Avnet Games Winners Showcase Tech Prowess

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 04/27/09

The Avnet Tech Games are over, and nine of the 57 student teams that entered from Arizona colleges and universities have won scholarships for proving their abilities to work through real-life technology challenges. Nearly 200 students vied for top honors in Avnet's fourth-annual competition, which is composed of nine separate events. Among the challenges, students showcased how to use technology to address a humanitarian need, create a solar-powered lamp, and construct a virtual server environment.

A panel of judges made up of executives from technology firms, engineers, and technical experts selected the winners based on their ability to meet the technical requirements of the task, apply innovative approaches to the solution, and demonstrate professional skills.

Among the winners, Mesa Community College dominated the Premise One "Networking within the Enterprise" game, in which teams compete to connect, configure and effectively secure a computer network in support of a fictitious company's business demands including surveillance, paging, e-mail, IP phones, and Web requirements.

University of Advancing Technology won Belkin's "Patch Panel Madness," where teams build a working data network using a provided network diagram, cabling, patch panels, switches and racks.

Arizona State University, W.P. Carey School of Business prevailed in the VMware "Virtualization Challenge," in which teams are given three unique physical enterprise computer platform scenarios with the goal of producing a three to five year roadmap maximizing their business value while factoring in proper ROI and architectures with consideration for the current virtualization trends.

Next year's tech games take place on April 10 at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, AZ.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • college student sitting at a laptop writing a college essay

    How Can Schools Manage AI in Admissions?

    Many questions remain around the role of artificial intelligence in admissions as schools navigate the balance between innovation and integrity.  

  • a hobbyist in casual clothes holds a hammer and a toolbox, building a DIY structure that symbolizes an AI model

    Ditch the DIY Approach to AI on Campus

    Institutions that do not adopt AI will quickly fall behind. The question is, how can colleges and universities do this systematically, securely, cost-effectively, and efficiently?

  • person signing a bill at a desk with a faint glow around the document. A tablet and laptop are subtly visible in the background, with soft colors and minimal digital elements

    California Governor Signs AI Content Safeguards into Law

    California Governor Gavin Newsom has officially signed off on a series of landmark artificial intelligence bills, signaling the state’s latest efforts to regulate the burgeoning technology, particularly in response to the misuse of sexually explicit deepfakes. The legislation is aimed at mitigating the risks posed by AI-generated content, as concerns grow over the technology's potential to manipulate images, videos, and voices in ways that could cause significant harm.

  • laptop screen showing Coursera course

    Coursera Introduces New Gen AI Skills Training and Credentials

    Learning platform Coursera is expanding its Generative AI Academy training portfolio with an offering for teams, as well as adding new generative AI courses, specializations, and certificates.