Posts

Hello CS folks!

We hope you had a wonderful winter break and are ready for the upcoming term!

We were thrilled to see you on campus last term after two years of online learning. Unfortunately, Covid-19 restrictions mandated us to adjust many of our event offerings. Nonetheless, many great things have happened that we would like to share with you. 🥳

In September, we started the new school year with the CSSS First-Year Welcome. Our department’s professors, Patrice Belleville and Kemi Ola, kindly joined forces with several student speakers (Eric Yan, Cyrus Kalafchi, Leonard Wang, Maja Evans, Henry Huynh, Vedika Seth) to tackle first-year questions. This virtual event is also the first time we tried out a Zoom breakout room panel where each room had a speaker talking about a different topic. 🎓

Then, as we moved into October, we had our first offline event, the Halloween social👻. Lots of you showed up to show off your spooky outfits👹 and the opportunity to meet everyone since the Cube’s reopening!

In November, we had our professional photoshoot event which is, non-surprisingly, extremely popular (> 100 attendants)📷.

Finally, in December, we had two events happening on the same day (Dec. 2), the Research Night and Movie Night. For the Research Night, we invited a guest panel consisting of Prof. Joanna McGrenere, A. Finn Hackett, Eric Yan, Dryden S. Wiebe, Rebecca Lin, Matthew Tang to introduce the undergraduate research options in UBC CS. Immediately after that, we ended the term by showing the Academy Award-winning movie Parasite🎞.

We were not slacking off in Cyberspace either. In fact, our online community has grown enormously in the last four months. The CS Discord doubled from around 600 members in the summer to 1500 members! Aside from that, we hosted the well-received CSSS Summer Olympic in addition to regular game nights during the summer break. In this event, we celebrated the Tokyo Olympics by organizing nerdy events that all CS students love. Yes, coding competitions and keyboard typing challenges ⌨🖱.

For those of you who frequent our website, you may have noticed changes to the tutor page and the addition of a new clubs page. We have many more cool features coming✨

As we move into the new semester, we have many events lined up. You should already see Maple CTF (Capture the Flag/White hat hacking/Security competition) occurring from January 21 - 28. This is part of a week-long event called CS Week which we hope will become the defining event of UBC CS. Stay tuned for more information. 🤩

UBC CSSS events can now be added to your calendar automatically! Just import the following .ics URL to your calendar app of choice:

https://ubccsss.org/events/index.ics

See a preview below:

CSSS is hiring for AUS and SUS representatives! Responsibilities:

• Represent the CSSS in weekly/bi-weekly AUS/SUS council meetings
• Liaise between CSSS and AUS/SUS to maintain good standing for the club
• Provide reports to CSSS executives on AUS/SUS decisions If you are interested in applying, please click the link below: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5iDlUmbM0UYPMcB

We are looking for a VP Communications to join the team for next year. The VP Communications shall:

• Produce all advertising pertaining to Club business in all electronic and print media.

• Communicate Club activities to the Members

APPLY HERE:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd_m7MAp09d6nUOSuRTxi5HTxwjpW_QEIFlUBcE5oiPOxkweA/viewform

It will be helpful to have graphic design and git experience, but it is not required, don’t let the questions deter you from applying! If you have any questions or would like to send in resume/portfolio instead please direct to Facebook page or mdctleo@gmail.com, our email servers are temporary down.

Unfortunately, given the move to online graduation, it is clear that we have no choice but to cancel this year’s Year-End Gala. We recognize this will be disheartening news to many of you (myself included), particularly those graduating wanting to celebrate our time at UBC surrounded by the people with whom we’ve struggled together through undergrad and to whom we’ve grown close.

We’re putting aside some of the money that we would have spent on the gala and looking for a way to commemorate the graduating class. In lieu of memories of one last night together, we want to give something that will serve to remind us of our shared experience. If you have any thoughts on what might be meaningful and valuable for the students and/or CS department, please find our survey here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeKqGdo-5wLE-G6sDCadniGqT1puxqqUvbnYZaBoFJxCE_j0w/viewform

You will receive your full refund, the refund process will proceed in the next couple of days. For those who purchased group tickets, the cumulative amount will be refunded to the buyer of the tickets. If you have any questions or encountered any difficulties during the refund process, do not hesitate to reach out to us. Preferably through Facebook page, as our email server is down.

And if I might step off the official-voice-pedestal for a moment here – I want to express my gratitude to the community. Throughout my five years around computer science, it’s amazed me how many wonderful people seem to appear at every turn, and I know there are so many more I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting. Those of you who come with fresh ideas, new energy, and unending drive to better the student community and the department, thank you. And those of you who bring warmth, friendliness, and a genial word, thank you. And those who bring just your presence and your attention, thank you. You are all invaluable to making this department what it is. These are turbulent times; still, I know that next year, regardless of what happens, we will be here aiming to support you in whatever capacity you need. I hope we continue to further the goal of welcoming everyone with open arms, encouraging and edifying each other, and serving as your little beacon and refuge when it comes to navigating computer science student life.

Stay safe, stay entertained, and we can’t wait to see you again – whenever that may be!