Among IBM Corp.’s new partnership ventures is a $10 million investment in tech skills education community Galvanize. Willie Tejada (pictured), chief developer advocate at IBM, said the partnership addresses a shortage of cognitive developers that mirrors the dearth of data scientists.

“There’s a new set of skillsets that are probably moving faster than we’ve ever seen before,” Tejada said. The “new cognitive developer” must master these skills to work effectively.

Tejada spoke to John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during IBM InterConnect 2017 in Las Vegas, NV. (*Disclosure below.)

Who is this cognitive developer Tejada referred to? He or she can be described as one creating and working within a system that is cognitive to the core.

“Adding a cognitive feature is one thing, but actually building a full cognitive system is something different,” he said.

Cognitive developers need explicit knowledge of cognitive application program interfaces and how to train cognitive systems, among other skills. Some of these other skills cognitive developers require overlap with those of data scientists, another short-staffed group.

On the road with tech corps

“What you need to know about data is pushing towards a practitioner level of data scientist,” across all developer categories, he said.

Future developers will need to combine data and cognitive skills, Tejada pointed out, adding that the architecture itself will demand them. “It’s cloud, number one, followed by data layered on top of that, and essentially AI or cognitive on top,” he said.

IBM and Galvanize are setting out as missionaries to teach developers these skills via intimate non-linear experiences. They will be hitting the ground in nine cities worldwide, including New York, San Francisco and Beijing.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM InterConnect 2017. (*Disclosure: SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE is a media partner at InterConnect. Neither IBM nor other conference sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE