The IBM Mainframe Contest is an annual contest run by IBM for students to learn and experience mainframe skills. Although thought of by some as out-dated in fact Mainframe systems remain at the core of many large business operations such as banks and insurance companies. The Mainframe challenge is an opportunity for students to develop some skills in the use of zOS and other associated Mainframe technologies such as CICS.

 

The competition has three stages of increasing complexity with only a certain number of students progressing from one to the next. David Cutting, a CMP PhD student with a large amount of cross-platform knowledge, was a winner of all three parts of the 2012 challenge which ran from October to December 2012. To win he had to dust off his vi and C skills as well as use new technologies such as DB2.