Master the Mainframe contest was a mainframe programming challenge organized annually by IBM Academic Initiative System z.
History
Originally catering to students attending North American institutions of higher learning (US and Canada, excluding Quebec), the contest ran in as many as 30 countries across the globe. The goal of the contest was to provide students with the opportunity to experience working with mainframes. The contest was created in part to increase the number of mainframe skilled individuals in the computing workforce.
Contest
For North America, the contest typically started during the Fall semester and run until the end of December. It was separated into 3 parts, with each part increasing in complexity. Part 1 introduced the basic aspects necessary to get started with mainframe technologies and required minimal time to complete. Part 2 involved more steps for each task and usually took a day or so to accomplish. The first 60 winners of Part 2 received monetary prizes in recognition of their achievement. Part 3 was more in depth, involving multiple programming challenges such as COBOL, REXX, JCL, etc. (depending on the questions set for the year's challenge).
Prizes
Past winners of Part 3 received gifts such as iPad, iPod, laptops or netbooks. Winners also received an all-expense-paid trip to the IBM mainframe facility in Poughkeepsie, New York.
References
- Pfeiffer, Kathy. "IBM Academic Initiative At Your Service" (PDF). Retrieved 12 September 2024.
- Todd, Mike; Newton, P. "Master the Mainframe Contest: Past, Present and Future" (PDF). ECC 2011. p. 8. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
- Todd, Mike; Newton, P. "Master the Mainframe Contest: Past, Present and Future" (PDF). ECC 2011. pp. 3–4. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
- Sharma, Niranjan. "IBM Academic Initiative Helps Fill the Skills Gap". Retrieved 10 January 2012.
- Todd, Mike; Newton, P. "Master the Mainframe Contest: Past, Present and Future" (PDF). ECC 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2012.