October Events

Spice Up Your Life was a success. It started a bit late and there were no spoons but the samosas were delicious and there was a good turnout. It was great talking to the professors. A special thanks to Skrud for stopping by and telling us about life after graduation.

Last night was the Engineering Games Lizard Lounge. ÉTS, Polytechnique, and McGill showed up. I’ll have to find and post a picture of the official ÉTS beer pong table. It’s made out of 3300 beer caps and is a fantastic work of art.

With the first month out of the way, it’s time to think about some more important things. Sure, you can worry about midterms, but you can also procrastinate those studies by spending some time with your fellow engineers. Here’s what I’ll be covering in this post:

Academic

1. Problem Solving Sessions
2. Programming Summer Camp
3. Tutors on Duty

Events

4. SCS Gaming Day
5. Career Fair
6. Beer and Nacho Cheese
7. SCS Lizard Lounge

Tutorials

8. SCS Eclipse Tutorial
9. SCS Shell Scripting Tutorial

Academic

1. Problem Solving Sessions
Concordia’s ICPC team for this year has been chosen. It would be good to start a regular group that gets together and solves algorithmic and math programming problems together. Those interested are planning to meet once every two or three weeks. If you join the group, the meetings are not mandatory, just come whenever you have free time. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at cse@ecaconcordia.ca and send me your availability.

2. Programming Summer Camp
Dr. Chvátal (yes, he has a Wikipedia page) is planning a camp geared for CÉGEP students to teach and get them excited about programming. This would be for next summer, around June. If you’re interested in helping out, please e-mail me at cse@ecaconcordia.ca or contact Dr. Chvátal.

3. Tutors On Duty
The Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science is offering this service to all undergraduate students. The program aims to help first- and second-year students by providing tutors for their discipline at certain times. The tutors will be third- and fourth-year undergraduates. The CS/SOEN tutors are available at the following times:

• Tuesday from 14:00 to 17:00
• Wednesday from 14:00 to 17:00
• Thursday from 11:00 to 14:00
• Friday from 11:00 to 14:00

They’ll be in H-806-01 and H-806-02.
More information can be found on the Tutors on Duty website.

Events

4. SCS Gaming Day
Date: Tueday, October 6^th, 2009
Time: 12:00 – 17:00
Location: B-annex
If you were around during Frosh, you’ll remember SCS had consoles set up in the B-annex. They’re doing it again. It’s a great way to kill time if you’re on a break.

5. Career Fair
Date: Tueday, October 6^th and Wednesday, October 7^th
Location: Hall 7^th floor
Time: 10:00 – 16:00
Update: Facebook event page.
I’ll update once I have the full details about the location and time. I do know that there will be 16 different companies each day so come with you CV ready.
Also, if you’re interested in greeting and helping the companies set up, e-mail Athena with your availability at external@ecaconcordia.ca

6. Beer and Nacho Cheese
Date: Wednesday, October 14^th, 2009
Time: 17:30
Location: B-annex
Free drinks and nachos. Last year the B-annex was packed. the food was great and it was so much fun. Definitely not to be missed.
Corny joke time: What do you call cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho cheese! (Not your… get it?)

7. SCS Lizard Lounge
Date: Friday, October 23^rd, 2009
Location: Reggie’s
Time: 17:00 – 20:00

Tutorials

8. SCS Eclipse Tutorial
Date: Wednesday, October 7^th, 2009
Location: Hall 929
Time: 18:00 – 20:00
This tutorial will cover Eclipse basics such as creating a project, uses of the different views and perspectives. I’ll also delve into some of the refactoring capabilities as well as look at the java Debugger. Finally, we’ll look at installing plug-ins.

9. SCS Shell Scripting Tutorial
Date: Wednesday, October 21^st, 2009
Location: Hall 929
Time: 18:00 – 20:00
Shell scripting is an important weapon in your arsenal of programming skills. I learned bash over the Summer while working and I wish I had taken the time to learn it earlier.