EWU celebrates regional partnerships in Spokane

At a ceremony Thursday, Eastern Washington University announced a series of initiatives and celebrated recent partnerships with businesses in the Spokane area.

The university’s partnership with Microsoft, for instance, is part of the school’s heavy focus on developing it’s STEM programs.

Through it, students at EWU can certify in Microsoft’s data science program as part of their bachelor’s degree in data analytics. The Microsoft certification currently has a 10 percent completion rate. Support of faculty and peers will help increase those numbers, said EWU President Mary Cullinan.

The university also celebrated its partnership with Avista to build the zero net energy “Catalyst Building” in Spokane that will house computer science, electrical engineering and visual communication programs.

Cullinan said EWU especially wants to work with and accommodate for the needs of businesses in the region.

Unlike other public universities in Washington that focus more on theoretical research, EWU’s applied research is filling the niche for real-world applications in the region, she said.

“If businesses have needs, we want to be able to fill those,” she said.