Snippet from IBM's site: Overview: This fall semester, IBM is running the 2009 Master the Mainframe Contest for college and university students across the U.S. and Canada (excluding Quebec). High school students are also encouraged to compete! No experience with mainframes is necessary. In fact, the contest is designed for students with little or no mainframe experience, increasing with difficulty as the contest progresses. Students just need to bring drive and competitive spirit, and they will be ready to compete. Why compete in a Mainframe Contest? Prizes! The prizes up for grabs in the 2009 Master The Mainframe Contest include: * $100 pre-paid debit cards * Lenovo S10-2 netbook computers * 22" Samsung LCD HDTVs * Trips to the mainframe lab in Poughkeepsie, NY * Custom Master the Mainframe T-shirts Experience! Today's mainframes are growing in popularity and require a new generation of mainframe experts. This contest is designed to equip students with basic skills to make them more competitive for jobs in the enterprise computing industry. Participation in the Master the Mainframe contest could give you the edge you need. To help employers locate the best contestants, all students who successfully complete Part 2 of this year's contest will receive an invitation to upload their resumes to the IBM Student Opportunity System, an invitation-only resume database accessible by IBM clients and Business Partners. Did you know that 25 of the top 25 banks worldwide run on System z, IBM's mainframe computing system? 71% of Fortune 500 companies are also System z clients. Find out more reasons to learn about mainframes (PDF, 29KB). When is the contest? Student registration begins: 08 September 2009 Contest runs: 05 October - 29 December 2009 Print this flyer with dates and details (699KB) Who can compete? To compete, students must have an educator at their institution enrolled in the IBM Academic Initiative. Students, ask your educator to follow the instructions on the Educators tab; enrollment takes only about 10 minutes. By enrolling, your educator will gain access to IBM products and resources at no charge. The contest site is located here.