Gaurav Karwa, a graduate research assistant presented a university-developed AI research assistant to IBM senior leadership

Gaurav Karwa, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Computer Science at the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering at Texas Tech University recently returned from a high-level visit to IBM’s Yorktown Heights Research Center in New York and the IBM-MIT office in Boston, where he presented a university-developed artificial intelligence (AI) research assistant to IBM’s senior leadership. 

The visits marked a significant step in strengthening Texas Tech’s collaboration with IBM in AI and quantum computing. Karwa met with Dr. Ramesh Gopinath, vice president of AI strategy at IBM Research, and Dr. Edward Barth, vice president at IBM Research, both of whom visited Texas Tech earlier this spring. During his visit, Karwa demonstrated an AI research assistant that he designed in partnership with Texas Tech history professor Paul Bjerk, using IBM’s open-source foundation models, which garnered enthusiastic interest. 

Karwa was also invited to showcase the assistant at IBM’s MIT office, where he met with Kate Soule, director of IBM’s Granite foundation models. These conversations signaled a key milestone: IBM expressed a willingness to collaborate with Texas Tech on selecting pre-released Granite models, further deepening their research engagement. 

“This collaboration opens up exciting possibilities for advancing our AI research and creating public-facing tools with real-world impact,” Karwa said. “It’s a strong step toward building a formal partnership between IBM and Texas Tech.” 

While in Boston, Karwa and a team of Texas Tech undergraduate computer science students participated in the EasyA Hackathon, hosted alongside the Harvard Blockchain Conference, where his team earned early recognition and is expected to receive at least $400 in cash awards. 

During the event, he interacted with industry leaders leveraging blockchain capabilities from the Dallas-based Hedera distributed ledger in their products. They discussed the feasibility of hosting a Hedera node at Texas Tech University. These conversations also explored broader opportunities for collaboration between the blockchain industry and the university, including student engagement, research initiatives, and innovation partnerships. 

Undergraduate students from Texas Tech also participated in the IBM visits, gaining exposure to industry leaders and exploring internship and full-time job opportunities.  

“This trip has been instrumental in creating new avenues for research, student engagement and institutional collaboration,” Karwa said. “We’re excited about what’s ahead and look forward to expanding Texas Tech’s role in global innovation.” 

Karwa also extended his gratitude to the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering for supporting his travel to Boston, which helped make this valuable experience possible. 

For more information, contact the Department of Computer Science.