World Wide Technologies offered a tour and a challenge to the students in the Computer Science class at their “Hackathon” event last week at WWT headquarters in Maryland Heights. The tour showcased World Wide Technologies’ arsenal of tech to students from about twenty different schools.

Many were in awe of the massive data center built with millions of dollars worth of computing technology. Several pieces of their technology peaked the students’ interests, among them the virus cage, a computer surrounded by both a physical and software cage made to simulate malware.

“It was one of the things that made me think ‘I really wish I had that,’” Junior Justin McNiel said. “I hope I can have enough experience one day to work in a place with all that technology.”

This massive display of heavy-duty technology is not just for show, as it services the massive amounts of data a major company generates on day-by-day operations.

“When you think about it, there’s an unimaginable amount of data to store in those servers,” McNiel said. “Bread Co., for example, recently started using World Wide Technology’s servers. Just think about all the Bread Co.’s across the country, and think about all that technology, and it’s all organized in this one server room.”

Coming out on top in the challenge will merit the school a grant of $10,000. As an ongoing project during their school year, the class will accomplish the goal that their challengers gave them: to assist the lives of the students at their respective schools. Their deadline is in January. When asked, Mr. Sextro, head of the computer science class, declined to offer information about their plans due to the competitive nature of the contest, but is confident that his students will bring their a-game.

“I’m excited for the competition,” McNiel said. “There’s a chance we’re going to win this year.”