Water is one of our most essential resources. Of all the water on Earth, only 1 percent can be used by ecosystems and people. As the world’s population increases to an estimated 8 billion in 2025, the demand for water will rise too.
It’s time we get smarter about water.
Join in the Smarter Friday chat on World Water Day, March 22, as IBM Smarter Water Architect Eoin Lane discusses how technology can help us with water: http://on.fb.me/11iZe4q
Related:
Over the past 100 years, millions of IBMers all over the globe have helped make the world work better and smarter. Today, IBM is made up of more than 430,000 women and men in 170 countries. IBMers are leading business and technology experts working with clients in all industries in the private and public sectors to build a smarter planet. We thrive on solving problems – big and small – and are constantly building our knowledge and expertise in order to find the best solutions to help our clients achieve their goals and create new possibilities.
Whether it’s consulting, management, research, sales or any other area of business, and if you want to focus on today’s most exciting technologies — Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud — the opportunities are endless and you can make a difference at IBM.
See the new site and view IBM hot job opportunities
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Greater IBM, what do you think of this new site? Comment below in the Leave a Reply field – thanks!
- Posted by Regan Kelly
In case you missed IBM CEO Ginni Rometty‘s historic speech last week before the Council on Foreign Relations, there’s good news: the replay is now available for you to watch anytime.
Ginni Rometty
In these early days of the 21st century, Big Data, analytics, cloud, mobile and social technologies are transforming our world. This new era of computing provides the instrumentation, interconnection and intelligence that make it possible to build a smarter planet.
But, in order to do so, countries, cities, corporations and individuals need to rethink how they go about achieving their goals. Watch the speech, followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Join the conversation by using the hashtags #IBM and #CFRlive.
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Greater IBMers, let us know your thoughts in the Leave a Reply field below.
– Posted by Regan Kelly, Editor/Community Manager, The Greater IBM Connection
On Thursday, March 7, Ginni Rometty will be addressing members of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Virginia Rometty
The event will be broadcast live on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. EST. Get the details and watch it here.
You can see a replay and read more about the speech on the Smarter Planet blog, where you can also join the conversation.
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– Posted by Regan Kelly, Editor/Community Manager, The Greater IBM Connection
International Women’s Day is this week: March 8, 2013.
To coincide with this global event, 18 IBMers – of all ages, cultures, and stages of their careers – are talking about IBM values, corporate social responsibility, job opportunities, and flexibility. In these videos, they’re sharing why they love being part of a company that makes the world a better place, with its enduring commitment to diversity (including diversity of thought), and its rigorous focus on innovation.
Check out the video below from IBM Australia:
In this video from IBM Diversity, Sylvie speaks of the opportunities and amenities provided in her time with IBM to promote family and professional achievements. She also shares her insight on how leadership is demonstrated differently when it comes to gender, and says, “Women tend to collaborate more, which can be the signature of a strong leader.”
Some of the events IBM has or will be participating in for 2013 for International Women’s Day:
IBM has also had a long history of supporting and participating in this notable worldwide event. Here’s a few of the past stories and events:
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Greater IBM: How do you plan to celebrate International Women’s Day?
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Additional resources:
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–Posted by Julie Yamamoto, Program Manager, The Greater IBM Connection
Marc Miller
by Regan Kelly, Editor/Community Manager, The Greater IBM Connection
If anybody knows about pivoting in your career, it’s Greater IBMer Marc Miller, of Austin, Texas. He’s written a new book – “Repurpose Your Career” - so that baby boomers and others can learn from the twists and turns of his long professional life (and his many distinct careers). Miller has managed a help desk for mechanical engineers, worked as an IT architect, trained salespeople for IBM’s first UNIX product, taught high school, and more.
So it’s fitting that when he started his own business, he called it Career Pivot and developed a book advancing similar concepts. Read more about Mr. Miller, his days at IBM, his work today, and what you need to know about his new book.
Marc Miller’s new offering, available now
The Greater IBM Connection: When did you work for IBM and in what capacity?
Marc Miller: I started with IBM Austin in 1978 as a programmer working on word processors. I stayed in Austin for my entire career, and left in January of 2000.
The Greater IBM Connection: What was your role and what were some of your responsibilities?
Marc Miller: I wandered around a lot; I was an assembly language programmer for word processors; I was in an office eight hours a day with a coding pad, UGH!! This was before the IBM PC came to be.
I then went into testing, managed a help desk for mechanical engineers CAD/CAM, trained the first 1000 system engineers and salespeople for IBM’s first real UNIX product (RS/6000), presented IBM product plans in the AIX briefing center, spent a year in IBM Global Services as an IT architect, and finished up in AIX marketing.
The Greater IBM Connection: Why did you decide to leave IBM? Any regrets about that decision?
Marc Miller: After a lot of soul searching, I decided I wanted to go back to training, but I could not do that with IBM in Austin, so I went to work for Agere Inc., where I worked directly for one of the two company founders developing a training program.
In the first eight months, I designed and produced a two-hour seat time training CD that got rave reviews – I was hooked.
The Greater IBM Connection: Are you still connected with your former IBM colleagues?
Marc Miller: For five to ten years or so, I lost touch with a lot of my IBM friends. In the last few years, however, I have had many IBM friends reconnect for a variety of reasons. Some are retiring and looking to network. Some have reconnected via social media.
The Greater IBM Connection: Tell us about your job today. What is your role and what does it involve?
Marc Miller: In 2002, I had a near fatal bicycle accident. I had a head-on collision with an automobile where our combined speeds exceeded 50 mph. I miraculously lived with only few broken bones. I was back on a bicycle in 10 weeks and wondering why I lived. I volunteered to be laid off in 2003 and went off to teach high school math.
To make a long story short, I left teaching after a couple of years, did non-profit fundraising, and later was pulled into another startup in late 2007. I rode out both recessions in successful startups, but during that time I had a lot of friends who were being wiped out financially.
By the time I left the corporate world in early 2011, I had developed a lot of skills that my employers wanted me to acquire. I just did not want to use them anymore: I wanted to do what I wanted to do.
When I started my business Career Pivot in 2011, I was starting my 7th career, very unusual for someone of the baby boomer generation.
My mission is to guide baby boomers through today’s constantly changing career world. I am not a career coach, but rather a career trainer and designer. I train people to design their own careers. I focus on baby boomers and older Gen Xers who either cannot or don’t want to retire.
The Greater IBM Connection: What was the impetus for your writing a book?
Marc Miller: Most baby boomers were raised to be employees and to work for father-like companies that it was expected would take care of us. We all know that world does not exist anymore.
Most boomers made career decisions when opportunities appeared – in other words, we reacted. Now, however, we are in a referral economy and you can no longer react but you must be proactive.
The book is meant to be something like a cookbook. Though it doesn’t use cookbook language, it does contain recipes for career change. Of course, recipes are meant to be modified and seasoned to taste.
The Greater IBM Connection: What was the writing process like? What was it like working with a second writer?
Marc Miller: In 2011 I was introduced to Susan Lahey, who is a former journalist and was building a writing business in Austin. Susan is very good at writing in my voice. Our first collaboration was a white paper titled Don’t Retire Even if You Can – A Baby Boomer Manifesto. It’s available here.
In June of 2011, I started blogging three to four times a week, generating a lot of content. Based on feedback from my readership, I started writing in very long series (30-40 post sequences). I was writing about strategies in career management and job search.
Susan and I collaborated on the book, and its content mostly came from either from the manifesto or the blog.
The Greater IBM Connection: How has the book been received so far?
Marc Miller: I sent pre-release copies to many career professional around the country to get feedback. The response has been incredibly good. When people give me great feedback, it is very fulfilling.
The Greater IBM Connection: What do you do in your spare time?
Marc Miller: It may surprise you that I still bicycle. In addition, I am currently part of the Leadership Austin Essentials Class. I also have served on the board of directors of Launch Pad Job Club, the largest job support group in Central Texas, for the last six years.
The Greater IBM Connection: Is there another book in your future? If so, what might its subject be?
Marc Miller: The next book will be The Cure for Career Insanity, which will accompany my webinar series to launch in 2013.
We will put out a second edition of Repurpose Your Career in January of 2014, with more real-life stories from my clients.
The Greater IBM Connection: What’s the best way for readers to buy your book?
Marc Miller: Amazon is the place to go. The book is available in both paperback and Kindle editions. If you happen to live in Austin, the book can be found in the Career and Home Improvement sections of Book People. You should also be able to order the book from just about any bookstore. You can find the Kindle edition on Amazon.com here.
The Greater IBM Connection: Any final thoughts?
Marc Miller: The biggest hurdle is fear in making a career change or pivot. Fear of failure. Fear of financial hardship. Fear of loss of credibility. Fear of change!
It doesn’t happen overnight. I find it takes three months of working with clients to get them to the point where they believe they can make the change work.
More:
Read some reviews of Repurpose Your Career
Follow Marc on Twitter: @CareerPivot
Exciting Educational Experience Extends Into Classrooms with Free Lesson Plans and Mobile Apps
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – 20 Feb 2013: In celebration of National Engineers Week, IBM (NYSE: IBM) teamed up with Orlando-area high school teachers and students today to unveil IBM THINK, a new interactive experience in INNOVENTIONS West at Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort. The 6,600 square-foot interactive exhibit is designed to showcase how the world can work better with the help of technology and innovation. The THINK experience presented by IBM explores how technology transforms the way we live and work.
Lee Green, IBM VP Strategic Design and Brand Experience, at THINK presented by IBM in INNOVENTIONS at Epcot® at the Walt Disney World® Resort. Photo credit: Ralph Appelbaum Associates
To keep visitors inspired after experiencing the exhibit and encourage others to attend, IBM also announced free science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) lesson plans for middle and high school science teachers, along with a companion app for Apple iPads and 10” Android tablets. The lesson plans enable teachers to use the IBM THINK exhibit content to help students understand the process of innovation, while the THINK Exhibit app brings those lessons to life.
The THINK exhibit engages visitors through a unique combination of experiences. They include a 40-foot “gesture wall” that reveals the ebb and flow of data in our daily lives through colorful visualizations of information such as traffic, solar energy and air quality IBM is also providing game stations, an inspirational film about making the world work better, and a self-guided interactive tour. The exhibit shows how progress is made possible by a combination of people and technology, and by the purposeful way humans have approached the process of innovation.
“During the past century, IBM has played a key role in making the world work better,” said
Lee Green, VP Brand Experience and Strategic Design at IBM. “The THINK exhibit features stories and engaging experiences that appeal to Epcot guests from around the world.”
The new exhibit is based on IBM’s 2011 THINK pop-up exhibit at New York’s Lincoln Center, developed for the company’s Centennial.
STEM Lessons on Innovation
To put the concepts of IBM THINK into practice, IBM worked with the New York Hall of Science to develop STEM lessons plans, now available for free online on Teachers TryScience, to inspire students to act as innovators in their daily lives. Their release intentionally coincides with Engineers Week, an annual program created by the National Engineers Week Foundation to inspire current and future generations to pursue study and careers in science and engineering.
The educational material is brought to life by apps based on the THINK exhibit. Through thousands of images and historical anecdotes, the IBM Think exhibit app tells stories of the history of progress, from space exploration to weather prediction and medical advances.
The lesson plans and apps help students better understand some of the scientific concepts behind the THINK exhibit and inspire them to be innovators.
“The THINK lessons provide an engaging way to enable students to learn STEM concepts in a real-world context,” said Danielle Miller, Astronomy and Physical Science Teacher at University High School in Florida. “The THINK app and lessons have made my students see the process of innovation in a way they never have before. THINK has helped my students become scientists.”
Some of the THINK lessons include:
The lessons are featured on Teachers Try Science, a free, critically acclaimed web site that provides middle and high school science educators with high quality lessons integrated with practical and engaging teaching techniques. The process of discovery used in the material encourages students to see, map, understand, believe and act on knowledge. More lessons will be released in Spring 2013.
About INNOVENTIONS at Epcot
INNOVENTIONS is located in the heart of Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Creativity and imagination abound as guests celebrate inspiration and the innovations that improve their lives and expand their horizons. Hands-on, interactive exhibits allow children and adults to be immersed into ideas that inform, entertain and inspire. For more information on INNOVENTIONS, visit www.innoventions.disney.com.
For more information about the IBM THINK exhibit, visit:
In 1952, IBM hired its first black engineer, Harry W. Cochrane. Harry graduated from Howard University 1952 with a degree in electrical engineering, and was immediately hired by IBM Poughkeepsie to work in the data processing unit.
During his career, Cochrane was awarded several patents for his inventions, including a core matrix calculator and binary matrix multiplier. At this late date we can’t tell for sure, but it’s possible that Harry may have been IBM’s first black patent-holder.
IBM Poughkeepsie’s Roland Patterson at work maintaining test equipment for the IBM 7090. Patterson brought an impressive resume to the job – he had been a radar repair instructor in U.S. Army, and had attended Middlebury College in Virginia, Union University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 1960
Another Howard graduate, Calvin L. Waite, was hired by IBM from Boeing, where he had worked on the design of the XB-52 bomber, in 1953 as a development engineer on the tape drive for the IBM 702. Cal later was assigned to M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory to work on the development of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system for national radar defense. In 1956, he was named manager of the Environment Test Laboratory for the IBM Federal Systems division, where he received the distinction of being IBM’s first black engineering manager. In the 1960s, Cal gave up engineering to help IBM recruit minority technical personnel, representing IBM at all of the Ivy League and Seven Sister colleges as well as the graduate schools of business at MIT, Harvard, Wharton and Amos Tuck. In addition he played a crucial role in recruiting graduates of his alma mater, Howard University. He largely remained in HR-related positions until he retired in 1988. He also has lived a life of public service, serving as chair of the Duchess County (N.Y.) Civil Rights Commission and, after retiring from IBM, Mayor of Oberlin, Ohio.
In 2008, IBM introduced a new award honoring Harry and Cal’s pioneering accomplishments, the Harry Cochrane/Cal Waite IBM Fellowship or Assistantship. The award is presented to an exceptional black PhD student worldwide.
by Paul Lasewicz,
IBM Corporate Archivist
Distinguished engineer Edith Stern
Edith Stern, a distinguished engineer and inventor at IBM with more than 100 patents to her name, has been given the Kate Gleason Award for lifetime achievement. The award ceremony took place at the 2012 ASME Honors Assembly in Houston, TX.
She received the award for the development of novel applications of new technologies. The 100 patents to her name represent her work in the worlds of telephony and the Internet, remote health monitoring, and digital media.
More:
Child Prodigy Edith Stern Wins Kate Gleason Award (Yorktown-Somers Patch)
Last week, Researchers from IBM and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology revealed an antimicrobial hydrogel that can break through diseased biofilms and completely eradicate drug-resistant bacteria upon contact. The hydrogel has clear applications in the field of medicine, making it an ideal tool to combat serious health hazards facing hospital workers, visitors and patients. 
The next #p4spchat will open discussions around IBM’s newly developed antimicrobial hydrogel and its potential impact on healthcare. You can ask the guest experts how and why IBM made this hydrogel. Guest Experts: IBM’s Chief Medical Scientist Dr. Marty Kohn and IBM Research Scientist Amanda Engler are joining the chat. Join us – here are the details you need.
