Sydney, Australia - 09 Sep 2009: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Curtin University of Technology student, David Wright, has been named Australia's 2009 "Master the Mainframe" student contest winner. Wright's win comes from out-performing more than 320 other undergraduate university students across Australia.
"The “Master the Mainframe" competition is in its second year in Australia and we continue to be delighted at both the calibre and the enthusiasm of the students who participated in the contest,” said Glenn Wightwick, IBM Distinguished Engineer and Director of IBM's Australia Development Laboratory.
Wightwick added, "The mainframe is a platform with tremendous interest, particularly in an IT environment where there is a lot of pressure to consolidate and reduce space. It is a great platform in terms of scale, availability, performance and energy efficiency."
The annual competition is designed to familiarise students with concepts for the large enterprise computing industry and build mainframe skills for the 21st century. The students are provided with remote access to the contest IBM Mainframe on registration. Through a series of challenges, each becoming increasingly more difficult, students are tested to apply their technical, problem-solving and collaboration skills to real-life enterprise computing scenarios.
"I entered IBM's "Master the Mainframe" contest to broaden my knowledge," said David Wright who is taking a BSc in Computer Science. “Recently, I have been curious about mainframes and supercomputers, and this was a terrific chance for me to get hands-on experience. I especially enjoyed part two of the third challenge where I had to learn how to analyse address spaces for causes of program faults. The concept was very new to me."
"We are delighted with David's win," said Associate Professor Ling Li, Head of Department of Computing, Curtin University of Technology. “Through the competition, students get the chance to apply enterprise computing concepts learnt in lectures and classes to solve actual customer scenarios. They are gaining crucial hands-on experience in preparation for real-world jobs."
System z is the gold standard for ultra-reliable, secure management of high volumes of computer transactions. Mainframe skills are in demand from banks, government agencies, airlines, retailers and others in an interconnected world. The top 50 worldwide banks rely on System z to process high volumes of transactions.
The “Master the Mainframe” competition is part of IBM's Academic Initiative for System z program, a global project by IBM to align with colleges, universities and businesses to develop mainframe and large enterprise skills for future employment and Fortune 500 companies across the globe.
For more information about IBM's Academic Initiative for Mainframe and schools teaching mainframes, visit http://www.ibm.com/university/systemz
For more information on IBM Australia, visit www.ibm.com/au
Contact(s) information
Gisele Boulay
IBM Media Relations
0401-713-940
gboulay@au1.ibm.com
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