CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwired - November 07, 2016) - The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) held its seventh annual ITA Tech Challenge programming skills competition on Saturday, November 5.

The ITA Tech Challenge, presented by Trustwave, began in September with qualifying exams held at fourteen participating universities and shared virtually with thirty-four universities. Students were challenged to solve an exam using their languages of choice, such as C++, C#, JavaScript, Python and PHP. Of the record-setting 767 who took the initial exam, 50 qualifying students accepted and traveled to downtown Chicago to take the Final Challenge and compete for $12,500 in prizes.

The top 50 students also had the opportunity to interview with several Chicago technology firms who are looking to hire interns and entry-level employees.

"With the war for tech talent continuing to rage both in and outside of Chicago, our Tech Challenge program is one of the key ways in which we are helping our members fight the battle," said Fred Hoch, CEO at ITA. "By exposing hundreds of students from dozens of top national universities to the Chicago tech ecosystem, we are helping to raise the awareness of the opportunities available here for developers and engineers."

"Although the competition and prizes are exciting, it is the exposure that Chicago tech receives that is the real winner," said Trisha Degg, ITA Talent Program Director. "From the qualifying exams through the final challenge, we are helping Chicago's tech firms get in front of the next generation of talent."

Congratulations to the 2016 ITA Tech Challenge Top 10:

1. Mutian, The University of Chicago - $5,000
2. Goutham, The University of Chicago - $2,000
3. Seth, Indiana University - $1,000
4. Phillip, Carnegie Mellon University - $1,000
5. Samuel, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - $1,000
6. Jonathan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - $500
7. Cameron, Illinois State University - $500
8. Jiajun, Northwestern University - $500
9. Mihai-Iulian, The University of Chicago - $500
10. Bogdan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - $500

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

• DePaul University
• Illinois Institute of Technology
• Illinois State University
• Indiana University, Bloomington
• Michigan State University
• Northern Illinois University
• Northwestern University
• Notre Dame
• Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
• St. Louis University
• University of Chicago
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Washington University

Universities that participated only virtually include:

• Boston University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Cleveland State
• College of Lake County
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Harvard
• Indian Institute of Technology, Patna
• Kejriwal College
• Loyola University Chicago
• Milwaukee School of Engineering
• Missouri State University
• Missouri University of Science & Technology
• MIT
• Mount Holyoke College
• Nanyang Technological University
• New York University
• Northeastern Illinois University
• Northwest University
• Parsvanath College
• Purdue University
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• St. Olaf College
• Stanford
• State University of New York at Stony Brook
• University for Business and Technology
• University of California, Berkley
• University of Central Missouri
• University of Florida
• University of Michigan
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Prishtina
• University of Southern California
• University of Wisconsin
• Virginia Tech

Thank you to all of this year's sponsors that helped make the ITA Tech Challenge possible, especially Platinum sponsor Trustwave. Gold sponsors include: Allstate, CCC, Corptax, IMC Financial Markets, kCura, Morningstar, OpinionLab, and ShowingTime. Silver sponsors include: Backstop Solutions Group, Conversant, DRW, Herzum, Optiver, PEAK6, and SIM Partners.

About the Illinois Technology Association
The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) scales Illinois tech companies. With innovative resources that allow members to collaborate with each other, build their talent networks and elevate their local and national presence, ITA is the region's strongest advocate for fostering innovation and growth. Founded in 2005 and supporting 500-plus growth-stage tech companies, ITA has a rich history of driving the business forward. For more information, visit illinoistech.org, follow @ITAbuzz on Twitter or find us on LinkedIn.

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