About IBM Z Global Student Hub
The IBM Z Global Student Hub is all about you! It’s a hub for networking, collaboration, imagination, creativity, and analytical thinking that’s for students, with students, and by students. Expect to learn, build, collaborate, network, and share everything and anything about high-end computing, entrepreneurship, and tech for social good.
We will talk a lot about always being on, data protection, privacy, and security ++ all kinds of open source magic! The Hub will be engaging, fun, and geared toward high school, community college, and university students. Don’t see yourself as a student? Well, we are all students! I am a lifelong learner and will likely be a student for the rest of my life.
Why Should Students Care Anyway?
For anyone who knows me or attempts to keep up, it’s hard to miss my passion, excitement, advocacy, and support for students throughout their digital skill-building journeys, whether that includes startups, enterprise computing, or the basics for kids in primary school. I fundamentally believe that digital literacy is a human right, and regardless of experience level, even the most seasoned practitioners have significant journeys ahead of them.
In my work collaboration with the United Nations, World Economic Forum, IEEE, People Centered Internet, and tech thought leaders, I started to think about what I could personally do to empower the world with real-world tech skills and a community of like-minded students.
It is with this lens that our team of IBMers created IBM Z Global Student Hub. Our aim is to help students explore their careers in IT and experiment with the exact technologies that power the world.
Real-World Computing Skills for All.
Also, why should access to computer science education only be available to the elite or students participating in formal education? While we are at it, let’s empower more women and girls and under-represented communities to enter tech and stay there!
Access to online learning and a collaboration forum is becoming more relevant due to the increase in demand of virtual and distance learning. This is not simply a challenge for students. Many teachers are entering their first virtual teaching environments as well as parents.
If you have not had a chance to read more about my perspective on digital literacy and the future of work check out the blog here.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution.
What is the fourth industrial revolution and why does this matter to you? According to the World Economic Forum, drivers for the fourth industrial revolution stem from people gaining access to the internet, artificial intelligence and the ethics that encompass its adoption, big data being the new currency, and the proliferation of cloud computing. This is causing massive disruption in the future of work. With such rapid digital transformation and change, students and life-long learners are looking for ways to gain access to the latest computing technologies.
IBM Z: Always On. Always Open. Always Secure.
The IBM Z Global Student Hub aims to share meaningful and engaging free & virtual content to enable students (YES, YOU!) to gain access to computing curriculum focused on building smart and secure solutions that are also always on, always open, and always secure.
IBM Z is a computing technology that enables businesses around the world to confidently and securely run applications that we have come to rely on in our everyday life…24/7. Love to learn how things work, or the secret sauce behind what makes the world economy tick (hint hint it’s payment systems), or just want to use tech to make lives better and easier? This Hub aims to bring students together to learn more about big IT – really big IT.
Expect to learn about solving business problems, gain access to code patterns to speed up your work and learn from others, and practice via technologies that do not require you to have your own enterprise-grade infrastructure solutions. Oh, and don’t forget the open source and entrepreneurship fun we will have together!
A Community of Learners, Builders & Thought Leaders.
You can write your own content, pave the way as a guest blogger, and share your insights with the world – students, IBMers, and industry-leading practitioners.
You will hear from Distinguished Engineers and Master Inventors with far more patents than I could ever achieve. I am personally excited to track down all the IBMers on the planet to join us so that we can learn together about their rad creations and hear about what inspired them along the way. How will you take these connections forward to solve the world’s wickedest enterprise computing challenges and make the world a better place?
I don’t know about you, but I never thought I would ever work on such things on in my life. I grew up in rural Missouri, spent my summers in Iowa and Nebraska (also ultra-rural), and remember countless counselors, teachers, and professors never pushing me to truly think about go-big career opportunities or getting beyond my field of view. I was once told that I would never amount to anything and would likely end up incarcerated…like many of my classmates. Hey Mr. whatever your name was, check us out now!
Here is to the people who told us we would never amount to anything and would never achieve our dreams!
The Student Journey.
I look forward to sharing insights that will help you learn to create smart and secure applications that are always on and powered by IBM Z!
What’s Next?
- Join IBM Z Global Student Hub.
- Read the next blog post.
- Post a discussion question.
Melissa Sassi
open | on | secure
Your Chief Penguin.