More than 25,000 students competed for $150 cash gift cards, exclusive T-shirts, digital badges, entrance to the new Master the Mainframe (MTM) Talent Lounge community, travel stipends for IBM conferences, and $1,000 in educational scholarships in the 15th annual Master the Mainframe Student Developer Competition, powered by AngelHack and sponsored by IBM.
The competition is intended to promote a positive sentiment of mainframes to Gen Z, and was presented in three parts, with various recognition and prizes awarded at the completion of each. Total registrations were up 40% from last year, and the number of participants completing all three parts went up a whopping 123%, thanks in part to increased outreach efforts, as well as the launch of new MTM student communities that provided support along the way.
Master the Mainframe just completed its fifteenth year of promoting mainframe skills and resources to students aged 13+ around the globe. With unprecedented participation and creativity, the entries this year set a new standard for the popular competition.
Grand Prize Winners
- Takao Kaburaki, Hosei University (Japan)
- Mark Budavari, University of Szeged (Hungary)
- Yen-Chang Pan, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Regional Winners
- Yuto Isogami, Waseda University (Japan)
- Georges Kopp, OpenClassrooms (France)
- Gonzalo Hemadi, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (Argentina)
- Brian Zhou, Université M'Hamed Bougara De Boumerdès (Algeria)
- Pacome Simon Mbonimpa, University of Rwanda (Rwanda)
- Kaitlyn Lowe, Canyons Technical Education Center (United States)
- Christos Polemenakos, University of Dallas (United States)
- Divyanshu Singh, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (India)
- Avishek Sen, Sudhir Memorial Institute (India)
"Master the Mainframe offers an interactive learning resource for the next generation to gain experience and skills that are required to run critical enterprise systems. When you consider that IBM Z infrastructure and mainframe applications are core to operations across the world's top banks, as well as government, healthcare, retail, and other industries, it's clear how important it is to nurture the talent pipeline for mainframe skills," said Meredith Stowell, vice president, IBM Z Ecosystem at IBM.