hreeder
commented
8 years ago Old one recovered from the wayback machine:
WHAT IS COMPSOC?
We have a about page! You can find it on one of the tabs above.
WHAT IS THE BEST PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE TO LEARN FIRST? WHAT DO YOU GUYS RECOMMEND?
This is not an easy question to answer because each language is suited for performing different tasks, and very often one language can perform the exact same thing as another (with about the same effort). However with the relatively recent and strong popularity of OOP based languages, it would be good to start on one of those just to get your feet wet. For this purpose Java and C# are good candidates because they are amongst the most popular languages for beginning programmers and have entire libraries of introductory books on them. The more daring would plunge off into C++ which maybe hard to use and timely to create programs in, but you will really begin to appreciate the level of control you get through it. Though you really should't worry about this at all, because The University of Edinburgh's excellent first year Informatics course holds your hand through Haskell and Java.
Not an Informatics Student? No problem there's loads of ways to learn computing, hey you can start here!
WHAT IS THE STMU?
The STMU is short for Student Tech Meet Up, a monthly meeting held by CompSoc in which we invite industry experts, our academic staff and members of CompSoc to hold talks on computing topics. Some of these may be showcasing a language that someone likes, introducing new theories/technologies/methods, or companies giving a taste of what their company is like and how they do things (after all students are an excellent source of interns/employees). The talks do not always have to computing related, occasionally we may have talks on issues computing technologies have in the world in a nontechnical-more-ethical manner, we may hold talks on teamwork methods for development teams, pass advice from successful start ups.
WHAT IS A SIG?
A SIG is a Special Interest Group. SIGs are groups of students/staff developers or researchers that are officially recognized by CompSoc and promoted by us. This means that we try to support them by booking rooms for them in Appleton Tower so that developers can meet in productive environments instead of their Garages once a week in Appleton Tower, bring the occasional pizza, and perform some of the more annoying administrative duties with them. By shoving several SIGs into a larger room we hope to have SIGs bounce ideas off of each other in hopes of gaining more success in their projects. We also attempt to support them through limited hardware access, volunteer personnel, or as a source of keen individuals who may want to be part of what the SIG is doing. In return SIGs will have to give reports on their progress (by allowing us to view their development site, or repository log) or via hand written paper. Additionally a SIG will have to present their project in a CompSoc event (STMU or Social), so that members aside from the committee may get an idea of what it is doing. Application for CompSoc SIG status is done via direct email with an abstract of the project goal, and readiness to present the idea in more detail in a committee meething. Don't worry we love all of you so were pretty lenient. We just dont accept projects that go against legal obligations.
WHAT IS CASCADERS?
Cascaders is an informal peer assist programme that CompSoc runs. In essence what happens is that Cascaders participants can pick up an item that represents a topic that he/she wishes to help others on (ex. Snake plushie on top of a monitor indicate Python help being available) from a box located in the hallway to AT5 West lab. Once the items are placed, any person can come talk to them about help on that particular topic. This allows topics of both curriculum and extracurricular material to be discussed.
WHAT ARE THE WORKSHOPS THAT COMPSOC HOST, WHAT KIND ARE THERE?
Workshops are much like our STMUs except they are more oriented at enforcing already present skills or introducing new ones in interactive fashion. To give an example there may be Haskell workshops near midterm exams to reinforce basic haskell syntax and conventions based on past experience in the course (such as list comprehensions and how they work/are written). There also may be workshops on team/project management methodologies and processes used by "Agile" software firms around the world.
Workshops are organized by volunteer members in CompSoc, so please look out in the events/news page for announcements.
WHAT ARE HACKATHONS?
Hackathons are often the most exciting times for CompSoc as this is the time when many of our members come together and compete to produce code in a set amount of time. Hackathon participants are usually given a theme to base their code around but are otherwise given complete freedom as to what they create (as long it's nothing malicious). Winners and honorable mentions are given prizes and the occasional job/internship offer from Sponsors of the event... so hackathons are our battles for glory and loot.
neanias
We need to create and populate the FAQ page. Can we reuse the old one? (with updates?)