Interdisciplinary

Innovative Cooperation for a Knowledge-based Society

Bucharest (RO), April 2008 - (by Elena Lita) IBM Romania recently organized the fourth edition of the national forum "IBM Academic Days for Universities in Romania". The aim of the two-day event, held on 27-28 March, was to provide information and initiate ways of innovative cooperation for a networked, knowledge-based society through long-term, interdisciplinary strategic training and R&D partnerships.

This is to take place at multiple levels of cooperation in the academic, industrial, and administrative environments, as well as with EU institutions.


This year's edition of the forum focused on presentations and debates regarding the development of a cooperation framework between IBM and universities with a tradition in Romania in order to enhance the performance of multi-disciplinary training and qualification of specialists in an information-based society.


Besides the presentation of the latest IBM technological advances in high-performance computing, the event promoted new learning and research programmes initiated by IBM: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Services Sciences, Management and Engineering (SSME), and High-Performance Computing (HPC) for high education in the field of technology, economics, law, and social and natural sciences.

The event also facilitated the launch of a significant national academic training programme - "The promotion of the CELL technology-based curriculum and R&D partnerships in the Romanian Universities", which will facilitate the training of specialists qualified in the cutting-edge computing domain and to create new opportunities for innovative cooperation in R&D projects.

On the current development stage, IBM Romania's objective is to continue its existing strategic partnership with the representative group of universities in the country, with which it has been closely cooperating for several years within the IBM Academic Initiative. It also seeks to build a cooperation framework based on mutual benefit with faculties of economics, law, and social sciences.


Still another goal is to draw in the R&D cooperation departments, faculties, and universities interested in research related to fundamental sciences, natural sciences, biology, biotechnology, and medical sciences. Within this type of innovative partnership, IBM delivers the infrastructure and the support necessary to develop scientific, HPC, and grid-computing applications.

"IBM promotes cooperation both on the individual and global levels among companies, institutions, and organisations," said Mihai Tudor, Country General Manager, IBM Romania. "It is necessary to cooperate in the generation of innovative ideas and to be flexible in approaching these ideas.


IBM Romania's goals are to continue the tradional strategic partnership with the Romanian academic environment and to consolidate the innovative cooperation relationship by delivering the strategies, instruments, and the behavioral models needed for its successful completion in the context of a networked, knowledge-based society".

IBM will further sustain these partnerships by encouraging teachers and students' attendance at scientific programmes and competitions running at the national level, the EMEA level, and worldwide.