London, U.K. - 03 May 2016: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the UK and Ireland regional winners of the Master the Mainframe global skills contest. This contest has allowed local participants to engage and gain experience in one of the most important technologies driving the digital transformation of the global economy.
Open to college and university-level students in UK and Ireland, the 2015 Master the Mainframe contest was hosted in the Linux for z environment as part of the IBM z Systems Academic Initiative. The contest gives students an opportunity to tackle a real-world challenge. Students need no previous mainframe experience, as the contest serves as an introduction to programming and application development. Facing increasing levels of difficulty as the contest progresses through three challenges, the students gain unrivalled experience of the computing environment that runs most of the world's enterprise data, including 92 of the top 100 banks, the top 10 largest insurers, and 23 of the 25 largest retailers.[1] The competition has been a springboard for some into a career where they are helping to transform the future of business in a digital era.
In 2015 the contest expanded to include students from Ireland, drawing entrants from Letterkenny Institute of Technology. Now in its eleventh year of partnering with private companies like IBM, Letterkenny Institute of Technology has been providing mainframe education throughout Ireland. To date, the program has educated approximately 200 students in mainframe skills, working to build awareness of the local and global demand for new mainframe talent. The program uses technologies like Java and open source tools to demonstrate the versatility of the mainframe.
This, coupled with a more active social and grassroots engagement by the local Master the Mainframe team, has seen local student participation increase by 50% in UK and Ireland. Ireland was one of 18 countries to host the contest for the first time this year, bringing the total number of participating countries to 47, engaging more than 10,000 individual competitors.
This year's UK and Ireland regional winners are:
Edward Devlin, Letterkenny Institute of Technology While completing the Department of Business Studies Certificate in Mainframe Technologies, Edward was able to apply the skills he acquired in the Master the Mainframe contest in a work-placement module with a major global automotive company, which has since offered him a permanent position.
Daragh Matthews, Letterkenny Institute of Technology Daragh found that participating in the Master the Mainframe contest went beyond his studies in the Department of Business Studies Mainframe Technologies programme, helping him to understand and help solve real world problems.
Teodor Gherasim Nistor, University of Southampton Originally from Romania, Teodor is a first-year student studying Software Engineering. He reported that participating in the contest was a novel and enjoyable experience.
Laura Sinkunaite, University of Glasgow Laura first heard about Master the Mainframe program when she met IBM representatives at an "IT s not just for the boys!" event. Laura said her favourite task in the contest was a test on Assembler programming language, because it gave her a better sense of what actually happens within the system.
The Master the Mainframe contest is a great example of how the IBM mainframe, over half a century since its first release, continues to be a platform for innovation across the UK and Ireland. The students representing these countries demonstrate what is possible when bright minds apply advanced systems skills, unleashing creative solutions to global business challenges, said David Stokes, Chief Executive, IBM UK & Ireland. The increase in participation this year is a very positive indication that we can continue to identify key talent to address the ongoing and future technical needs of our clients and our digital economy.
Prizes for the 2015 Master the Mainframe UK and Ireland contest include iPads, t-shirts, computer accessories. The four finalists received an invitation to spend a day at the IBM Hursley Lab, meeting a number of mainframe graduates and senior technical staff as well as visiting a number of areas to witness innovation in progress.
For more information on the Master the Mainframe contest or to participate, please visit:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/education/academic/masterthemainframe/contest/mea.html
[1] Based on IBM market insights and rankings of top companies in respective industry.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
London, U.K. - 03 May 2016: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the UK and Ireland regional winners of the Master the Mainframe global skills contest. This contest has allowed local participants to engage and gain experience in one of the most important technologies driving the digital transformation of the global economy. 
