IBM Day 2016

EMET and IST students and faculty were treated to a visit from three IBM representatives for IBM Day at Penn State Altoona on October 20, 2016. Rich Prewitt, IBM distinguished engineer and chief test engineer in the IBM Systems organization, who works on the University Park campus, along with Chris DeRobertis, senior technical staff member at IBM, and IBM project manager Tara Duff came to the campus to lead programs and share the latest information on security, risk, and employment in the EMET and IST fields. Jungwoo Ryoo, division head and professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State Altoona, is not exaggerating when he says about the day, “It was a full schedule.”

Every day has news reports about hacking computer systems or leaked documents or firewalls breached, so it’s no surprise that the program leaders jumped right in with an IBM security information session led by DeRobertis. That was followed by a presentation on risk by Duff.

As part of IBM’s Students for a Smarter Planet initiative, Ryoo and Syed Rizvi, assistant professor of information sciences and technology, then provided updates on two projects that were beneficiaries of $5,000 IBM faculty awards. Rizvi is leading a research project on vehicle security. The computing power now built into cars makes them vulnerable to hackers who could even turn off a car engine or take over the steering so the research project’s goal is to secure the car systems. Ryoo is working on raising awareness regarding what is known as IoE (Internet of Everything) or IoE (Internet of Things). He says, “In our project we are developing an application to identify malicious devices such as the one that took down Google, Twitter, and those other sites a few weeks ago.” In a concurrent session, Duff met with female students to discuss women in security jobs.

After lunch with EMET and IST faculty, Prewitt provided an overview of IBM. For the rest of the afternoon students were able to participate in mock 25-minute interviews with the IBM representatives. Their resumes were collected to be forwarded to IBM for internship/job opportunities. After last year’s IBM Day, Ryoo notes, “one of the EMET students who attended a mock interview session was hired by the IBM Poughkeepsie campus.”

David Barnes, senior instructor in computer science and program coordinator for the SRA major and the campus representative for the University Park College of IST programs at Altoona, says about the collaboration between IBM and Penn State Altoona, “Working with IBM for the past few years has been an extraordinary opportunity for both our students and college. IBM has generously provided financial and computing resources to support our SRA program. Most valuable, however, has been the personal relationship that we have developed with Rich Prewitt and Chris DeRobertis.” Ryoo seconds those opinions, noting, “We are looking forward to our next IBM Day.”

Therese Boyd, ’79