IBM held their inaugural Smarter Planet University Jam earlier this year. The Jam was a crowdsourcing process held by IBM earlier this year where nearly 2,000 students from more than 200 universities from 40 countries around the world took part with the aim of building a Smarter Planet through technology.

Some of the findings from the Jam were:

• Eight of 10 students want universities to revamp traditional learning environment
• Over 90% want to join or start a Green Advocacy group at their campus
• 64% of students believe that the world has a chance to reverse carbon emissions by 2025 and
• 60% believe that education and efficient transportation offer the best hope for sustainability of our cities

I had the chance to talk to Jim Spohrer, the Director of IBM’s Global University Programs (GUP) recently about the Jam. We discussed the thinking behind it, the outcomes what were its take-aways.