CUNY-IBM Watson Social Impact Challenge is a semester-long experience designed to improve the academic achievement and social engagement of the City University’s diverse student population through project-based learning focused on using applied IBM Watson AI technologies to solve social problems. The Social Impact Challenge prepares students for careers in the 21st Century economy.
The skills essential to student success in the 21st Century include critical thinking, complex problem solving, communication and team building skills and increasing technological literacy – both the technology and the ethical and social implications of its use. These are skills best developed in a project-based experience where students are challenged to apply knowledge and skills developed in a disciplinary course to real-world problems that have no one, right, “cookie-cutter” answer. Furthermore, the rapid changes in technology and the disruption it causes requires a commitment to life-long learning to continuously develop the skills required for success.
The CUNY-IBM Watson Social Impact Challenge (previously called CUNY-IBM Watson Case Competition) is a collaboration between Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, IBM Corporate Citizenship, the City University of New York and the New York City Government.