This is a cross post from Beta – a publication for computing students at the University of New South Wales
I often wonder why I don’t see more CSE student projects.
We are recognised as one of the best computing schools in Australia. It follows we should have a strong tech culture. And yet, we don’t seem to.
Having a tech culture means learning outside the classroom, having people actively engaged in tech events, discussing new ideas and technology, pursuing ambitious projects ready to be the next Google. If you want to learn more than what’s in the classroom, if you have an idea for a project, or if you want to talk about technology, you’re supposed to find the right atmosphere and the right people at tech events like tech talks, seminars, workshops, and coding jams.
None of these events occur often enough. It’s not surprising, then, that our tech culture is a shadow of what it could be. And I think it’s time to change.
The first step in building a tech culture is to run more tech events, since they provide a space for programming and technology dialogue, and allow ideas and activities to flourish. Generally speaking, a tech event is a combination of two things: technical thinking or activity, and socialising or teamwork. Under this definition, CSE has two major recurring tech events: ACM training and robocup. However, these two is not nearly enough and they have a very narrow focus. For those of us who want to work on something besides robots playing soccer, or do something other than a few hours of highly stressful coding, neither event is particularly helpful. We need more general code jams and work on your project days.
It is not enough to merely run events in the vague hope that students will show up. By third year, the enthusiasm of many CSE students is just about dead. Those who are still enthusiastic are swamped by uni work and extracurricular activities. Consequently, I’m concerned that the CSE students who might have built the next Youtube may never get the chance – simply because the CSE environment failed to excite, failed to encourage, and failed to provide the opportunity. First years should be given more importance. They are after all, the most enthusiastic of us all. They are the ones who came to UNSW because they were attracted by the stories we tell them. Stories about NICTA, Ori Allon, and all the innovation we do here at CSE. Recruitment marketing is recruitment marketing, of course, but if we’ve talked the talk, we may as well walk it too. An active tech culture is the only thing that will preserve and nurture that enthusiasm.
I hope to see CSE become a better school starting from the bottom up, the undergrads. No doubt we have some excellent research coming out of CSE – we wouldn’t be doing so well in university ranking indices otherwise. That is something to be proud of. But only a handful of people understand the research – and they often happen to work in the same building, and on the same floor. CSE’s seminars are usually too technical and specialized for undergrads. We need more accessible tech talks and workshops to get students excited if we want to create this tech culture and facilitate tech projects starting at the undergrad level.
CSE Soc is laying out the foundations for a tech culture which all CSE students can build on. I’m excited to say that we have successfully hosted a web app jam and an Android app jam during one of the most busy times of the session. The gears are moving.
We plan to have more tech events, but we need help from you. If you have ideas – if you know how to develop an iPhone app, or develop games, or do anything that you think is interesting or new in CSE – let us know and we can organise a workshop. Let’s grow CSE’s tech culture one tech event at a time.
