Student is Top 10 in IBM contest

John Sherwood, a senior at Stetson University majoring in computer science, placed in the Top 10 out of 3,500 students from more than 400 schools across the United States and Canada for Part 3 of the 2010 IBM Master the Mainframe Contest.

This was the sixth annual run for the contest designed to equip students with basic skills to make them more competitive for jobs in the enterprise computing industry.

The three-part contest involved the completion of a series of progressively more difficult mainframe tasks ranging from the simple, such as how to log in and edit a file in Part 1, to more challenging and complex tasks such as writing mainframe programs in Part 3. Ranking in the Top 10 for Part 3, which involved performing more than 20 tasks, Sherwood will be recognized on IBM’s Wall of Fame page, which is used by employers looking for top computer programmers.

Sherwood is involved in the Association of Computing Machinery at Stetson and holds a web services work-study position at Stetson University Marketing. He heard about the contest from a professor and entered thinking that it sounded like a fun way to build up his resume, make a good showing on behalf of Stetson’s computer science program, and possibly even win an iPad.

“John Sherwood’s honorable award in the IBM Master the Mainframe Contest is evidence of the quality of our program. It shows the technical strength of our students,” said Dr. Hala ElAarag, associate professor of computer science.

Stetson’s computer science program offers three degrees: a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science that focuses on the science of computer science, a Bachelor of Arts in computer information systems that focuses on the application of computer science in a business environment, and a Bachelor of Arts in digital arts. The faculty work closely with students to ensure development of strong technical skills, as well as the knowledge and qualifications required to succeed either in graduate school or in a computer science career.