IBM provides 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 to introduce them to some basic mainframe concepts. The first 400 students to successfully complete this section will receive custom Master the Mainframe t-shirts.
Part 2: Practical experience
This section will require considerably more work from contestants. Using the skills they learned in Part 1, they will perform some more extensive systems programmer-type tasks. The first 25 students to successfully complete this section will receive a 2GB iPod Nano.
Part 3: Real-world challenge
This section is very challenging, and will require extensive work from
the student over weeks and months. The top five students in this section
will receive an Xbox 360 Premium system. In addition, the top two winners
will receive a two-day expenses-paid trip to the IBM mainframe lab in Poughkeepsie,
NY.
Registration begins September 5, 2006. The contest will run from October
2 through December 28, 2006.
