Master the Mainframe Contest 2009

IBM will provide extensive screen shots and direction, guiding students along and telling them exactly what they need to do. This part of the contest is designed to get students comfortable with navigating the mainframe user interface, as well as introducing them to some basic mainframe concepts.

The first 1,000 students to complete this section 100% correctly will receive custom Master the Mainframe T-shirts. Also, the 50 schools with the most eligible registrants as of 05 October will have their hometowns listed on the back of the shirt.

This section will require considerably more work from contestants. Using the skills they learned in Part 1, contestants will perform some more extensive systems programming (advanced commands, system security and advanced system navigation) and application developing (C, JAVA, COBOL, assembler and REXX) tasks. The first 60 students to successfully complete this section 100% correctly will receive a $100 pre-paid debit card and a certificate from IBM.

Also, all students to complete Part 2 100% correctly will be invited to put their resumes in the Student Opportunity System database, a popular recruiting tool accessible to all of IBM's clients and business partners.

This section is very challenging and will require extensive work from the student over weeks and months. The tasks in Part 3 are taken from real-life situations encountered by experienced systems programmers, along with challenges designed to identify the contestants with the most drive and determination. The five students who manage to successfully complete the most Part 3 tasks will get to choose between a Samsung 22" LCD HDTV and a Lenovo S10-2 netbook computer. In addition, the top three winners will receive a two-day expenses-paid trip to the IBM mainframe lab in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Registration is open on the Students tab. The contest will run from 05 October through 29 December 2009.