Undergraduate students from the University of Maryland’s QUEST honors program took center stage on Oct. 7, 2017, as they pitched their ideas to a panel of IBM judges. In celebration of the program’s 25th anniversary, IBM partnered with Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) to introduce the monthlong design challenge.

This spring, Smith undergraduates teamed up with UMD engineering and computer science peers to answer a challenge from IBM to develop ideas for implementing its recent customer service innovation, the Watson Engagement Advisor.

Supply chain analytics was the theme of the Fourth Annual Business Analytics Workshop, held in College Park, Md., on Friday, May 2, 2014. Co-sponsored by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and IBM, the day-long workshop consisted of topics ranging from cyber supply chain risk management to disaster response planning and logistics.

Internet analytics was the theme of the Third Annual Business Analytics Workshop, held in Van Munching Hall on Friday, April 19, 2013. Co-sponsored by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and IBM, the day-long workshop consisted of topics ranging from social media intelligence to mitigating risk in online crowd funding markets and ended with a panel discussion on “How much data is enough?”

The best way to do this – specifically how to effectively and efficiently sort through and manage enormous amounts of healthcare data to improve quality of care – was the topic of discussion among thought leaders from the Smith School, IBM and the federal government at the second annual IBM Business Analytics Workshop. Smith and IBM co-hosted the daylong event at Van Munching Hall on May 17, 2012.