bergen community college - ecc

Creative Approaches to Implementing Mainframe Technology in the Curriculum

Bergen Community College

Presented By:

Alan EliscuAdjunct ProfessorComputer Science


In a 2017 community college rating report, Bergen Community College was rated in the top 30% of all community colleges with respect to “Career Outcomes”, among 728 schools.

Despite our nearly balanced population by gender, very few female students choose “Computer Science” or “Information Technology” as their major.


My Personal Career Path

The First Half of My Life

• System 360/370• COBOL• IMS DB/DC• DB2• TSO• ISPF• SPUFI• BAL• JES/RJE• MVS• VSAM• HISAM/HIDAM/HDAM• Transactional Data Models• Punched Cards

IBM owns corporate computing



The Second Half of My Life

• PL/SQL• Oracle• Object-Oriented Design• ERwin Data Modeler• Agile Development• Data Mining• SDLC• Quality Assurance• Business Analysis• Data Architecture• Analytical Data Models• Data Warehousing/ETL• Distributed Systems• Electronic Medical Records

The death of the mainframe?



The Third Half of My Life

• BCC Adjunct Professor• System/Z• Master the Mainframe• COBOL• DB2• BAL• Block Chain• Mainframe Cloud Computing• LINUX• Green Screens• Enterprise Computing• SHARE Student Day• Mainframe Hackathons• IBM Z Council

Looks like an oversized refrigerator

Who knew mainframe is alive and well?

What They Have Been Saying

IBM officials said 1,067 schools worldwide are recognizing the vast number of job opportunities available in enterprisecomputing and the importance of teaching students key systems technology like the IBM System z mainframe. Spanning 66countries from the United States to China and India, these 1,067 schools are teaching courses and offering labs in IBM'smainframe technology.”

“IBM: More Than 1,000 Schools Teach Mainframe Skills”, Eweek.com December 9, 2011

“Given the generational shift taking place in the mainframe workforce, it is essential for IT leaders to prioritize recruitment ofMillennial talent. This recruitment requires more than upping salaries and benefits. It also requires offering meaningfulprojects that relate to customer experience, metrics-based decision-making and other hot areas of interest. Recruitment andretention of top Millennial talent will also require workspace tooling that doesn’t have a 1990’s look-and-feel.”

“What’s Wrong With the Mainframe”, Enterprise Systems Media.com September 17, 2015

“There are still hundreds of billions of lines of COBOL code in use today by banks, insurance companies and other organizations, and COBOL is still used somewhere in a large proportion of all business transactions.

But very few universities still teach COBOL, which means the population of skilled COBOL developers is aging rapidly. As an increasing number of COBOL developers reach retirement age, a shortage of programmers with COBOL skills is inevitable.”

“Why It’s Time to Learn COBOL”, PC World April 1, 2016Reprinted: Computerworld India April 4, 2016

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/index.html

Why Introduce Mainframe Concepts Into the STEM Arena


The mainframe is a great platform to teach students about the internal workings of computers

As a community college, we focus on providing fundamentals as well as introducing marketable skills

The mainframe now supports state-of-the-art technologies, such as Linux, Python, Java, Blockchain

Mainframe technology, tools and software products have been severely neglected in education

Mainframe skills are becoming significantly depleted due to an aging professional population

Progressive companies appreciate that mainframe knowledge helps to round out their employees

It’s not as much the particulars of the technology as it is a willingness to embrace breadth along with depth

Every large corporation is beginning to feel the pain of the technology drain

We can choose to ignore System/Z, but it isn’t about to go away

How Did We Get Started?

• May, 2016: IBM Academic Initiative Round Table hosted at

• Representatives frommet with Bergen faculty and administration

• Focus of the meeting: how to address the impending shortage of mainframe skills in industry

• A change in curriculum (new courses or a certificate program) would be extremely difficult:

- Approvals extend to the College President- Transfer articulation agreements with other schools limit changes- Degree of student interest was unknown


How Did We Get Started?

• We opted for a “grass roots” approach

• Introducing mainframe in this manner allows us to attract students who are eager to learn outside the classroom

• We looked to incorporate mainframe concepts into existing courses where appropriate

• We added extracurricular opportunities:- MTM Club meetings led by faculty (twice weekly)- MTM Club meetings led by student (every Saturday)- Participation in Industry Events- Visits to IBM Mainframe Headquarters- Independent Research Projects



WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DATE?

Master the Mainframe

o Incorporate Master the Mainframe Into Our Curriculumo Establish an MTM Club for Students to Work Collaborativelyo Assist a Number of Students to Voluntarily Complete MTM Part 3o Sponsor a Mainframe Hackathon Within Our STEM C^2 Research Summit

Independent Research Opportunities

o Introduce a COBOL Mini-Course for STEM Scholars Programo Students Develop an AI Application on the Mainframeo Students Develop a Blockchain Application on the Mainframe


WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DATE?

Curriculum Enhancement

o Incorporate IBM Assembly Language Into Our “Computer Organization & Assembly Language” Courseo Add a “Big Data” Presentation to our “Data Structures & Algorithms” Course

Industry-Sponsored Events

o Participate in the Providence SHARE Student Day, 2017o Participate in the ECC Conference, 2016 & 2017o Student Presentation at ECC Conference, 2017o Two Trips With Students to IBM Mainframe Headquarters in Poughkeepsie


Every Friday: C304 / 10am – 12pm

Before the meetup:

Register for the contest at

masterthemainframe.com

Install the pre-req software on

your laptop

Bergen

Community

College

Paramus

Bring your

laptop!

Encourages Camaraderie

Students Help One Another

Some Students Opt to Complete Part 3

Professor Offers Help & Explanations

Club Stipend Supports Our Other Activities

Opportunity for Ad Hoc Tutoring of Class Content

MTM Club


Introducing Mainframe Into the Curriculum

Modify existing Computer Organization & Assembly Language Course

Syllabus does not change – Only the learning platform changes

Maintain same textbook, omitting PEP/9 imaginary computer

Use IBM/Marist On-Line Text to teach IBM Assembly Language

Use MTM User ID’s to Provide Access for Actual Programming

NOTE: First session of our Data Structures course is now dedicated toJeff Jonas’s ECC presentation (2016) on “Big Data”

Jeff JonasIBM FellowChief Scientist, Context Computing

• Founded Systems Research & Development (SRD) in 1985

• Architected, designed, developed roughly 100 systems over the last three decades

• Defense, intelligence

• Financial services

• Gaming

• Law enforcement

• Acquired by IBM in 2005

• Currently focused on Context Computing, Sensemaking and Privacy by Design (PbD)


Context Accumulation

Entity Resolution

Space-Time Boxes

Geo-Hashes

Sense-Making Architecture


Student Participation in MTM

Spring 2017 - 3 students completed Part 2

Fall 2017 - 14 students completed Part 23 students completed Part 3

Spring 2018 - 21 students completed Part 23 students completed Part 3

• Fall 2017 was the first offering of the newly revamped Computer Organization & Assembly Language course

• Fall 2017-Fall 2018: Two hybrid sections and three face-to-face sections

• Total of 120 students enrolled

Some studentsfrom priorsemester optedto do the 2017MTM


SHARE Summer 2017 – Student Career DayProvidence, Rhode Island

• Over 60 contestants from various 2 & 4-year schools competed• Five students accompanied me for an overnight trip• All five students finished among the top 10 contestants• Jonny Lazarte won the entire competition• Students participated in special sessions• Students were able to meet with industry professionals

Student Career DayOn Tuesday, August 8, 60+ students from 16 colleges and universities from around the country participated in Student Career Day and competed in the Master the Mainframe Hackathon. With fun challenges to experience the power of z Systems in Application Development, competitors earned points towards prizes and had the opportunity to connect with IBM and Rocket Software experts. Congratulations to the Hackathon winners: Jonny Lazarte from Bergen Community College, Akeem Brooks from North Carolina A&T and Dan Synder from New Brunswick College.

Me

https://www.share.org/page/providence-student-career-day

2017 Enterprise Computing Conference

SC3104/3105 Sadik Erisen, Tamar Tokman, Arnav Lohe, Tristan Draper, Ross Kernez, Bergen Community College Grace AI & Search Engine

Visits to IBM Mainframe Headquarters

Jeff Bisti:Cognitive AI Solutions Architect for IBM

Fall 2017 – 9 students

Spring 2018 – 42 students (72 sign-ups)

Fall 2018 – next scheduled trip


STEM C^2 Research Summit - April 13th, 2018

Frank de Gilio

IBM Corporation

Distinguished Engineer, Cloud ArchitectKeynote Speaker

Luis De Abreu

BCC STEMatics Grant Program Director

STEM C2 Research Summit Conference Coordinator

Kudos to our IBMSupport Team, Both On-Site and via Remote Assist


STEM Scholars Program2nd Year - 2018

Minimum GPA 3.75 Participation in Mentored Research Project with a Faculty Member Attendance at a 5-Week Mini-Course Required Tutoring Weekly Project Updates Information Sharing via Capstone Paper or Presentation

Expectations

Computer Science Inclusion

Mainframe Blockchain Research Project Explain the Technology Demonstrate the Product COBOL Mini-Course on the System/Z


WHAT’S ON OUR BUCKET LIST?

Master the Mainframe

o Assist more students in completing Part 3 on their owno Encourage students to seek badges from other areas of IBM Academic Initiative

Curriculum Enhancement

o Look for other opportunities to infuse mainframe technology in the curriculumo Expand our approach to include mainframe technology in our IT courseso Offer a section of our Database Systems course using mainframe platform and DB2o Offer additional mini-courses in COBOL, CICS, DB2o Incorporate more Blockchain concepts into our existing Data Structures course


WHAT’S ON OUR BUCKET LIST?

Extracurricular Activities

o Continue periodic visits to IBM Mainframe Headquarters in Poughkeepsieo Continue to participate in industry-sponsored activities (Z Council, ECC, SHARE)o Sponsor an all-day mainframe hackathon for students in the northeasto Encourage students to continue independent development using mainframeo Participate in our annual STEM C^2 Research Summit

Grow Our Relationships

o Seek corporate partners to offer internships, scholarships or apprenticeshipso Seek four-year college partners to offer scholarships to study mainframeo Consider offering courses through our Continuing Education department


WHERE DO WE NEED HELP?

o Industry contacts where our students can get real hands-on experience(internships, job opportunities, apprenticeships)

o Partner with 4-year schools offering mainframe course work(transfer agreements, scholarships, guidance in curriculum)

o Bring industry experts to the school to offer interesting presentations

o Build relationships with schools currently offering mainframe courses(shared course materials, brainstorming sessions, mentoring)

o Expand our repertoire of extracurricular learning opportunities

We have done well in piquing student interest. Now we needTo move to the next level.

THANKS FOR WATCHING!!

bergen community college - ecc

Documents