IBM Master the Mainframe Contest

What did students and professors say about the last two Master the Mainframe Contests?

Contest feedback

• "I have to say, I love this contest."
  - Student, SUNY Binghamton
  
  
• "I'm enjoying it more than I can admit in public."
  - Student, Rutgers University
  
  
• "I've had a lot of fun playing with the mainframe. I especially like the editor -- it seems more intuitive than vi :)"
  - Student, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  
  
• "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
  
  
• "This contest seems to be incredibly well organized. Thanks for hosting it."
  - Student, St. Ambrose University
  
  
• "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 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
  
  
• "This contest is great and I'm really enjoying it."
  - Student, North Carolina 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 think I will sign up for part 3. I found the first two parts really interesting."
  - Student, Penn State University
  
  
• "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
  
  
• "Thanks for the contest! It was a fun way to experience something my education never introduced."
  - Student, University of Missouri, St. Louis
  
  
• "Thanks again for a great contest, and thanks for this excellent opportunity to become more familiar with the mainframe world!"
  - Student, Georgian College
  
  
• "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)
  
  
• "Thanks for running the contests, I've had a lot of fun doing them!"
  - Student, Northern Illinois University
  
  
• "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
  
  
• "I submitted my hopefully correct Part 2 answers to the judges. Even if I don't win anything beyond a tshirt, I had a great time so far. Oh, and the t-shirt is really cool this year, great!"
  - Student, Pace University
  
  
• "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 am enjoying the contest, I did it last year and was in the third round but school work kept me from doing too much work on it. Right now I am on work term so I have tons of time to work on it, heh. Thanks again."
  - Student, Memorial University of Newfoundland
  
  
• "Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the Contest I had a lot of fun completing the challenges. Is it going to take place again next year?"
  - Student, Marquette University
  
  
• "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
  
  
• "Thanks a bunch! I had a blast doing the contest."
  - Student, University of Missouri, Columbia
  
  
• "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
  
  
• "The contest is such a big success. I am looking forward to more similar opportunities in the future!"
  - Student, Texas A&M 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)
  
  

Ready to enroll?

	Educators
	Students