November 7, 2008

IBM India Research Laboratory has recently introduced the IBM Blue Scholar Program, an elite program to nurture exceptionally talented engineering graduates and postgraduate students from leading technical institutions in India such as the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science, and build a robust pipeline for future researchers in the region.

The program will provide the brightest of the technical students in the country with the means to pursue advanced research in information technology with the potential to make a profound impact. The criteria for selection will be stringent and those selected would explore breakthrough, high-impact research that has the potential to help solve some of the current challenging business and societal problems.

“The Blue Scholar Program is aimed at growing that rare talent that blooms in a scientifically challenging atmosphere,” said Manish Gupta, Associate Director, IBM India Research Laboratory. “We are targeting the brightest students from India who will be exposed to exciting research environment, given opportunities to do leading edge, impactful work with guidance from senior researchers, and will be encouraged to pursue a career in scientific and technological research.”

Targeted at developing the most talented graduates in computing and services disciplines each year, these exclusive appointments will be initially for a period of two years. At end of the two year appointment, the Blue Scholars could be offered a regular job with IBM Research, enrollment in Employee PhD program, conversion to Research Staff Member upon completion of PhD, or the option of pursuing other opportunities outside the company. The program aims to offer competitive compensation, an innovative work culture, projects with significant research challenges and the opportunity to publish at top conferences.

The company’s India Research Laboratory is the one of most exciting places for researchers in computing and services to work in the country promising cutting-edge research to create new ideas in software engineering, distributed computing, databases, data mining, speech processing and other related areas, and apply them to challenging business problems in service delivery and telecommunication.

The company has a network of more than 60 R&D labs globally that collaborate on advanced solutions for clients. Its laboratory population includes 28,000 researchers, developers and engineers. Twenty percent of them work directly with clients. In 2007, the IBM labs conducted more than 10,000 engagements with clients.