What did we learn there ?

The first thing I noticed was the great framework of IBMers in Krakow ! We visited their labs just in front of our hotel: 2 big towers with brand new equipment inside. The atmosphere seemed convivial. The engineers welcomed us to show us their work and explain what it is all about.

But what do they work on ?

One particular project caught my attention was because of:
It's a substantial project that could change our world (it’s quite something!)
As a business student with no engineering background, this subject was the most understandable and fascinating !

You must be thinking, “what is it ??”

 
A Smarter Planet

“ The world is becoming instrumented, interconnected and intelligent”

This is the starting point of a new way of thinking at IBM. With a trillion networked things—cars,
roadways, pipelines, appliances, pharmaceuticals and even livestock—the amount of information created by those interactions grows exponentially.
However a lot of failures occur every day in our lives: mail delivery is low, traffic jams are a daily issue in most of the big cities in the world, sick students miss a part of their lessons because they have to stay at home, … In sum, many of our current ways of doing things are inefficient and expensive, and eventually will not work.

IBMers consider that their role is to work together to make our planet smarter simply by using our existing resources and our expertise and experience.
The new objective at IBM is to work on concrete solutions that could enable people to avoid wasting time and money.

I suggest you to read more about this wide project on the following websites:
Smarter Planet Official website
http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ideasfromibm/us/smartplanet/20081106/index2.shtml?&re=sp2