The University of Leipzig and the University of Tuebingen are two of the most prestigious schools in Germany with
their faculty making early marks in computer history. In 1623 at the University of Tuebingen Prof. Schickard invented first
mechanical) digital computer, and decades later Prof. Leibnitz at the University of Leipzig invented the first computer
with multiplication and division capabilities. Now Prof. Spruth has the honor of being a leader in the introduction of
IBM z/Series and OS/390 academic programs in Germany.
The first introductory mainframe classes were offered at both these universities in the 1999/2000 Fall term.
Because there was so little educational material available at that time, along with Prof. Paul Hermann, Prof. Spruth developed
his own classroom materials
and co-authored a textbook:
Introduction to z/OS and OS/390. They have since helped many other German schools institute similar programs,
including:
FH Bochum, FH Darmstadt, FH Frankfurt, FH Lörrach, FH Schmalkalden, IT-Akademie Bayern in Augsburg,
Chemnitz Technical University, Jena University, Lueneburg University, and University of Ulm.
In 2000, with assistance from IBM Germany and the Böeblingen Lab, they were able to
install an older Multiprise 2000 running OS/390 at the University of Leipzig, have since upgraded it to a Multiprise 3000
running z/OS V1.5, and are experimenting with z/VM and zLinux in a separate partition. They are porting all the OS/390
applications to the newer operating system, such as: CICS, DB2, IMS, WebSphere, Cobol, C, Assembler, Java, the Java CICS
Transaction Gateway, and some other EJB applications.
Results:
Because access to the mainframe system is offered to accredited schools
and to interested individual students free of charge, the opportunities for others to start a similar program are plentiful.
Students can access TSO and CICS on this system from their
homes using their own personal computers. Currently, there are approximately 200 registered student users and Prof. Spruth is actively looking for additional schools
willing to start mainframe education. To help, he and his colleagues have generously made their
class materials and
tutorials publicly available. And they are
in the process of translating much of it into English and French!
Benefits:
Prof. Spruth and his colleagues have done a great service. Thanks to their efforts, schools all over Germany are able to expand
their curricula and offer interactive mainframe courses to their students with a minimal amount of cost and overhead. Students are
able to get much-needed enterprise-level skills that will enable them to secure positions at leading companies. And, institutions
that run mainframe computers will have a growing pool of talented and knowledgeable graduates to hire.
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