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Sapient and MIT Named Finalists for Computerworld 21St Century Achievement Award
WASHINGTON & CAMBRIDGE, Mass. --(Business Wire)-- June 7, 2004 -- Washington DC Ceremony to Honor MIT OpenCourseWare for Providing Open Access to MIT Course Content to Anyone, Anywhere in the World
Sapient (NASDAQ: SAPE), a leading business consulting and technology services firm, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be jointly recognized as one of five worldwide finalists for the Computerworld 21st Century Achievement in Education and Academia Award at a ceremony to be held later today. The Computerworld Honors Foundation, which is composed of leading chairmen and chief executive officers from the world's foremost IT firms, universities, libraries and organizations, established the 21st Century Achievement Award in multiple industry categories to identify organizations that are breaking new ground in the use of IT to improve society. The top five finalists in each category will be honored during the 16th Annual Computerworld Honors Award Ceremony held at The National Building Museum in Washington DC.
Sapient and MIT have been named finalists in the Education and Academia category for their work to develop MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW), a groundbreaking Web-based publishing initiative that makes the educational materials used in the teaching of virtually all MIT subjects available online, free of charge to any user anywhere in the world. Sapient provided technology strategy, design and implementation services to help MIT realize its vision of delivering its entire library of educational materials and resources in a way that is easy for educators, students and self-learners to navigate and adapt based on their unique needs.
"I have always had a dream to study at MIT since I came to know about the institution and its unique teaching methods, but for many reasons I am not able to do so. This initiative gives me the opportunity to teach myself what MIT teaches to their students," said Maruf Muqtadir, a computer science student at BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
"Since the launch of our proof-of-concept pilot in Fall 2003, the MIT OCW Web site has received traffic from users in more than 215 countries, city-states and territories, making it a truly global initiative," said Anne H. Margulies, executive director of the MIT OCW project. "Our partnership with Sapient has enabled us to provide a reliable and user-friendly site for educators and learners around the world, and it is a wonderful honor to be jointly recognized with Sapient by the prestigious Computerworld Honors program."
MIT OCW currently offers free and open access to the educational materials from 701 MIT courses, spanning MIT's five schools, and all 33 of its academic disciplines. Educators can draw upon the materials to build and improve their curriculum, while students and self-learners can access the work of MIT faculty for self-study.
Said Daniel Morrow, executive director of the Computerworld Honors Program. "The case study on MIT OCW has enriched our Program's growing collection on the Information Age through helping to build an accurate historic record of the truly outstanding achievements being made in these remarkable times."
The five worldwide finalists in 10 categories, including Science, Medicine and Manufacturing among others, will be honored at the June 7th ceremony, which will culminate in the announcement of one worldwide 21st Century Achievement Award winner per category. Case studies from the entire 2004 Computerworld Honors Collection can be accessed at www.cwheroes.org, where the entire Collection is available to scholars, researchers and the general public worldwide.
"This recognition acknowledges the combined passion, commitment and technology integration expertise of both MIT and Sapient to deliver a groundbreaking solution that will forever change the future of education," said Sapient Vice President Mike Detjen.
About MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OCW makes the educational materials that are used in the teaching of almost all MIT undergraduate and graduate courses available on the Web, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world. This venture continues the tradition at MIT, and in American higher education, of open dissemination of educational materials, philosophy, and modes of thought. See MIT OCW on the Web at http://ocw.mit.edu/.
About Sapient
Sapient is a leading business consulting and technology services firm that plans, designs, implements, and manages information technology to improve business performance for Global 2000 clients. Sapient was founded in 1991 based on a single promise: to deliver the right business results, on time and on budget. Sapient's fixed-price/fixed-time model, combined with industry, design, technology, and process expertise, provides clients with the highest business value at the lowest total cost of ownership. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Sapient has offices in Canada, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. More information about Sapient can be found at www.sapient.com.
Sapient is a registered service mark of Sapient Corporation.
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