Marist and IBM: Collaboration Within and Beyond the Classroom
IBM and Marist have a rich history of collaboration, and the benefits provide excellent opportunities for students.
Joint Study students volunteering at a "Take Your Children To Work" event at IBM. From left to right: Luke Pecovic '24, Luciano Mattoli '25, Christian Sarmiento '25, Cassidy Heulings '26, Evan Spillane '25, Luke Jacobs '23 and Amanda Potenza '25. Credit: Christy Schroeder
Marist College prides itself on its ability to connect students to networks and communities outside of the college. After all, an “Expansive Community” is one of the main pillars of the Marist 100 Strategic Plan. One of the best examples of this pillar is the IBM Joint Study Program, which has provided students with networking, hands-on learning and academic benefits for years.
IBM & Marist: A History of Collaboration
The exciting collaborations between Marist and IBM are not recent developments. The partnership between IBM and Marist began in 1978 when IBM delivered a new mainframe computer to Donnelly Hall. Soon after, in the 1980s, a $10 million, 10-ton System 3090 computer was installed.
Since then, there have been several major technological upgrades to campus through the partnership with IBM. These range from an automated student telephone directory to Marist becoming the first college to develop a Linux Research and Development Lab.
Other examples include an Academic Cloud hosted here at Marist, Digital Library upgrades and more recently, the purchase of a z16 mainframe for AI, security and quantum research.
Academically, the collaborations between IBM and Marist began in 1988, when Joint Study projects began to form. Academics became a huge part of the partnership, with important curricula added to the School of Computer Science and Mathematics. Classes on cybersecurity principles, quantum research and other technological research have been supported by IBM.
The Joint Study Program
Christy Schroeder is the program director of the Joint Study Program at Marist. She has worked for IBM for 34 years and has been program director for the past two years.
“The joint study program is a collaboration between IBM and Marist to do research, proof of concepts and technical projects to work on, where we have an IBM subject matter expert working with a Marist faculty member along with the student to do that work and publish results,” said Schroeder.
As Program Director, Schroeder helps manage the relations and connections between IBM and Marist, specifically with faculty and students. There are currently five faculty members who participate in the Joint Study projects, but she wants to expand the faculty involvement to other departments.
“I think we could do a better job with talking to all the faculty, and especially with AI, it’s going to be so pervasive that it’s not just going to be math and computer science; it’s going to be across the fashion industry, it’s going to be across business, data is going to be at the heart of everything,” she said.
Eight students are currently part of the Joint Study Program, but similarly to the faculty, Schroeder said she would love to grow that number. Each student works on different projects while being paired with faculty and subject matter experts. Every project is different and requires a different set of skills.
“There’s one that deals with quantum, a totally different skill set that you would need versus Precision Time Protocol. The ECRL is the Enterprise Computing Research Lab — that’s the hardware, the systems administration, the networking, again, a totally different skill set than your programmers. It’s fantastic, great hands-on experience that they get to do in a data center,” she said.
Schroeder is prideful of the fact that the program provides several experiences outside the classroom. Not only is it a good experience for the students, but people in the industry enjoy the involvement of the students as well.
“Giving them an opportunity to go and meet with industry and attend a conference and to have the opportunity to speak in front of clients is such a fabulous experience,” said Schroeder. “Clients love, especially in an enterprise computing space, seeing younger people because they always think they’re never going to want to work in enterprise computing.”
The Joint Study Student Experience
Fred Berberich ‘25 majors in cybersecurity and is a recent addition to the Joint Study Program. He was introduced to the program through faculty and friends. Post-graduation, he hopes to have a position in endpoint security or IT. His position in the Joint Study Program is a System Administrator of the ECRL.
“One thing that we do is help certain capstone projects that are being run in the lab. One of the current projects that I’m going to start doing is setting up the DHCP [Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol]…it is a basic little protocol that assigns IP addresses,” he said.
Lilly McPadden ‘25 majors in computer science with a concentration in software development, and she joined the Joint Study Program in the summer of her junior year. She was introduced to the program while on a tour of campus, and in her words, “that program definitely was one of the big factors why I ended up picking Marist.”
Currently, McPadden is in a co-op program with IBM, but while she was a Joint Study student, she worked on Precision Time Protocol development.
“In the Joint Study, I worked on a Precision Time Protocol, which is a timing protocol in clocks that make sure that your time is completely synchronized and up to date with your system,” she said.
When asked about the opportunities they felt the Joint Study Program gave them, both students highlighted the networking aspect. “Definitely networking, not just technical, I mean actually networking with the people within IBM. It definitely opens up things networking–wise, it definitely opens up a lot of windows, and everyone kind of has your best interest [in mind],” said Berberich.
McPadden’s sentiments are the same. Many students in the Joint Study Program get to attend conferences at the IBM facility in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and around the country, and she has attended several thanks to the program. So far, she has been to eight events, and she still has more to come.
“Everyone seems to know everyone, and it’s just led to some really cool things that not many people, especially in college, might get the opportunity to do.”
Berberich also highlighted that working in the Joint Study Program has put his practical skills to the test.
“I feel like a lot of stuff I learned in previous classes is definitely getting highlighted and expanding my knowledge even more. I have hands-on experience with other different types of equipment too,” he said.
In McPadden’s case, her experience in the program has led to an even greater opportunity — a full-time job offer from IBM.
“I’m going to be working at IBM full-time post-grad in the department that I interned with. It is called the ZPET team, which is the IBM Z Platform Evaluation Test team. It’s basically like the final stage of testing before things go out to the public,” she said.
These student experiences highlight exactly what Schroeder loves about the partnership between IBM and Marist. Collaboration is at the heart of the Joint Study Program.
“I wish people knew what a fantastic collaborative opportunity it provides. It’s the ability to work very closely with a Marist faculty advisor, while working with IBM and industry, to have a positive impact on innovation and research, while also giving the students an opportunity to enhance and build their resume with real skills,” she said, smiling, while looking at photos of her hardworking students.