I applied to Concordia in Software Engineering without really knowing anything about “software engineering”. I had no programming experience but I was eager to learn. I also wanted to make the most of my university experience by getting involved and meeting new people.

My first CUSEC (Canadian University Software Engineering Conference) was back in 2008, only my second semester as a software engineering undergraduate. I still had only a small grasp of what OOP was and couldn’t code for my life. I was convinced by the Concordia Head Delegate at the time to attend the conference. His pitch in my SOEN 228 class sold me. The line I remember the most was after he had listed the speakers, he said, “don’t worry if you don’t know who any of these people are, you will find out at CUSEC.” That “don’t worry” made me realize that I wasn’t the only person in my class who was ignorant about these speakers.

My only apprehension was that I would not understand what the talks were about. However, I figured that it is a student conference, $60 wasn’t that much, and if I didn’t like it then I could always leave.

The speakers I remember the most that year were Jeff Atwood, Tim Bray, and Zed Shaw. Yes, I admit that some of the topics were over my head but for me, the important part was learning about what you could do in the world of programming and how to start doing something cool. That year, I was introduced to the functional programming paradigm. I didn’t understand it fully during the talk but it did show me that there were other ways to think about problems. This was, of course, later re-iterated in my Principles of Programming Languages class where the mantra was, “If you only have a hammer then every problem is a nail.”

I went to CUSEC, met tons of smart students and speakers, and learned things I would have never covered in class. I was in love with CUSEC and hoped to go back in 2009.

What CUSEC is About (for me)

In 2009, I was voted in as the CSE Representative. Since I was supposed to be providing help and services to Computer Science and Software Engineering students, I decided to become one of the Head Delegates for Concordia. As an HD, your responsibility is to promote the conference at your respective univevsity and help out during the conference. You also attend meetings with the other organizers and find out the latest happenings at CUSEC.

It was during these meetings that I really understood what CUSEC was all about and met those who are the most passionate about the conference. CUSEC is about awesome speakers talking to students in an informal setting (eg Brutopia). It’s about connecting with others who share your interests and deciding to work on a project. It’s about cheering on (and criticizing) your fellow peers when they go up to demo their work. It’s about talking to companies and landing internships. Finally, it’s about having a good time and being able to interact with those who understand your passion.

As an attendee, you don’t see the work that goes into organizing a conference. In fact, one of the things that was brought up occasionally is that the attendees, speakers, and other guests should think that planning and running CUSEC requires no work. We want it to look easy and have it run seamlessly (although that hasn’t always been the case).

As an organizer, you see the minute things that the chairs and advisors debate about for hours. You see the planning that goes into selecting speakers and contacting sponsors. Finally, you see the ten crises that happen daily and how the chairs and advisors solve them.

For me, CUSEC has been a way to expand my knowledge about software development. As someone who went into the program knowing nothing, I feel as if I am constantly playing catch-up. CUSEC continuously shows me that there are many things that I do not know but it provides me with the tools and the opportunity to achieve the things that I find interesting. Talking to speakers and other students and inquiring about their accomplishments and knowledge is the first step.

© admin for vijetapatel.net, 2011. | Permalink | 56 comments |

The competition consisted of seven problems. We had five hours to solve them and access to only one computer.

I will post the pdf with the problems we encountered during preliminaries once it is available. If I have free time, I will write a post discussing our solutions, what we could have done better, and what we were prepared for.

Now it’s back to studying for midterms (four left) and putting off assignments.

© admin for vijetapatel.net, 2009. | Permalink | 26 comments |

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.

© admin for vijetapatel.net, 2009. | Permalink | 19 comments |

This year the preliminaries are not being held locally, but in Potsdam, New York on October 17^th (that’s a Saturday). Please e-mail SCS at scs@ecaconcordia.ca as soon as possible if you are interested and meet the following requirements:

• You must be able to travel to the US. Click for details.
• You must either be born in 1986 or later, or have first started post-secondary studies (this includes CEGEP) in 2005 or later. See also “Basic Requirements” and “Period of Eligibility” on the competition website.

I encourage applying if you are in your first or second year. This way, even if you may not know how to solve the problems now, you will know what to expect when you participate in future years.

Note: It will take two and a half hours to drive there (and the same amount of time to drive back). The competition lasts 4-5 hours. We should be able to make the entire journey in one day.

© admin for vijetapatel.net, 2009. | Permalink | 42 comments |

Spice Up Your like is happening on Thursday, October 1^st in EV 2.184 from 4:00 – 5:30pm.

What is Spice Up Your Life? It’s an event organized and hosted by SCS that brings together the CS/SOEN faculty with students. It’s a great way to get to know your teachers and ask them about their research, debate with them about the courses offered, and share your love of spicy food (mild food will also be served).

Alumni are also invited to this event. So, if you have moved on to a career or graduate studies, please feel free to join us and share your experiences.

SCS is also offering tutorials all semester on various topics. These are introductory tutorials aimed at 1^st and 2^nd year students. They will happen every other Wednesday in H-929 from 6:00 – 8:00pm.

The dates and topics are:

• Sep 23: Intro to Linux (happening today)
• Oct 07: Using Eclipse
• Oct 21: Bash scripting
• Nov 04: Perl
• Nov 18: Version Control

All tutorials are given by third or fourth year students in Computer Science or Software Engineering. I’ll be giving the one on Eclipse.

© admin for vijetapatel.net, 2009. | Permalink | 22 comments |

This is a copy of the e-mail that was sent out on Tuesday, September 15^th, 2009

I hope your first week went alright. Just a few notes and reminders:

1. Introduction
2. Office Hours
3. IBM Info Session
4. Iron Ring
5. CSE Seminar
6. MSDNAA – Free Microsoft Software
7. Random Thoughts

Introduction

My name is Vijeta and I am your computer science and software engineering representative. I am here to answer your questions about the ECA, the curriculum, and the CSE department. I can help you get involved, address your complaints, or anything really. You can reach me at cse@ecaconcordia.ca

Office Hours

I will be available in the ECA Office (H-838) every Monday from 11:30 to 13:00.

IBM Info Session

There will be an IBM info session on September 24th, from 17:00 to 19:00 in EV 3.309. This session is geared towards students who will be graduating soon. That means people in their last year only. This is not an info session for coop students. Once again: NO INTERNS.

Iron Ring

You can now fill out the official registration form for the Fall 2009 Iron Ring Ceremony. They must be submitted to the ECA Office in the Hall Building (H-838) by September 18, 2009 Monday to Friday, 10:00 AM – 5:00PM.

The official registration form is available at http://ecaconcordia.ca/files/ironring/RegistrationForm.doc

E-mail Harley Cooper, VP Academic at academic@ecaconcordia.ca for further details, but first take a look at the Iron Ring information pages.

CSE Seminar

A couple years ago, the CSE department used to have a half-day seminar where some selected professors would talk about their research. Dr. Mudur, the chair of the department, and I think it might be a good idea to bring it back. This event, if it occurs, will take place in the winter semester. If you have any suggestions (i.e. professor or area of research you may be interested in) please let me know.

MSDNAA – Free Microsoft Software

As an ENCS student, you can get free Microsoft software (legitimately) from the MSDNAA (including Windows 7 Pro). Just check out the AITS MSDNAA website.

Random Thoughts

Note: This was not part of the e-mail.
ECA frosh week is pretty much over. Orientation, corn roast, pub crawl, end everything else went pretty well. If you missed out on these events, there is still DUSTED happening this Friday. See you there!
SCS will be having a teacher meet-and-greet scheduled for next Thursday. The details are not finalized yet but I’ll keep you updated.

© admin for vijetapatel.net, 2009. | Permalink | 17 comments |

I have listed all of the events for ECA Frosh. The links direct to the ECA Frosh website or the Facebook page for that event where more details can be found.

Friday, September 4^th – Orientation Day

9:00

New students are introduced to the ECA executive team, the Dean of Engineering, each department’s Chair, and their department representatives.
New students will have to take the ECA placement test.
Societies usually also give short presentations but I’m unsure if they’re doing so this year.

12:00

Campus Tours – Frosh Leaders will take students on a tour of the downtown campus to locate classes, labs, and student areas.

12:30

Terrace (behind the Hall building) – Free food and drinks!

Tuesday, September 8^th – Movie Night

8:00 – 10:00

B-Annex – Free Breakfast.

B-Annex – building with K’NEX.

12:00 – 17:00

B-annex – An afternoon of gaming hosted by SCS.

After 17:00

B-annex – Movie (sorry, not sure of the exact time yet).

Wednesday, September 9^th – Society Day and Comedy for a Cause

8:00 – 10:00

B-Annex – Free breakfast hosted by WIE.

10:00

Terrace – Society Day
All societies will have booths and will be ready to talk about their events throughout the year.
It’s also a good time to ask about joining a competing team, such as Engineering Games or SAE. SCS will also be there if you want to ask about the Computer Science Games.

17:00 – 20:00

Terrace – Corn Roast Dinner. You should have a Concordia ID card with an ENCS sticker. You can get the sticker from the ECA office (H-838).

21:00

Hall – Comedy for a Cause show starts in H-110. Tickets are $10.00 and all proceeds will go to ECAid.

Thursday, September 10^th – Pub Crawl

8:00 – 10:00

B-Annex – Free breakfast.

B-Annex – Building stuff with K’NEX.

19:00

Terrace – Meetup for Pub Crawl.
Tickets are $15.00. We’ll be visiting the following bars: Boite a Karaoke, Sports Station, Brutopia, XO, and McKibbins.
If you don’t have a team beforehand, don’t worry. Most teams are created on the spot.
Pub Crawl is always a lot of fun and it’s a great way to meet other students.

22:00

Afterparty with JMSB.

Friday, September 11^th – Lizard Lounge

8:00 – 10:00

B-Annex – Free breakfast.

16:30 – 20:00

Reggie’s – Lizard Lounge hosted by ECA. Beers will be $1 (as always) and sausages will be served.

21:00 – 03:00

RnD. This is not part of Concordia Frosh but a lot of Concordians will be headed there after Lizard Lounge. RnD is a yearly party hosted by ÉTS. Tickets are $5.00 and will be sold at the Engineering Games booth on Society Day.

Saturday, September 12^th – La Ronde Day

9:00

Meetup at Concordia to head to La Ronde. Tickets are $20.00

Tickets for all events will be available throughout Frosh.
During Frosh students will get a t-shirt with a list of tasks . Complete 5 out of 7 tasks and get a prize!
DUSTED is not part of Frosh this year. It will be happening later in the semester.

© admin for vijetapatel.net, 2009. | Permalink | 17 comments |

Concordia will no longer accept credit card payments for tuition as of August 31^st, 2009.
This is a cost-cutting measure. The official notice can be found on the MyConcordia Portal. They state the following reason:

Challenged by economic difficulties currently affecting all Canadian universities and chronic underfunding of post-secondary education in Quebec, Concordia University has been reducing costs in various areas while minimizing the impact on the quality of academic programs.

You will still be able to use your credit card at the bookstore, computer store, for application fees, parking fees, and some other payments mentioned in the notice.

There is also a Gazette article on the issue that provides information on how much Concordia will be saving (about $800,000 per year) and the impact on students.

The majority of students I know pay their fees by credit card. It is convenient and a way to earn extra points. There are other options, such as online banking but, many students use credit cards as a way to temporarily cover some of their tuition if they do not have enough in their bank accounts. So, what bothers me most is that many students do not even know about this change.

I saw it on the front page of the Gazette yesterday at a grocery store. Wanting to know more, I went to the main Concordia site. However, I was unable to find information on the main page. The News and Events page contained a link to the information I was looking for but it was hard to find. I would never have noticed it if I was not explicitly looking for it.

It was also on the myConcordia Portal. However, I rarely visit the portal in the summer and don’t usually read the notices on the main page. I guess someone figured hitting caps lock was enough.

I have not received an e-mail or any letter from the Faculty or the Concordia Administration. The notices should at least be made more visible on the websites.

© admin for vijetapatel.net, 2009. | Permalink | 20 comments |

I have updated the previous post about SOEN curriculum changes accordingly.

I’m sure this makes scheduling easier for people going into third year (and probably others too).

© admin for vijetapatel.net, 2009. | Permalink | 48 comments |

• For those of us in coop, work term reports are due August 12^th.
• There is a Frosh meeting this Friday at 6:30pm in the B-annex. You can contact Athena (VP External) at external@ecaconcordia.ca for more information.
• If you are interested in volunteering during Frosh, contact Christine (VP Sports and Competitions) at sports@ecaconcordia.ca

Although the prospect of September and classes makes me a sadling, Frosh brightens my day. I’ll post up a list of Frosh events as soon as activities and dates are finalized. It’s going to be great. :)

© admin for vijetapatel.net, 2009. | Permalink | 41 comments |