<p>A Texas State computer science senior beat more than 4,600 students to win an award that will give him an edge in job pursuits.</p><p>Miles Nosler was sent on a two-day trip from March 27 to 29 to New York to accept his first place award from the IBM Master the Mainframe Contest. According to the IBM website, the contest was a set of computer application challenges broken into three parts. The challenges allowed students to become comfortable with navigating mainframes and their basic concepts and use the skills learned to solve real life situations, according to the website. Students participated in the contest from Oct. 1 to Dec. 28.</p><p>Mike Todd, IBM Academic Initiative System adviser, said Nosler was the overall winner of the contest because he finished the most challenges correctly. Nosler said the contest started out easy in the beginners' level and progressively got harder throughout the intermediate and advanced parts.</p><p>While in New York, Nosler toured the IBM mainframe lab and spent time with its engineers. The company held an awards ceremony March 28 where the top three contestants from the U.S. and Canada were honored.</p><p><a href="http://star.txstate.edu/node/6993">Keep reading...</a></p>