BANDAR SERI BAGAWAN, Brunei Darussalam, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) today announced an agreement to collaborate on climate modeling research that will investigate the impact of climate change on flood forecasting, crop yields, renewable energy and the health of rainforests in the region.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO)

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO)

The collaboration will help Universiti Brunei Darussalam accelerate its research capabilities in biodiversity, energy and agrotechnology. Universiti Brunei Darussalam will acquire an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer--the first of its kind in the South East Asia (ASEAN) region-- to provide high performance computing power for the collaborative work.

Researchers from UBD and IBM will work together to develop climate models based on regional climate data. The new hydrological models will be incorporated into the weather models to enable flood forecasting and predict climatic impact on the rainforests.

The UBD-IBM collaboration also will support Brunei Darussalam's "vision 2035" goal of developing well educated people with high quality of life and a dynamic, sustainable economy.

This collaboration will provide UBD researchers the opportunity to work with world class researchers from IBM's global research laboratories on projects that will analyze and assess the current and future impact of climate change in the ASEAN region.

"Universiti Brunei Darussalam's collaboration with IBM reinforces our mission to be a first class international university, priding ourselves as a research-driven educational enterprise with focus that is aligned with key national priorities to help Brunei Darussalam achieve its vision of a knowledge-based economy," said Dr. Hj Zulkarnain bin Hj Hanafi, UBD Vice Chancellor.

"This research collaboration with UBD has the potential to drive new breakthroughs in the understanding of regional climate change and translating that knowledge into improved flood forecasting and higher crop yield," said Tom Reeves, Vice President, IBM Research Partnerships. "We are excited to collaborate with UBD on an initiative that can help increase innovation and entrepreneurship in Brunei, while providing IBM an opportunity to expand the impact of its research expertise in the important area of climate change."

About IBM

For more information about IBM's work with universities, visit: http://www.ibm.com/press/university

About Universiti Brunei Darussalam

For more information, visit http://www.ubd.edu.bn

    Media contacts:

    Chris Andrews
    IBM Media Relations
    914-945-1195
    candrews@us.ibm.com


    Nadiah Syed Nahar    Dr. Joyce Teo Siew Yean
    IBM Malaysia Sdn Bhd Universiti Brunei Darussalam
    +603-2301 3754                  +6732-463001 ext. 1277/2112
    nadiahsn@my.ibm.com  siewyean.teo@ubd.edu.bn

SOURCE IBM