encourage entrepreneurship—places like iHub, FabLab Nairobi and NaiLab

The government is playing a vital role, too, by making bold moves aimed at establishing Kenya as an information technology hub for East Africa. The government recently broke ground for Konzo Techno City, a new municipality being built from scratch south of Nairobi to bring research universities, corporations and government agencies together to support job creation, research collaboration and economic development. Another key move was the launch by the Kenya ICT Board of an incubation program for high-tech startups—including seed capital funding. “If we can build the skills and innovate, it will change the entire continent,” said Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary of Kenya’s ministry of information and science.

But there’s an important role for foreign companies and academic institutions to play, as well—as partners with African institutions in making progress. IBM Research’s new research laboratory in Nairobi is the first basic scientific research lab to be established in Africa by a foreign multinational firm. We have allied with Catholic University of Eastern Africa to locate the lab on its Nairobi campus.The goal of the lab is to produce innovations within Africa and also bring in great ideas from IBM’s other 11 research labs around the world. “We want to create technology solutions optimized for Africa that can be exported to the rest of the developing world,” John Kelly, senior vice president and director of IBM Research said earlier this week.

While the first lab office is in Nairobi, IBM plans on expanding elsewhere around the continent and also performing collaborative research with a number of universities. Already, the company is engaging with the University of Nairobi and Strathmore University in collaborative programs where scientists from IBM will work with university faculty members on projects of mutual interest.

In another sign that Kenya is beginning to offer an attractive academic environment, Columbia University, one of the leading academic institutions in the United States, has set up Columbia Global Centre/Africa as a venue for research aimed at helping African nations reach their UN Millennium Development Goals.

We believe that foreign firms and institutions won’t succeed if they try to build islands of expertise. They must work with local universities on collaborative research and to improve the quality of degree programs. Sure, if this happens it will mean that IBM Research will have to compete vigorously to recruit and retain the most skilled and ambitious young people. But so be it. “This is a long term investment,” said Kelly. “We’re here to help build the skills and, hopefully, we’ll get our fair share of the most talented graduates.”

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Related Links

Read about the next technology leapfrogging opportunity in Africa: big data.

Find out how Reading Companion inspires a love of reading in South African schools.

Technorati Tags: africa, Ginni Rometty, IBM Research

Municipal governments have the greatest direct impact on the lives of their constituents and no matter how tight the budget, citizens expect, and deserve, action.  So mayors have to think innovatively to accomplish goals, deliver services more efficiently and effectively and stimulate economic development.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter

Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter has not pared back his ambitious agenda despite reduced funding.  One major focus: access to a quality education, which he refers to as “the new civil rights fight.”  Mayor Nutter supports a number of creative initiatives designed to provide Philadelphians with educational opportunities and job skills to prepare them for the 21^st century workforce.

Philadelphia is one of more than 60 cities worldwide that have participated in IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge program. IBM sends teams of six executives to participating cities to help them develop solutions to difficult problems. Nutter and other mayors have provided insights in to what it takes to transform cities. The lessons they learned are captured in a white paper, How to Reinvent a City.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Greater Philadelphia region is home to 101 colleges and universities, but the City of Philadelphia still struggles with low literacy, high school graduation and college attainment rates.  During the Nutter administration’s first five years in office, these rates have steadily improved, though these numbers are still below the Mayor’s goals.

To ensure best educational practices are implemented across the school system and improve the overall quality of education in the city, Mayor Nutter and the Pennsylvania Education Department support the ‘Great Schools Compact,’ a collaborative of School District, charter and Archdiocese schools with the goal of increasing the number of seats in high-performing schools.

Mayor Nutter is also championing the new digital learning initiative, Digital On-Ramps, which the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge team helped shape.  The Digital On-Ramps initiative aims to provide comprehensive education and workforce training support to Philadelphians ages 14-65.  The goal is create an anytime, anywhere, any device learning community that works to improve math and literacy skills, assist in job searches and provide digital skill training. The only way people will lift themselves out of poverty is through education, and we need to connect people in new, easily-accessible ways,” Mayor Nutter said.

Moreover, 230,000 Philadelphia households do not have internet access at home.  To help address the big challenge of the digital divide, the City of Philadelphia is working with programs that make logging on easier and more affordable: KeySPOTS and Internet Essentials.  KeySPOTS are federally-funded computer centers, 77 in total, located in neighborhoods where residential access is small.  Internet Essentials is a partnership program with Comcast.  With Internet Essentials, people who receive free or reduced lunches are eligible for a reduced price personal computer and internet service and a free modem.

While access won’t solve the education challenges Philadelphia faces, it can support learning goals and, ultimately, achievement.  Mayor Nutter added, “No matter what you’re working on, there is a technology solution, application and engagement that’s going to help you do things smarter, better, quicker, more efficiently or more productively.”

Technorati Tags: mayors, Nutter, Philadelphia, technology

Adam Mossoff, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law

By Adam Mossoff

The America Invents Act (AIA) was signed into law in September 2011, and it is rightly recognized as “the most significant reform of the U.S. patent system since 1836.”  The AIA’s provisions are not even fully implemented yet — its ink isn’t even dry, as we used to say in the analog world — but people are calling for more changes and reforms to the patent system.

This push for change is largely due to the widespread belief today that the “patent system is broken,” a trope repeated in many hyperbolic newspaper accounts and blog postings. The din about the “broken patent system” has become so incessant that USPTO Commissioner David Kappos recently stated in a speech at the Center for American Progress, “Give it a rest already. Give the AIA a chance to work. Give it a chance to even get started.”

Director Kappos’ sense of frustration is understandable. One of the primary examples that many people like to identify as Exhibit A of the “broken patent system” is the smart phone war between Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Google, and many other high-tech firms. Oftentimes, the smart phone war is characterized as merely part of an alleged “patent litigation explosion” that allegedly plagues the high-tech industry. Software patents in particular are now viewed by some commentators as a scourge of innovation.

But much of this public outcry about the “broken patent system” generally, and high-tech patents in particular, suffers from the same lack of context and careful consideration of the facts of which Director Kappos complained.

To take but one small example: despite the news reports on the smart phone war, few people know that patent litigation rates are roughly the same today as they were in the early nineteenth century.

The patent litigation rate today is around 1.5%.  As reported by award-winning economist, Zorina Khan, the average patent litigation rate between 1790 and 1860 was 1.65%.  In fact, for three decades in Khan’s study patent litigation rates were higher than today’s litigation rate. Between 1840 and 1849, for instance, patent litigation rates were 3.6% — more than twice the patent litigation rate today.

Moreover, so-called “patent wars” are nothing new. The first such patent war was the Sewing Machine War of the 1850s, which had all of the same issues as we see today in the smart phone war: numerous overlapping patents covering single products; high-profile lawsuits; expensive litigation; lawsuits in multiple venues; patent-licensing entities obtaining injunctions against manufacturers and entering into licensing agreements; patents sold and traded among firms, etc. It was even called the Sewing Machine War in the newspapers of the day. The patent-owners solved this morass of litigation by inventing a new, innovative business model: a cross-licensing arrangement between all the patent-owners that we now identify as a patent pool. In 1856, it was merely called “the Sewing Machine Combination,” and it operated successfully until its final patent expired in 1877. Today, we’re beginning to see similar types of commercial and legal arrangements in response to the smart phone wars, such as the December 2012 purchase of Kodak’s 1,100 patents by a consortium of firms.

As I also have detailed in my historical research, the Sewing Machine Combination unleashed tremendous technological and commercial innovation, including the first widespread civilian adoption of manufacturing with machine-tooled parts, and the invention of the first rent-to-own and trade-in programs. The result was that the sewing machine industry was fundamental to the success of the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. As is proven time and time again with patented innovation, an invention is merely the first step in a long process of dynamic innovation in both technology and commerce.

The end of the Sewing Machine War in 1856 was not the end of patent wars, as patent litigation continued to occur with each pioneering leap forward in technological innovation — the incandescent light bulb, telephone, automobile, airplane, and radio were all subjects of patent wars. The 1980s were dominated by the diaper wars and the stent wars, which are well known by patent litigators who worked at that time. If cutting-edge innovation in disposable diapers, a multi-billion-dollar industry, could be the subject of intense patenting and extensive litigation, then we shouldn’t be surprised to see it occur again in cutting-edge innovation in smart phones, tablet computers and other digital devices.

In fact, pharmaceutical patents were first accused in the early twentieth century of being plagued by vagueness, uncertainty, and extensive litigation — the same complaints we hear today about the allegedly unique problems with high-tech patents. This is ironic, because today’s critics of high-tech patents acknowledge that pharmaceutical patents are a field in which the patent system works. This just proves that disruptive technological innovation eventually leads to legal certainty and dynamic innovation. One hundred years from now, commentators will likely be pointing to software as one of the few fields in which patents work, and thus criticizing whatever new, unforeseeable, disruptive technology is being patented at that future date.

The point is that understanding historical innovation and even historical patent wars is important. These patent disputes were not resolved by Congress constantly amending the patent statutes year after year, or governmental agencies constantly changing the regulations on competition policy (as the FTC has done recently on “standard essential patents.”) No, these and the many other patent disputes throughout history were resolved by letting the courts do what they do best — resolving the legal disputes by securing valid patents on innovative technology against infringement, and signaling to both patent-owners and market participants that the patent system provides a stable legal framework to support the commercialization of these property rights through sales or licenses.

If there is going to be an end to the smart phone wars, just as there were ends to the previous patent wars, the best thing for Congress and governmental agencies to do right now is to sit back and let the courts do their jobs and let the AIA be implemented. In this way, inventors and patent-owners can continue to innovate in the technology and business models that have long been at the heart of U.S. economic prosperity.

Technorati Tags: intellectual property, invention, patents, USPTO

Rev. Robert Dowd, CSC, University of Notre Dame

By Rev. Robert Dowd

When you combine private-sector expertise with top-notch education, future leaders enter the workforce with a foundation of unmatched strength and potential. As a leading Catholic research university, the University of Notre Dame works with a variety of partners, including corporations such as IBM, to support young people in their efforts to develop their leadership potential and the skills needed to contribute positively to the flourishing of their societies.

Recently, I have had the privilege of working on the Leadership Education and Development (or LEAD) program. This innovative pilot program brings together MBA students from East Africa with Notre Dame Faculty and students and business experts from IBM.  The program aims to help nurture the business leaders of the future through intense academic training and exposure to real-world business challenges. This program embodies Notre Dame’s commitment to developing the next generation of business leaders, technicians, scientists and social scientists and highlights the important role corporations can play in skill development.

As part of the program, six of East Africa’s top MBA students journeyed to South Bend to undertake a portion of their studies within our community. In a vibrant, successful intellectual interchange, they have taken classes alongside Notre Dame’s own MBA students and absorbed the real-life experiences of some of IBM’s most accomplished leaders.

A campus-wide collaboration, the LEAD program was kick started by the Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Mendoza College of Business, and the Engineering, Science, Technology and Entrepreneurship Masters (ESTEEM) Program, and IBM.

(L to R) Father Bob Dowd; Dorcas Magoba (Uganda Martyrs University); Garry Kizito (Makerere University Business School, Kampala, Uganda); Annrita Njiru (Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya); Peter Ochuodho (Strathmore University); Phiona Musoke (Makerere University Business School); and Dorcas Otieno (Strathmore University).

The curriculum, taught jointly by our business school faculty and IBM executives, combines a strong academic foundation with international business perspective. Not only have these future leaders gained insight into conducting business across borders, but they also equipped themselves to return home with skills for careers of which they, Notre Dame, their home universities, and future employers can be proud.

Hailing from Uganda and Kenya, the six LEAD students represent the next generation of Africa’s leaders, a young and highly capable group. These young people want to be problem solvers and job creators. They want to build accountable and responsive institutions in the private and public sector. Through our private-sector partnership with IBM, we hope to help them reach their goals of bringing about positive change in their societies. 

What have they told us about the LEAD experience? Gaining access to the inner workings of a global enterprise was invaluable. Learning from IBM executives who have built solid businesses in growth markets, some in their own countries, they dove down into the nitty gritty of leadership, skills, technologies, processes and management.

As any executive can attest, just as important as business acumen is the ability to build a wide net of relationships, augmenting one’s career and opening undiscovered doors. Our LEAD program has helped both African and American students form solid friendships outside of the classroom, sure to be continued for years.

As a result of this program, our current business school students gleaned a much more realistic picture of business outside of the U.S. As many of our graduates head into international ventures, we’ll see this enrichment well into the future. In addition, all of our students, whether from Africa, the U.S., or elsewhere, have had the rare opportunity to communicate across continents and cultures.

“We’ve had almost too many dinner invitations!” one student told us. Whether cheering at a Notre Dame football game (during its undefeated season!), volunteering at a tailgate concession stand, or sharing Thanksgiving dinner, the cross-cultural connections on both sides will not be forgotten.

Stay tuned for what the future holds for these promising achievers as they return to their home countries and put their skills to work. We know their success in Africa will exceed even the profound impact they made on us.

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Rev. Robert Dowd, CSC is a Notre Dame political scientist who researches religion, development, and political culture in Africa. He is also the director of the Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity, part of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Technorati Tags: Africa LEAD, East Africa, global warming, IBM Smarter Planet, Kenya, Notre Dame, smarter business

Jim Corgel, IBM General Manager, Academic and Developer Relations

By Jim Corgel

As a tech industry veteran, I have seen wave after wave of technology change—from mainframe computers, to PCs, to the Internet and beyond. There was a lag between the introduction of technologies and society’s ability to train all of the workers needed to use and support them. Call it the skills gap.

Today we are faced with one of the largest skills gap in history. Take the data analyst for example, the United States will suffer a shortfall of 1.5 million individuals trained in this area by 2018, according to McKinsey & Co.

The gap exists because four revolutionary technologies are emerging at once: business analytics, cloud computing, mobile computing and social business. Each of them is a force to be reckoned with. Together they have the potential to transform businesses, government services and society. I believe that these new technologies could help rekindle economic growth around the world. But only if we close the skills gap—and fast.

This alarming situation is spelled out in a report published today by IBM, Fast Track to the Future: The 2012 IBM Tech Trends Report. Its conclusions are drawn from a global survey of more than 1,200 professionals who make technology decisions for their organizations, 250 academics and 450 students.  

The results are shocking. Only one out of 10 of the organizations surveyed say they have the skills needed to address these emerging technologies. Sixty percent of business decision makers feel there’s a significant skills gap. Among educators and students, the situation is even more dire. Seventy-three percent see a sizable gap. And nearly half of them see major shortfalls in their institution’s ability to respond.

It’s clear that these technologies will be crucial to business success and national competitiveness. IBM’s Global CEO Study, published in May, showed that advanced technology is strategically important for business leaders. For the first time, it outranks all other external factors as the top driver of change in organizations over the next three to five years. It’s even more important than the economy and market forces.

There’s a huge opportunity if people and organizations can respond quickly. Businesses need to tune their radar and plot out their skills requirements for the years ahead. Universities need to reassess their current programs. Are they educating students for the jobs of the past or the jobs of the future?

How should companies and universities prepare? Our Tech Trends study, conducted by the IBM Center for Applied Insights, provides some guidance based on the performance of pacesetters in the business community.

Click on image for an interactive look at the IBM 2012 Tech Trends Report on the IBM developerWorks site.

Businesses should aggressively build depth and breadth in the emerging skills among their employees. They should encourage experimentation and let their employees try out new technologies. And they should work with their business partners to set a shared skills agenda.

Universities should build new programs and curricula to address the skills gap. They should incorporate real-world technology and business cases to prepare students for a rapidly changing environment. And they should develop a local industry ecosystem so they’re aware of the latest trends and can place students in internships that provide them with the most up-to-date expertise.

Students and career professionals need to peer into the future, so they understand the possibilities and make sure they’re acquiring the right skills. The job of market research analystranks No. 7 on CNN Money’s 2012 list of The Best Jobs in America, with top pay of nearly $100,000 and 10-year job growth of 41.2 percent. That’s more than double the average. Preparing for or retraining for such a career is tricky. It requires a combination of math and statistics with software programming skills and business knowledge.

The last point I want to make is that the skills gap is global. IBM is expanding rapidly in Africa. We see great potential for our business in the coming years. We’re hiring rapidly and recently set up an IBM Research lab in Nairobi, Kenya. We’re going to need thousands of people with advanced technology skills.

I know that the young people of Africa want to meet us half way. An IBMer working in Kenya recently told me that it’s not just university students who are absolutely mad about acquiring technology skills; even the high school kids are desperate to learn so they can participate in the next technology revolution. Through our university, research and internal job training programs, we’re going to help them realize their dreams.

The skills gap may be huge, but it’s not unsolvable. We all have to pull together—businesses, policy makers, universities and students—so we can fill it and take full advantage of this great wave of technological change.

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