Corporate Partners In Computing: An Update

The Corporate Partners in Computing Program, jointly supported by the Department of Computer Science and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) has experienced tremendous growth over the past six months. The program has reached current capacity with twenty five members including the addition of our newest partners: Leidos, Adobe India, Capital One, AQR Capital Management, and NSA. Partners have engaged in a variety of department events this semester including the Daemon Dash Hackathon, CS Career and Internship Fair, Resume Workshop, and Technical Interview Workshop. The funds raised from the Corporate Partners program have helped to support undergraduate student scholarships, events, staffing needs, and research efforts for the Department of Computer Science and UMIACS.  

Eight corporate partners (Appian, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cipher Tech Solutions, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, NSA/LTS, OPIS, and Tata), supported Bitcamp, a student organized and run hackathon.  The keynote speaker was Brendan Iribe, CEO and Co-founder of Oculus VR.  Recently, Mr. Iribe and fellow Terp and Oculus Co-founder, Michael Antonov, donated a historic gift for a new building: The Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation.  

Four corporate partners (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Dante) have directly contributed to sending thirty-five women in Computer Science to the Grace Hopper Celebration to be held this October in Phoenix, Arizona. The event, also sponsored by the Anita Borg Institute, will highlight the contributions that women continually make to all fields of computing.  Facebook and Intel are contributing to this historic gift which also has a research collaboration component entitled BRAID (Building Recruiting And Inclusion for Diversity) chaired by Harvey Mudd President, Maria Klawe.

AFCEA Bethesda has renewed a five-year pledge for scholarship and program support in Computer Science.  Their support of $225K will help to ensure quality STEM education initiatives and diversity outreach activities within the computing community at UMD.

The Corporate Partners in Computing Program is designed to establish mutually beneficial, strategic relationships with organizations that share a commitment to advancing computer science and interdisciplinary computing through collaborative efforts in education, research, and technology development.   Currently, seven corporate partner companies have alumni in leadership positions, as founders, CEOs, CTOs, or in other influential roles in an organization.  The Computer Science Department and UMIACS hope to increase the numbers of alumni-led companies and organizations dramatically in the next few years.