ITA Crowns Best Coders in the Midwest at the 2015 Tech Challenge

CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwired - November 09, 2015) - The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) held its sixth annual ITA Tech Challenge programming skills competition on Friday, November 6.

The ITA Tech Challenge, presented by CDK Global, began in September with qualifying exams held at ten participating universities and shared virtually with fifteen universities. Students were challenged to solve an exam using their languages of choice, such as C++, C#, JavaScript, Python and PHP. Of the nearly 500 who took the initial exam, 48 qualifying students accepted and traveled to downtown Chicago to take the Final Challenge and compete for almost $10,000 in prizes.

"There is a shortage of tech talent in the Chicago market," said Fred Hoch, CEO of ITA. "We hear about it from our members on a daily basis -- it is their number one concern and challenge. The ITA is working hard to keep top tech talent in Chicago through programs like our Tech Challenge, which connects Chicago companies to up and coming technologists."

All of the Tech Challenge finalists were paired for interviews with sponsoring companies seeking interns and full-time employees. "The Tech Challenge brings highly skilled university students in our area together with top tech companies, like CDK Global, to create lasting professional relationships and careers," said Ted Moore, Vice President, Talent Acquisition at CDK Global. "We're proud to partner with ITA and support their goal to recruit and retain top computer science and engineering students in Illinois."

Congratulations to the 2015 ITA Tech Challenge Top 5:

1. Nikolas, University of Chicago, $5,000
2. Seth, Indiana University, $2,000
3. Xiaotian, University of Illinois, Urbana, $1,000
4. Frank, University of Chicago, $500
5. Mengyu, University of Chicago, $500

This year's ITA Tech Challenge participating universities with both on-site and virtual challenges include:

• Indiana University, Bloomington
• Illinois Institute of Technology
• Illinois State University
• Northern Illinois University
• Northwestern University
• DePaul University
• University of Chicago
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• University of Michigan

Universities that participated only virtually include:

• Notre Dame University
• Michigan State University
• Saint Louis University
• Washington University
• Purdue University at Calumet

ITA would like to thank all of this year's sponsors who helped make the program possible. The 2015 ITA Tech Challenge presenting sponsor is CDK Global. Supporting sponsors include: Backstop Solutions, Cleversafe, Corptax, Coyote Logistics, IMC, kCura, Morningstar, Trustwave. Participating sponsors include: 10^th Magnitude, edo, Optiver, Pluralsight, Spot Trading, Trunk Club and Uptake.

About the Illinois Technology Association
The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) is a business services organization dedicated to growing technology companies. ITA provides strategic programming, consulting and resources, enabling its members to grow, build and elevate their business. For more information, visit illinoistech.org, follow @ITAbuzz on Twitter or find us on LinkedIn.