Next gen cloud engineers to visit UTSA's Open Cloud Institute and Rackspace
Photo Credit: Thinkstock
Photo Credit: Thinkstock
Share this Story(July 23, 2015) -- Up to 200 Texas Prefreshman Engineering Program (Tex-PREP) students will get a peek at the future – perhaps their own – when the UTSA Open Cloud Institute (OCI) and its industry partner, Rackspace, open their doors next week for a day of presentations and tours.
The event, on Tuesday, July 28, will bring together PREP IV students from UTSA, UT-Rio Grande Valley and Texas A&M International for an update on open cloud activities at UTSA and Rackspace. Cloud experts will also review projects that the students developed while in PREP IV over the summer.
"This represents an exceptional opportunity for our PREP students to connect with some of the nation's leading experts in cloud computing," said Raul A. Reyna, executive director of the Prefreshman Engineering Program in the UTSA Office of P-20 Initiatives. "UTSA and Rackspace are blazing new trails in open cloud technology and by being exposed to this technology, our PREP students will also be benefactors of this amazing collaboration."
UTSA and Rackspace launched the OCI earlier this year as an initiative to develop degree programs in cloud computing and big data and foster collaboration with industry. Through the 80/20 Foundation and other industry supporters, the institute was funded with initial gifts and in-kind investments of $9 million.
Marina Gavito, executive director of TechBloc and former PREP student and product manager at Rackspace, and other Rackers who went through the PREP program wanted to develop a special event to showcase projects developed by PREP IV students using Raspberry Pi computers and the Python programming language. Additionally, the July 28 event will give San Antonio and other PREP IV students an unprecedented opportunity to see the OCI-Rackspace partnership at work.
"At Rackspace, we believe in supporting the community by opening the eyes of local students to the potential of their future," said Cara Nichols, director of Rackspace Community Affairs and president of the Rackspace Foundation. "We have worked with UTSA and Geekdom for many years on initiatives that support the local community and tech talent pipeline, and we're thrilled to partner with them once again for the UTSA PREP Day. This event will give students a firsthand look into careers in the tech industry, from the cutting edge technologies being developed at the OCI to the talented individuals implementing them at Rackspace. It's our hope that events like these will inspire students to become Rackers one day."
PREP students will begin the day at the OCI on the UTSA Main Campus, work in the OCI laboratory and hear from Rackspace about sustainability in technology. Then, San Antonio PREP (SAPREP) students will tour Rackspace, one of the largest cloud-based companies in the world, while TexPREP and UTSA TRIO Educational Talent Search students will tour biosciences facilities at UTSA. The students will then present their capstone projects to a panel of judges via simulcast. Awards will be presented at the end of the day.
The students will also get an opportunity to learn about OpenStack and Chameleon Cloud, The National Science Foundation $10 million grant which UTSA is leading the education and training to enable academic community to develop and experiment with novel cloud architectures and applications.
The UTSA/OCI/Rackspace/Geekdom event marks the end of this summer's San Antonio PREP program, which attracted more than 1,600 participants over a seven-week period. Established in 1979 by UTSA mathematics professor Manuel Berriozabal, SAPREP has an impressive track record with almost 17,000 students completing at least one summer component. The program has been replicated across the state as TexPREP and in other parts of the country as PREP-USA, serving 38,135 students since its inception.
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Learn more about the UTSA Open Cloud Institute.
Learn more about Rackspace.
Learn more about PREP-USA.
Learn more about the Chameleon project.
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Events
This event will acknowledge graduating seniors from the McNair Scholars program at UTSA before inducting the new cohort of scholars into the program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140), Main CampusAt this memorable celebration, UTSA graduates will be introduced one-by-one to cross the stage and accept their doctoral degrees.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusRoadrunner Walk is an event for graduating students to have a memorable walk on campus to celebrate an important milestone and their achievements. Graduates will walk along the Paseo while being celebrated by the UTSA community, friends, and family members.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.Celebrate the accomplishments of Alvarez College of Business, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.
