Sun induces students to develop in Solaris

Stan Beer
Monday, 24 October 2005 10:00

IT Industry - Development

Hardware vendor Sun Microsystems, whose operating system Solaris is under growing pressure from the popularity of Linux, is attempting to buy the loyalty of students and universities with a Solaris development competition offering cash prizes.

The Solaris University Challenge offers students from around the world cash and prizes for developing their projects on the Solaris 10 operating system and OpenSolaris, Sun's open source project.

Participants in the challenge are encouraged to create innovative projects in Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris, with the winner receiving cash and Sun technology for themselves and up to US$100,000 in Sun technology for the associated university.

One individual or one team of up to four individuals from the same university will be awarded the Grand Prize - US$5,000 prize purse per individual, plus a Sun Ultra 20 Workstation. The winner's university will receive a credit with a retail value of US$100,000 toward the purchase of Sun Microsystems products including Sun Fire x64 servers and UltraSPARC processor-based systems.

The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and IT staff at accredited universities in participating countries and is scheduled to begin in November 2005 and continue through June 2006. To participate, interested parties should go to http://www.sun.com/Solaris10universitychallenge to get contest details and more information.

"With OpenSolaris we've enabled students from around the world to share in the collective work of the most innovative engineers on the planet," said Tom Goguen, Vice President, Operating Platforms Group, Sun Microsystems.

"The University Challenge encourages students to capitalise on free access to the advanced technology in Solaris 10, letting them take their projects to the next level. We are enthusiastic about this program and excited to see the submissions."

All submissions must be based on the Solaris 10 OS or OpenSolaris OS technologies. Eligible projects submitted in accordance with the official rules will be judged by a panel of Solaris 10 OS and OpenSolaris OS experts based on the following judging criteria: usability, quality, innovation, including uniqueness and originality, effective use of technology, and benefits to the Solaris 10 OS end-user or OpenSolaris OS community.