UAT Teams Win Big at Avnet Tech Games: Students Take Home Thousands in Scholarships

TEMPE, AZ--(Marketwire - Apr 15, 2011) - The University of Advancing Technology (UAT) hosted the sixth annual Avnet Tech Games, presented by Microsoft, on their campus last weekend. The games are rigorous technology competitions that test college students on their innovative thinking and tech skills. The challenges include programming, multimedia and data networks, just to name a few. This year, 27 students took home $1,000 scholarships. Since 2006, the Avnet Tech Games have given away nearly $230,000 in scholarships and prizes to over 1,400 students, made possible by donations from the Carstens Family Funds.

UAT students won more than $7,000 in scholarships and prizes this year. The onsite challenge winners for Patch Panel Madness Competition included UAT students Noah Corradin, Adam Visser and Annie Winn, and their coach Al Kelly. In this challenge, students had to build a data network as quickly as possible based on a specific network diagram, armed with Ethernet cables, switches and racks of servers.

Additionally, UAT students John Faulkner, Jason Cater and David Kazlas, and their coach Shelley Keating took first place in the Accenture Green Data Center Challenge. In this event, teams had to create proposals and find innovative solutions to power a green data center using alternative energy and resources.

"We knew we had very stiff competition this year. We knew at least one team that was within one point of us," Kazlas commented about the competition his team faced in the green challenge.

2011 also marked the second annual Avnet Virtual Games contest which allows students from around the world to compete in a virtual environment. The Android App Challenge was a competition where students had to design and program a high-functioning Android application. UAT student Silvia Domenech won this challenge and received a $1,000 scholarship.

The University of Advancing Technology is proud to partner with Phoenix-based Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) on the Avnet Tech Games each year and supports the growth of young minds to become innovators of the future.

About UAT: The University of Advancing Technology is a unique, private college that serves its student body by fostering knowledge creation and academic excellence in an environment that embraces the young technophiles of the world. With three centers of research and a suite of technology-centered undergraduate and graduate degrees, the University is a recognized leader in technology education.