In hopes of improving and duplicating wireless programs, professionals from IBM and 17 North American universities examined ASU's College of Business graduate laptop program at a seminar held Monday and continued today.
"We have a lot of great things underway here and we're really proud of them," said Dennis Hoffman, associate dean for the ASU Master of Business Administration Day Program.
More than 95 employees and faculty members from IBM, ASU and universities from Canada, the West Indies and all over the United States attended the IBM ThinkPad University Fly-in.
Although fly-in seminars have been taking place for five to six years, this is the first time IBM has done a fly-in to examine a graduate program, said Lori Kirby, sales solution specialist for ThinkPad University IBM Education.
"ASU is at the forefront of wireless implementation," Kirby said. "Having wireless laptops allows anywhere, anytime learning."
Kirby added IBM and other universities are here mainly to gather information about the technology and how to implement it in their own schools.
"IBM is hoping to learn what customers needs and wants are," she said. "The smart way to implement a program like this is to visit schools that have done it already, and ASU has done an exemplary job of this."
This is the third year the College of Business has had the laptop program in place and all incoming ASU MBA students are required to purchase one of four IBM laptops.
Stuart Low, an ASU MBA professor, said the laptop program allows students to gather current data and see principals he is teaching in a real-world application.
"[Laptop programs] are a good way to present difficult material in a really visual, hands-on way that students can understand," Low said.
Reach the reporter at samantha.xanthos@asu.edu.
