Community invited to participate in IBM computer science learning contest

High school students, college students and members of the public interested in participating in IBM’s Master the Mainframe contest can get help with Part 1 of the three-part competition Saturday, Oct 12, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Fairfax Hall Rooms 310 and 311 on the Middletown Campus.

LFCC computer science and cybersecurity professors, as well as mainframe developers from Navy Federal Credit Union will offer assistance to those in attendance.

“The mainframe platform enables you to work on networking, analytics, databases, deep programming languages, application programming interface – the full 360 degrees of IT,” LFCC Computer Science Professor Melissa Stange says. “Based on current growth patterns, IBM is predicting that more than 37,000 mainframe administration positions will emerge worldwide by 2020.”

In Part 1 of Master the Mainframe, participants will complete step-by-step instructions to become familiar with the user interface, basic concepts and data structures of the mainframe platform.

The next two phases are done remotely, with Part 2 allowing participants to get practice using program commands and programming language, and to become familiar with the operating system. Part 3 allows the participants to delve deeper and solve challenges.

To register for Saturday’s event, go to https://forms.gle/QMw6pQAKBQmAdTAz6.

Learn more about the contest at https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/education/master-the-mainframe.