Friday, September 20, 2013

Master the Mainframe 2013

Something different. Something from IBM. ibm  A teacher friend of mine forward the following announcement the other day. This contest is open to high school and university students in the U.S. and Canada (excluding Quebec).  Sorry Quebec. I know that some high school students have done this in the past and learned a lot. The mainframe is not completely dead and will likely never be truly dead. An experience like this will set students apart from the crowd.

Registration for the 2013 IBM Master the Mainframe Contest is now open!  This year, the IBM Academic Initiative System z team is giving away over $53,000 in prizes, including Google Nexus 10 tablets, expenses-paid trips, custom T-shirts, and a ton of swag! Plus, tons of great technical challenges to give your students hands-on experience and sought-after skills.  Students who complete the first two parts of the contest will gain hands-on experience with four different operating systems!

Visit our 2013 Master the Mainframe Contest homepage for details.  Students can access the simple registration form from that page. 

We also put a link to a printable PDF flyer on the homepage to help promote the contest to your students - the perfect accessory for any bulletin board!

The contest, which begins on October 7, is an educational tool that progresses in difficulty and prize value as contestants complete a variety of tasks, logging into a remote mainframe system from their own workstations.

This year, the custom Master the Mainframe Contest T-shirt (the prize for being among the first 2,600 contestants to complete Part 1) will feature "tour dates" on the back, which will match the hometowns of the 50 schools that have the most registrants as of October 7. 

You can connect with other students and educators, and keep up with the latest contest announcements, on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/MasterTheMainframe

Students will also be encouraged to use their mainframe skills to help them apply for the jobs on our System z Job Board at systemzjobs.com.

Our team hopes to see your students Mastering the Mainframe this fall.  Best wishes for a successful semester!

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5 comments:

  1. Doctor Dark5:49 AM

    I wonder why I can't follow thos links from the UK?

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  2. Alfred C Thompson II7:55 PM

    The contest is only available in the US and Canada from what I understand. Surprised that they do a check, if they do, for visits from outside north America.

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  3. Vance10:27 PM

    Many of the old links got terminated this year as the contest url was changed. The world wide contest portal is active at :
    https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/university/students/

    Keep an eye out for regional contests to spring up in your area, I know there is whispers of the UK contest in my neck of the woods, so it ought to be coming soon.

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  4. Anonymous6:11 AM

    Chris - UK will have its own Master the Mainframe contest. You can participate there.

    Check out https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/university/students/

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  5. Sean9:14 AM

    There are actually quite a few contests all around the world, including the BRIC countries, Europe, and Central and South America. Poland was the first contest for 2013, and China and North America are running currently. Here is the country-neutral URL for the contest. You can keep an eye on this site to see when the contest launches in other countries. https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/university/students/

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