Maui Community College receives share university grant valued at more than $400,000 from IBM

Maui CC and IBM collaborate to bring higher technology computing systems to students

Maui College
Contact:
Katie McMillan, (808) 984-3549
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Kristen Bonilla, (808) 956-5039
External Affairs & University Relations
Posted: May 28, 2008

KAHULUI, Maui, Hawaiʻi — Maui Community College has been awarded high performance computing equipment by IBM for use in its Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology (ECET) program. The grant is part of a Shared University Research (SUR) awards program, created to demonstrate the partnership between academia and the technology industry to explore research in areas essential to innovation.

Through the awards program, Maui CC received a new P6 supercomputer valued at more than $400,000. The new technology will allow students direct access to computing capabilities that will prepare them for employment in a high technology field.

"The objective of the grant is to use the system for advanced analytics and allow projects between Maui Community College, IBM and the Maui High Performance Computing Center to further technology knowledge within the technical program at Maui Community College," says Mark Ramsey, Center for Business Optimization, IBM Global Business Services.

According to Maui CC‘s ECET Program Coordinator Mark Hoffman, "Students will install and run programs related to image processing and performance testing. This donation will provide students with direct access to supercomputing capabilities that will prepare them for employment in Maui‘s high technology industries."

The collaboration between Maui CC and IBM will focus on the research and testing of real-time and operational data mining models on a broad range of platforms.

"This collaboration is the next phase to validate the outcomes of an IBM Research Project aimed at providing event and steaming data analytics to solve complex problems, such as image matching, deviation identification, and capturing important statistics," says Ramsey.

Maui CC is investigating innovative ways to integrate the new supercomputer with other ECET programs such as the "Marine Animal Life Tracking" project and the National Science Foundation‘s grant on telescope data. Maui CC faculty are also looking at ways to integrate the new system into the college‘s Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Applied Business and Information Technology (ABIT).

Currently, more than 1,900 institutions, 11,000 faculty members and 450,000 students are taking advantage of the training programs offered through the IBM Academic Initiative, a partnership program designed to educate millions of students for a more competitive IT workforce.

For more information, visit: http://www.maui.hawaii.edu