IBM Professor Spotlight Of The Month: North Carolina Central University And Professor Cameron Seay

Recognized for his Commitment to Mainframe and Large Enterprise Computing Education



ARMONK, NY - Apr 2008: IBM today announced that Professor Cameron Seay, North Carolina Central University (NCCU), has been named the IBM Academic Initiative Professor Spotlight of the Month. The IBM Professor Spotlight is a monthly showcase award given to only one college or university professor across the globe, who in working with IBM, has demonstrated a long term commitment to teaching students mainframe and large enterprise skills.

Professor Seay is the lead professor of Computer Information Systems for the School of Business at North Carolina Central University. Professor Seay’s innovative mainframe computing classes and commitment to IBM’s System z technology have helped NCCU achieve the university’s mission to “increase the academic and professional skills of its students and faculty.”

With more than 47,000 students worldwide having completed enterprise systems courses, IBM has already more than doubled on its goal to educate 20,000 college students on the mainframe by 2010 through its Academic Initiative on System z. Professor Seay has played an integral role in this effort, offering NCCU’s first mainframe computing course, Introduction to Enterprise Systems, in the Spring of 2006. Using IBM System z as the platform, his class contained both concepts and lab components, giving students hands-on experience with the computing environment used in many large companies.

“The mainframe is a foundation technology and architecture that is not going away anytime soon and if students want to have careers in information technology and computer science, the mainframe needs to be a foundation for their learned technologies,” said Professor Cameron Seay, NCCU. “Through working with IBM’s Academic Initiative for System z program, I’ve been able to get access IBM experts, tools and resources necessary to help my students build careers around large enterprise skills and the mainframe, and I’m thrilled to receive this award.”

Since the start of his course, Professor Seay has been dedicated not only to enhancing his own skills and those of his colleagues, but also to finding opportunities to enhance NCCU students’ technical education. His hands-on approach to teaching engaged students from the start, and his efforts have proven fruitful, with 11 of his students successfully landing jobs at large financial institutions after graduation. Professor Seay continues enhancing the curriculum and is currently developing a three-course System z certification program that he hopes will become a mainstay in the NCCU course syllabus.

“The IBM mainframe is poised to continue the tremendous growth track it has been on in recent years,” said Kathleen Pfeiffer, Program Manager, IBM Academic Initiative for System z. “The students of today are going to be responsible for the future operations of the mainframe, and it is thanks to professors such as Cameron Seay that students are learning a wide range of mainframe skills and gaining hands-on experience. Professor Seay’s passion and commitment is inspiring to his students, demonstrating the very essence of our Academic Initiative for System z program.”

The IBM Academic Initiative for System z provides colleges and universities with educational resources to enhance the IBM System z skilled resource base and helps students develop practical skills that enable them to find good jobs quickly upon graduation. There are currently more than 400 colleges and universities across the globe teaching mainframe and large enterprise computing skills.

IBM System z is a key element of IBM’s New Enterprise Data Center model, which helps clients improve IT efficiency and facilitates the rapid deployment of new IT services for future business growth. The new model is based on best practices for virtualization, green IT, service management and cloud computing.

600 new applications were introduced for the IBM mainframe in 2007 – bringing the total to more than 4,000 unique applications available on the System z platform, and all of the top 50 worldwide banks and 22 of the top 25 U.S. retailers run System z.

In February 2008, IBM announced the z10 Enterprise Class mainframe, the most powerful mainframe computer in the world.
For more information on the IBM “Professor Spotlight of the Month” and on the IBM Academic Initiative for System z, please visit http://www.ibm.com/university/systemz.