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IBM: IBM Academic Program for System z Enterprise Server Skills Now Deployed at Approximately 550 Schools Worldwide

^{Published on 2009-02-24 21:55:54, Last Modified on 2009-02-24 21:57:23 - Market Wire}
 

CHENNAI, INDIA and ARMONK, NY and SHANGHAI, CHINA--(Marketwire - February 25, 2009) - IBM (NYSE: [ IBM ]) today announced major milestones from its System z Academic Initiative Program to expose students around the world to the vast career opportunities currently available in enterprise systems computing. Today's news includes:

• Approximately 550 schools worldwide have now joined IBM to offer coursework in the IBM System z enterprise servers. Most notably, one of India's largest and most prestigious universities -- Anna University (based in Chennai) -- becomes one of the world's first educational organizations to offer a Master in Technology program with a Mainframe Technology specialization. At the same time, Anna University has also installed a new System z running z/OS and Linux to support university workloads while offering direct student access to the university's technology engine.


• Around the world, more than 1,000 students from Brazil, United Kingdom, Australia, United States, Canada and China won prizes through the IBM student mainframe contests. In the United States and Canada, approximately 900 students advanced through progressively difficult computing questions and challenges. And in China, multiple teams from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Peking University and South China University of Technology won prizes for enterprise server projects.


• IBM announced the latest winners of its "Destination z" Scholarship program, which provides funding for educational courses to help students build technical skills for IBM enterprise servers.


• Also in the United States, schools registered with the IBM System z Academic Initiative Program can request access to the industry's latest mainframe software applications from leading and emerging companies, such as CA and PathPoint Software.

Corporate Training Programs for IBM Enterprise Servers Thrive

In addition to academic relationships, IBM has helped connect businesses that use mainframes with professors who teach the technology. Students learning IBM enterprise systems are getting opportunities with leading banks, such as Citigroup.

"Citigroup is committed to building a strong talent pool to support our technology infrastructure with System z and ultimately to provide unparalleled service to our customers," said Martin Kennedy, managing director at Citigroup. "For the past 18 months, Citigroup has actively pursued job creation opportunities in mainframe computing. IBM's Master the Mainframe Contest offers a great resource to secure candidates and helps the company get critical skills as quickly as possible."

System z community links bring mainframe job resources closer to students

To promote System z awareness and connect students, IBM has created a System z profile on Facebook (keyword: systemz mainframe) with hundreds of System z friends from major corporations, universities, mainframe fans, among others. Also available on Facebook, students can join the "System z on campus" community for school specific events or details for learning, promoting, and building a career in IBM's System z. IBM has created a worldwide Student Opportunity System for students to post their resumes for employer review and to introduce students to mainframe recruiters at[ http://www.ibm.com/university/students/sos/ ]. Students can also access a portal for more information on contests, scholarships and other learning opportunities on [ http://www.ibm.com/university/students ].

About Master the Mainframe Contest

In 2008, more than 1,876 students from 325 schools across the U.S. and Canada competed in the Master the Mainframe Contest, marking the largest turnout ever. To support the strong student interest, IBM provided access to the most current IBM System z10 mainframe hosted at the IBM Innovation Center in Dallas, TX. Student contestants accessed the same high performance computing resources that IBM's worldwide independent software vendors currently use to port and maintain their business applications for top clients.

Since its inception in 2005, the IBM student mainframe contests have attracted more than 14,000 student entries for thousands of prizes consisting of XBox 360s, Nintendo Wiis, iPods, pre-paid debit cards, trips to mainframe plants, etc. For 2008, the top five winners of the IBM Master the Mainframe Contest in North America include:

• 1st place: Bryan Weaver of Northern Illinois University


• 2nd place: Yeming Hu of Dalhousie University


• 3rd place: David Jones of West Texas A&M University


• 4th place: Bin Sun of Syracuse University


• 5th place: Jinhu Huang of Seneca College

For a full list of the 2008 North America Master the Mainframe contest winners, visit [ http://www-304.ibm.com/jct01005c/university/students/contests/mainframewinners2008.html ]. For details on the 2008 Master the Mainframe Contest, visit [ http://www.ibm.com/university/contest ].

About Destination z Scholarship program

Announced in October 2008, the IBM Destination z Scholarship is co-funded with IBM Business Partners and provides scholarship funding for educational courses to increase student technical skills in mainframe computing. For information on the IBM Destination z Scholarship program, visit [ www.zjournal.com/scholarship ].

For more information about Anna University programs, visit[ http://www.annauniv.ac.in ].

For more information about System z, visit [ http://www.ibm.com/systems/z ].

For more information about the IBM Academic Initiative Program, visit[ http://www.ibm.com/university/academicinitiative ].