Practices of Mainframe Education in Tongji University Dr. Gene Fuh Guest Professor of TongJi University

Outline Request for mainframe skilled talents Role of School of Software Engineering (SSE) Foundation of mainframe education Characteristic of mainframe education Mainframe curriculum in SSE Conclusions

Request for mainframe skilled talents Lack of mainframe professionals – Especially young engineers – Two cases One of Top 5 Commercial Banks in China planed to recruit 10 mainframe application developers in 2006, half a year passed, they had not received enough applicants, only 5 applicants sent their applications. A large outsourcing company ISSC in shanghai had not finished the plan in mainframe personal resource by the end of 2007, originally the company want to hire 80 programmers in developing mainframe outsourcing projects

Role of School of Software Engineering (SSE) SSE’s two functions – Talent Education – Provide services to industry Talent Education – Mainframe education included in the major of Enterprise Computing – Provide Mainframe courses for both of undergraduates and graduates in East China, including Tongji University, Southeast University(Nanjing) Most of students come from the major of software engineering, computer science, information management, machinery engineering etc. – Create education base with mainframe users and industry partners for students internship and employment Industry Employee Training – Mainframe basic application technologies training,mainly for enterprise new emploees

Foundation of mainframe education Faculty – “ 1/3”: 6 Fulltime teachers, IBM center of Tongji University – “1/3”: 6 overseas experts Most of them from IBM, including IBM SVL and IBM CDL – “1/3”: 5 domestic experts All experts from mainframe users in P.R.China Infrastructure – Mainframe hardware and software offered by IBM Great China – Mainframe maintenance supplied by IBM vendors – Courses developed and taught by IBM SVL, CDL and other vendors Supports from MOE and Tongji university – In course development, funds, logistics and site

Characteristics of mainframe education Theatrically courses – These courses share the same fundamental concepts, for example, Principles of Computer System and Architecture Theory of Operating System Principles of Computer Organization Database Theories Project Management Special courses for large scale business applications – Students need to learn a number of mainframe skills through several courses before they could start to develop applications on mainframe platform Emphasis on mainframe performance, concurrency, security, scalability and reliability Highly practical courses- Learning by Doing – Case study: MiniBanking teaching library, developed by IBM SVL,IBM CDL, Tongji Uni.and UESTC Simulating real commercial bank jobs, exp. Deposit, Loan, Credit card and so on

Mainframe curriculum in SSE – MOE: Ministry of Education of PR China(MOE) – MOE–IBM Model course, which is a qualification honored to selected outstanding courses in IBM technology, and is promoted by MOE to all Chinese Universities. – Fundamentals and principles (F), Practical technologies (P), Integrated courses (I)

Conclusions Established the foundation of mainframe education system in east china universities Over 500 undergraduates and postgraduates had learned at least one mainframe skill course, 30% of them passed mainframe certificated tests, most of them had gained a mainframe job in large firms A good beginning of solving the contradiction between demand and supply of qualified mainframe engineers More new mainframe technology courses will be developed in next three years, for example IMS database and IMS TM Hope to establish and keep communication with industries and universities in mainframe education

Thank You