ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The IBM-HBCU Quantum Center is a multi-year investment of resources to develop HBCU students at HBCU across the nation to create a more diverse quantum-ready workforce.
"These courses that IBM has made available to us allow SC State to enhance all of the offerings we already had," said South Carolina State University President James E. Clark.
For SC State University Students like Ramon Lavender, the partnership gives him access to IBM quantum computers on the cloud and more career opportunities.
"It gives my peers and me more insight on the workforce where we want to work," said Lavender. "Whether it's a data scientist, data analyst, engineer, or journalist."
The IBM-HBCU Quantum Center was created in September of last year. So far, 23 HBCUs are in the initiative.
IBM-Quantum's product manager for community partnership, Dr. Kayla Lee, said, "IBM's priority in launching the Center is to support and facilitate quantum research and education for HBCU faculty and students as part of the growing quantum workforce."
The rising senior at SC State University says his peers should take advantage of learning IBM's data science and cybersecurity because they tie in with the world we live in now.
"As we have seen in with the current pandemic, everything that wasn't digitalize was over with," explained Lavender.
HBCUs in the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center include:
- Albany State University
- Clark Atlanta University
- Coppin State University
- Hampton University
- Howard University
- Morehouse College
- Morgan State University
- North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
- Southern University
- Texas Southern University
- University of the Virgin Islands
- Virginia Union University
- Xavier University of Louisiana
- Alabama State University
- Bowie State University
- Delaware State University
- Dillard University
- Florida A&M University
- Norfolk State University
- North Carolina Central University
- Tennessee State University
- University of the District of Columbia
- South Carolina State University