![Photo of people in the article](https://business.wfu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IBM-day-1.jpg)
By Stephanie Skordas, Sr. Associate Director, Communications
The School of Business hosted IBM Day in Farrell Hall for students, faculty, and staff. “Our association with Wake Forest goes back more than 20 years,” said Bernie Hoecker, General Manager, IBM Services. “We partnered to bring IBM Thinkpads into the classroom, which was a radical idea when it started.” Hoecker also shared how IBM has partnered with the School on a series of global case competitions combined with immersion courses. For the last few years, these competitions have been held in India, but this year, the competition shifts to Russia, with Wake Forest and Russian business students partnering on blended teams to solve real-world IBM Russia business problems. After the competition, Wake Forest students will travel to India and China to learn about business concerns and experience the countries.
During IBM Day, technical talks on the Internet of Things, quantum computing, blockchain, Watson, analytics and cloud computing were offered from a variety of IBM expert sources in Broyhill Auditorium. IBM’s Quantum Computing expert George Paulik said, “The world is quantum mechanical. Computers are based on Boolean algebra, but nature is not.” He touched on how quantum computing can be applied to chemistry, artificial intelligence, and financial services, and suggested interested students start experimenting with quantum computing free, at the IBM Q Experience.