On Monday, August 28th, 2017, the COMMON Education Foundation, in partnership with IBM, will be kicking off an open source programming competition to find the best and the brightest IT students. Competitors will be creating a cloud-hosted Node.js application. The application will communicate with a Db2 for i database and RPG code via REST API calls. Once the competition opens, competitors will be given access to a sample program. They can choose to start with the sample program or start from scratch. Final products will be judged on the usability, appearance and performance of the application, with extra consideration for any integration with cognitive computing. Final submissions must be in the form of an application deployed to and running on IBM Watson Bluemix technology.
Contestants (Individuals or Teams of up to 2) can begin preparing for the challenge now by:
- Learning how to get started with Node.js in Bluemix (and maybe deploy an application of your own).
- Discovering the capabilities of the Node.js Toolkit for IBM i
- Exploring the Node SDK for IBM Watson on the Watson Developer Cloud
So why should students compete? Well, winner(s) receive an all-expense paid trip to COMMON’s Fall Conference & Expo in St. Louis, MO from October 2-4, 2017. COMMON, the world’s largest professional association of IBM technology users, provides independent education, certification, advocacy and networking among users, IBM and related third-party solution providers. This unique opportunity allows students to attend award-winning sessions with worldwide recognized speakers and authorities on IBM i, interact with industry professionals, meet and network with other U.S. students with similar interests, and advance their career goals! Plus, winners will be featured in IBM Systems Magazine IBM i EXTRA Newsletter and have a chance to work hands-on with IBM Watson.
For students, this is a great opportunity to showcase their IT prowess as well as build their resume. For more information on the IBM i OSS Programming Competition, click here.