CSS have thrived this year, adapting their much-loved events to a virtual-world and even adding some new events to the calendar. Jacqui signs off for the year and hands over to Likkan, the new President for CSS.
It’s been a wild rollercoaster of a year but the spring term for CSS has been a great success. Following our start in autumn, we’ve continued to hold the variety of engaging events that we’re known for and with our newly elected committee, CSS is well-prepared for the upcoming academic year.
After winter exams, we hosted a week-long Minecraft build competition on the CSS Minecraft server, as well as having a series of online events like the Missing Maps Mapathon and a virtual boardgames night. It all culminated in a big evening of Minecraft gaming with Hide and Seek and a Treasure Hunt. At the end of January, we opened sales for our sought-after CSS Hoodies which you can now see CSS members wearing around campus. Some of our more recent events include chess tournaments, talks from UoB alumni in celebration of International Women’s Day, and of course, our regular well-known Discord Quiz nights.
In collaboration with AFNOM, we helped organise and produce a set of 'lightning talks' with a range of topics from speed-running, to AI art and tips on managing your finances. It was lovely to see members of the computer science community share what they were passionate about and we look forward to more talks like these in the future! You can check out the recording of this stream and others on our Youtube Channel.
One of many fun topics featured in the CSS - AFNOM lightning talks
The Developer Student Club (DSC) has also been hard at work at holding workshops for you all! This term we had workshops on using Gradle, React, and an introduction to Python. We also gathered people together to compete in an international coding competition, Hash Code, with participating teams performing spectacularly - well done to everyone that participated! Alongside DSC, we also hosted another Tech Talk from our sponsor Kainos about working in agile development, as well as an introduction to LaTeX via a series of workshops by Dr Andreea Radu.
This year, CSS had its first Virtual Ball. We hosted it online using ‘Gather’, a virtual 2D world facilitating video chatting, with each attendee getting their dinner that night paid for as well as a wax-sealed letter complete with personalised ticket and complimentary sticker. The night was a complete joy both to host and to attend and it allowed many of our members to meet face-to-virtual-face for the first time. We hope those of you that were there enjoyed it as much as we did!
Thank you to everyone that came to the CSS Ball!
We also had our Annual General Meeting, where all the positions on committee go up for election. We had some good competition and managed to fill all the spaces on our committee. The new committee has already had an amazing start, jumping right into organising as restrictions continue to lift. You can see the results of these elections on our social media, and we’ll soon be updating the website’s committee page to reflect the changes. Stay tuned!
That covers everything that the outgoing committee of 2020-21 helped organise. We’ve counted 44 events this year and that's in a pandemic! Hopefully you’ve enjoyed being a part of CSS this year.
The 2021-2022 committee, feat. some of the outgoing committee as well
It’s been lovely being the President of CSS, tough at times but I don’t regret a second of it. Best of luck to next year’s committee; you guys will do great!
- Jacqui, Outgoing President of CSS
Thank you to each and every member for your continued support this year on Discord and at our events. We look forward to welcoming you to even more great events over the next year!
- Likkan, President Elect of CSS
To find out more about the Computer Science Society visit their society website.
There are 41 student groups in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. To learn more about their projects and activities head to the EPS Societies homepage.
