IBM has launched, in partnership with Kivuto Solutions, an academic software distributor. Via Kivuto’s popular digital resource management platform, students and academics around the world will now gain free access to the complete IBM Bluemix Portfolio — and specifically, Watson. This offers students and faculty at any accredited university – as well as community colleges and high schools with STEM programs – an easy way to tap into Watson services. Through this access, teachers will also gain a better means to create curriculum around subjects like AI.
Starting today, students and teachers can register online using their academic credentials, download IBM software and secure Bluemix promotion codes that enable them to access our suite of cognitive services available through the Watson platform. They will receive six months’ worth of free access and then can renew their access at no cost while they are enrolled at the university. Faculty receive 12 months of free access.
For academic faculty, IBM is also providing them access to specialized IBM courseware, including labs, exercises and answer sheets for use in classes or lectures. For both groups, our goal was simple – to provide fast, easy and free access to a huge portfolio of tools and resources that will enable them to tap into the power of cognitive computing.
All of the software and products available through the IBM Academic Initiative can be accessed through the OnTheHub IBM Academic Initiative page, a digital storefront of IBM’s offerings including, of course, Watson.
“Our partnership with Kivuto is just the latest example of IBM’s commitment to building the next generation of developers. Watson courses have been offered at nearly 300 universities, and many budding developers are attending Watson webinars and participating in hackathons,” IBM said.
“Some of the best cognitive solutions we’ve seen created with Watson have originated from university students. A great example is ROSS Intelligence, a Y Combinator-backed startup that began as a winning team from the University of Toronto at a Watson Academic Competition. ROSS ultimately built the world’s first artificially intelligent lawyer that is currently helping in legal research for bankruptcy law firms.”
