Master the Mainframe 2011

• "My participation and successful completion of Part One (I'm still working on Part Two) of the IBM Master the Mainframe Contest helped to get me a job at [an international bank] working as a Junior Systems Support Analyst. This position has never been offered to a student before and I never would have been able to secure it without all that I have learned so far in the contest. Thanks for the great experience! I really appreciate it!"
  - Student, Georgian College
  
  
• "This stuff is brilliant, and I hope your team has gotten positive feedback on the incredible mainframe exposure that it's given to students."
  - Professor, University of Texas, Austin
  
  
• "From what I have seen of the contest it looks like a great opportunity for students to get a feel for the mainframe environment! Thanks!"
  - Professor, Fox Valley Technical College
  
  
• "I participated in the Master the Mainframe competition last year and enjoyed the challenge of learning how to be productive on Big Iron. In fact, a mere mention of mainframe knowledge alone during an interview very likely earned me an internship over the summer scheduling jobs using TWS. I'm hoping to learn more this time around and dive into part 3 to gain more skills that could open up more exciting opportunities in this field."
  - Student, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  
  
• "Thank you once again for hosting this competition. I enjoy the challenges very much as well as learning more about mainframes and parallel sysplex."
  - Student, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
  
  
• "I'm currently going through all of the problems again, quadruple checking my work and doing some problems over so that I have a better handle before submitting and going on to Part 3. I'm having a blast with this competition!"
  - Student, University of Hawaii at Hilo
  
  
• "Master the Mainframe has really given me an opportunity to broaden my horizons - I can now add another skill to my resume! I am currently working on the Java/DB2 question and I am finding it to be a great challenge. I have to admit I regret not competing in Part Three of the contest last year. This seems to be where all the really fun stuff is!! I am looking forward to seeing what else you guys have waiting for me. Wish me luck and thanks for the great experience !! :-)"
  - Student, Georgian College
  
  
• "It has been a great experience so far! Hope everybody else is having great fun too... Thanks once again for the opportunity."
  - Student, University of Oklahoma
  
  
• "Just finished part 2 and looking for the real challenge! :-) Great contest so far! I'm learning TONS. Thanks!"
  - Student, Louisiana State University
  
  
• "I am enjoying playing around with the mainframe! It is lots of fun! I appreciate this contest and am looking forward to spending many hours on your mainframe for part three :) Thank you so much for running such a cool contest."
  - Student, Lake Sumter Community College
  
  
• "The contest has been fun and challenging so far. Thanks for hosting it."
  - Student, University of Denver
  
  
• "My students are enjoying it. So am I. I've never used anything like this."
  - Teacher, Arkansas School for Mathematics, Science and the Arts
  
  
• "Thank you for organizing this great contest."
  - Student, Columbia University
  
  
• "The hands on experience with z/OS got me even more interested in the mainframe world. With the experience I've gained through classes and the contest I have secured a job working on the z/OS operating system. I would recommend the contest to anyone who is interested in computer science and IT in general, many people will never have a chance to interact directly with a mainframe, and this is a great opportunity."
  - Student, Northern Illinois University
  
  
• "I would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this contest and also thank you for providing such a rewarding experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the time that I have devoted to this contest. I will definitely do this again next year."
  - Student, Rochester Institute of Technology
  
  
• "Thank you very much for doing this, the little bit I have done has been awesome so far. I can't wait to participate in another contest when I can really mainframe it up."
  - Student, F.E. Madill Secondary School
  
  
• "I'm working on Part 2, Challenge 2. Great contest so far. I'm really enjoying it."
  - Student, University of Alaska, Anchorage
  
  
• "Once again, the Master the Mainframe contest has been a big hit with my students. And it helps me greatly in making the content of my z/OS Basics course more practical and realistic."
  - Professor, Georgian College
  
  
• "I'm enjoying it more than I can admit in public."
  - Student, Rutgers University
  
  
• "I'm one of the 'no experience required' guys the contest was advertised for and the whole thing is really interesting to me. I really had a blast with parts 1 and 2 and am looking forward to logging in to part 3."
  - Student, Portland Community College
  
  
• "At the beginning of this semester, when the contest was advertised, I had several students from last year's COBOL class meet with me to ask if they could enroll in the contest using my name as the educator. These students were not enrolled in any of my classes and had nothing to gain except for the mainframe experience. I thought that you may be interested to know that these students found the contest and the skills that they learned from it important enough to take time out of their busy lives to take part in it again for a second year. Thank you for offering such a contest and I hope that you continue to offer it."
  - Professor, California University of Pennsylvania
  
  
• "I would like to thank IBM for such a brilliant competition. You put together an excellent competition that can take someone with no experience and get them to do what I was doing in Part 2. There was just the right amount of details in the questions as experience with the system grew through the challenges (heavy explanations at first, slowing to a small trickle towards the end).  And from an inexperienced MainFrame person's perspective, I felt like I really got a good taste of what Big Iron is all about. However, I feel like it was only the very small tip of a very large iceberg."
  - Student, Southern Polytechnic State University
  
  
• "The Master the Mainframe Contest has been a big success with my students. A number of students have commented at the end of the course that they were very pleased I had made an assignment out of the contest. They felt the contest really solidified their understanding of certain concepts and they liked the challenge of the puzzles.  The T-shirts also proved to be a nice motivator."
  - Professor, Georgian College
  
  
• "I want to say that I am very impressed with the contest thus far. I have reached step 9 of part 2, and I have learned more doing that than I have in a long time. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my tshirt. I will wear it with pride, and be the envy of all my friends. Give my compliments to the designers."
  - Student, Queen's University
  
  
• "I wanted to thank you all for the opportunity to participate and spend some time on a great platform and get to know it better. I just wanted to let you know how much fun it was and that I very much appreciate the time and resources you afforded to me."
  - Student, University of St. Thomas
  
  
• "This contest is insanely cool and very much open to beginners. Don't worry if you've never even heard of COBOL and are just going into your first year of college. You'll be an expert by the end of this, though some knowledge of various languages (C/Java/Assembler/general database knowledge) can obviously only help you. Oh man, open to HS students this year? Crazy. Guys, because I know there are some high school geeks reading this, GIVE THIS A SHOT. At the very worst you get some experience for next year when you can do this again, at best you get a free trip to Poughkeepsie, a Wii, and some internship offers before you even hit college. What more could you ask for?"
  - Student, Queen's University (from internet forum)
  
  
• "I would like to thank the IBM team responsible for the time and effort that was put into setting up this contest. I had an wonderful time working through the challenges and felt very rewarded upon completing part two of the competition."
  - Student, Mid-State Technical College
  
  
• "Many thanks. Having access to an actual mainframe is a large part of furthering education for us 'hands-on' type folks."
  - Student, Marist College
  
  
• "I just want to drop a line to thank you for allowing me to participate in the contest. I not only learned a great deal, but also enjoyed myself tremendously. My only regret was that I was unable to complete the final assignment. I look forward to the next contest this fall."
  - Student, West Virginia University
  
  
• "Actually, I'm really enjoying the contest, & have learned quite a bit. I don't even care if I win anything or not in Part 3 - I'm in it for the learning experience. My thanks to IBM for hosting this challenge."
  - Student, Northeastern University
  
  
• "I did this last year, and it kicked all kinds of #@$%. Afterwards, I ended up taking some mainframe courses at my school thanks to IBM's involvement in reviving this stuff in schools, and I've now got a couple NICE mainframe systems offers coming my way. It's really that easy. If you've never logged onto a mainframe, you owe it to yourself to try even the introductory skills stuff."
  - Student, University of Arkansas (from internet forum)
  
  

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