compsoc-freshers

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Week 3 newsletter
by Thomas Denney 08 May '17

08 May '17

Hi all, Good morning! This week we have our usual Geek Night on Saturday, however there will not be a talk on Wednesday. One of our sponsors has asked that we share this UCAS survey about how CS students view technology <https://www.surveybuilder.com/s/eQkba/nav#p/186a0>. It only takes a few minutes to fill in. Have a great week! Thomas and the rest of the committee EventsGeek Night 3 <https://www.facebook.com/events/1831861043802355> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Saturday (3rd week)* Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. We will also have an Adafruit IoT starterkit and a BBC micro:bit if you are interested in learning some embedded programming. Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. Sponsor NoticesEntrepreneur First Student Partner opportunity <https://boards.greenhouse.io/workforef/jobs/599587#.WPTpeFLMyV5> We're on the lookout for a Student Partner to help us change the way the most talented students think about their careers. At Entrepreneur First we specialise in supporting people to build technically defensible companies from scratch and we're looking for ambitious Student Partners to help us inspire and engage the best student technologists to build a startup with EF. This is a great opportunity if you're interested in tech startups and either see yourself founding one or working for one in the future. *The role* You'll be helping us grow EF's brand at your university and encourage the best student engineers to start companies. This is a community-facing role and you'll be the eyes and ears 'on the ground' - gathering first-hand insights about our customers and helping them to kick-start their startup journeys with EF. You'll be focused on building a technical community and running tech and startup-focused meetups and events. You'll play a key role in driving applications to our EFX Internship programme enabling students to experience working for a startup first hand. For more information click here. <https://boards.greenhouse.io/workforef/jobs/599587#.WPTpeFLMyV5> ------------------------------ The Oxford University Computer Society (CompSoc) aims to organise meetings and events for our members to use and further their computing interests. See all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page <https://facebook.com/oxcompsoc>, Twitter <https://twitter.com/oxcompsoc>, or visit our website <https://ox.compsoc.net/> for more information about the society. Thomas Denney President - Oxford University Computer Society president(a)ox.compsoc.net

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Week 2 Newsletter: CoreFiling tech talk this week
by Thomas Denney 02 May '17

02 May '17

Hi all, Hopefully you're all settled back into your Oxford routines and you're looking forward to the rest of term (aside from exams, perhaps!). This week we're hosting our usual geek night as well as a tech talk from CoreFiling, a local Oxford company, on the Internet of Things and Kubernetes. If you're interested in either embedded hardware or containers this should be a great talk to come along to! One of our sponsors has asked that we share this UCAS survey about how CS students view technology <https://www.surveybuilder.com/s/eQkba/nav#p/186a0>. It only takes a few minutes to fill in. Have a great week! Thomas and the rest of the committee EventsCoreFiling Tech Talk: Internet of Things and Kubernetes <https://www.facebook.com/events/1829602414032197/> *Lecture Theatre A, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (2nd week)* Former Oxford CS student David North will be joining us to talk about how the Internet of Things and Kubernetes, an open-source project for automating containerised application deployment, have affected their development strategies over the last year. Pizza and drinks will be served after the talk :). Geek Night 2 <https://www.facebook.com/events/1917807691841532> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Saturday (2nd week)* Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. We will also have an Adafruit IoT starterkit and a BBC micro:bit if you are interested in learning some embedded programming. Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. Sponsor NoticesEntrepreneur First Student Partner opportunity <https://boards.greenhouse.io/workforef/jobs/599587#.WPTpeFLMyV5> We're on the lookout for a Student Partner to help us change the way the most talented students think about their careers. At Entrepreneur First we specialise in supporting people to build technically defensible companies from scratch and we're looking for ambitious Student Partners to help us inspire and engage the best student technologists to build a startup with EF. This is a great opportunity if you're interested in tech startups and either see yourself founding one or working for one in the future. *The role* You'll be helping us grow EF's brand at your university and encourage the best student engineers to start companies. This is a community-facing role and you'll be the eyes and ears 'on the ground' - gathering first-hand insights about our customers and helping them to kick-start their startup journeys with EF. You'll be focused on building a technical community and running tech and startup-focused meetups and events. You'll play a key role in driving applications to our EFX Internship programme enabling students to experience working for a startup first hand. For more information click here. <https://boards.greenhouse.io/workforef/jobs/599587#.WPTpeFLMyV5> ------------------------------ The Oxford University Computer Society (CompSoc) aims to organise meetings and events for our members to use and further their computing interests. See all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page <https://facebook.com/oxcompsoc>, Twitter <https://twitter.com/oxcompsoc>, or visit our website <https://ox.compsoc.net/> for more information about the society. Thomas Denney President - Oxford University Computer Society president(a)ox.compsoc.net

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Week 1 newsletter
by Thomas Denney 24 Apr '17

24 Apr '17

Hi all, This week we're going to be hosting our second Geek Night of the term, in which we'll be writing algorithms to find optimal solutions to a modified version of the travelling salesperson problem. Later in the term we will also be hosting a competitive programming competition, CoreWars tournament, and hopefully a Capture the Flag event. One of our sponsors has asked that we share this UCAS survey about how CS students view technology <https://www.surveybuilder.com/s/eQkba/nav#p/186a0>. It only takes a few minutes to fill in. Have a great week! Thomas and the rest of the committee EventsGeek Night 1 <https://www.facebook.com/events/1448897341847565/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Saturday (1st week)* The theme this week is the travelling salesperson problem, but with a twist! We're going to be writing competing approximation algorithms for finding the shortest pub crawl around Oxford, but with a few extra restrictions (to be announced on the night). Come along for a chance to practice your algorithms skills. Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. We will also have an Adafruit IoT starterkit and a BBC micro:bit if you are interested in learning some embedded programming. Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. Sponsor NoticesEntrepreneur First Student Partner opportunity <https://boards.greenhouse.io/workforef/jobs/599587#.WPTpeFLMyV5> We're on the lookout for a Student Partner to help us change the way the most talented students think about their careers. At Entrepreneur First we specialise in supporting people to build technically defensible companies from scratch and we're looking for ambitious Student Partners to help us inspire and engage the best student technologists to build a startup with EF. This is a great opportunity if you're interested in tech startups and either see yourself founding one or working for one in the future. *The role* You'll be helping us grow EF's brand at your university and encourage the best student engineers to start companies. This is a community-facing role and you'll be the eyes and ears 'on the ground' - gathering first-hand insights about our customers and helping them to kick-start their startup journeys with EF. You'll be focused on building a technical community and running tech and startup-focused meetups and events. You'll play a key role in driving applications to our EFX Internship programme enabling students to experience working for a startup first hand. For more information click here. <https://boards.greenhouse.io/workforef/jobs/599587#.WPTpeFLMyV5> ------------------------------ The Oxford University Computer Society (CompSoc) aims to organise meetings and events for our members to use and further their computing interests. See all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page <https://facebook.com/oxcompsoc>, Twitter <https://twitter.com/oxcompsoc>, or visit our website <https://ox.compsoc.net/> for more information about the society. Thomas Denney President - Oxford University Computer Society president(a)ox.compsoc.net

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Week 0 newsletter: welcome back!
by Thomas Denney 17 Apr '17

17 Apr '17

Welcome back! At the end of Hilary we held our Annual General Meeting at which we elected a new committee. I'm delighted to announce that the 2017-18 committee is: - *President:* Thomas Denney - president(a)ox.compsoc.net - *Secretary:* Edward Hart - secretary(a)ox.compsoc.net - *Treasurer:* William Seymour - treasurer(a)ox.compsoc.net <treasurer(a)ox.comspoc.net> I'm really looking forward to working with the new committee, and I'd also like to thank Matt Burke and Chris Mullender for their fantastic work as president and treasurer over the last year. This week we've got out first Geek Night of the term, and later in the term we will also be hosting a competitive programming competition, CoreWars tournament, and hopefully a Capture the Flag event. Have a great week! Thomas and the rest of the committee EventsGeek Night 0 <https://www.facebook.com/events/440629976288504> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Saturday (0th week)* Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. Sponsor NoticesEntrepreneur First Student Partner opportunity <https://boards.greenhouse.io/workforef/jobs/599587#.WPTpeFLMyV5> We're on the lookout for a Student Partner to help us change the way the most talented students think about their careers. At Entrepreneur First we specialise in supporting people to build technically defensible companies from scratch and we're looking for ambitious Student Partners to help us inspire and engage the best student technologists to build a startup with EF. This is a great opportunity if you're interested in tech startups and either see yourself founding one or working for one in the future. *The role* You'll be helping us grow EF's brand at your university and encourage the best student engineers to start companies. This is a community-facing role and youâ€™ll be the eyes and ears 'on the ground' - gathering first-hand insights about our customers and helping them to kick-start their startup journeys with EF. You'll be focused on building a technical community and running tech and startup-focused meetups and events. You'll play a key role in driving applications to our EFX Internship programme enabling students to experience working for a startup first hand. For more information click here. <https://boards.greenhouse.io/workforef/jobs/599587#.WPTpeFLMyV5> ------------------------------ The Oxford University Computer Society (CompSoc) aims to organise meetings and events for our members to use and further their computing interests. See all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page <https://facebook.com/oxcompsoc>, Twitter <https://twitter.com/oxcompsoc>, or visit our website <https://ox.compsoc.net/> for more information about the society. Thomas Denney President - Oxford University Computer Society president(a)ox.compsoc.net

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Week 8: Annual General Meeting - ELECTIONS!
by Thomas Denney 06 Mar '17

06 Mar '17

Hello all, I hope that you've all had a great term and that you're looking forward to a well deserved vacation :). Last week we had our final Learn to Code session, and I would once again like to thank all the attendees and volunteers that made the course a success. I had great fun teaching it, and I look forward to doing it again next year. If you missed any of the sessions then please check the resources out on GitHub <https://github.com/oxcompsoc/learntocode>. Over the vacation we will also consider releasing audio recordings from some of the sessions. This Wednesday we'll be holding our Annual General Meeting and electing a new committee. It is essential that we meet quorum for the election, so please be sure to either come or vote by proxy. If you are interested in standing for a committee position then please feel free to email Matt <mailto:president@ox.compsoc.net>, Chris <mailto:treasurer@ox.compsoc.net>, or me <mailto:secretary@ox.compsoc.net> to find out what the roles entail. Additional roles may be created at the discretion of the new president and secretary. There will be a semi-official Geek Night this Saturday, feel free to come along for free pizza and drinks. Have a great week :) Thomas and the rest of the committee Events Annual General Meeting <https://www.facebook.com/events/739607626208010/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (8th week)* As well as reports from the existing committee, we'll be electing a new committee; the president <mailto:president@ox.compsoc.net>, secretary <mailto:secretary@ox.compsoc.net>, and treasurer <mailto:treasurer@ox.compsoc.net> roles are all up for election. Feel free to email any of us if you would like to get an idea what the roles entail, but here's a rough summary: * *President*: ultimately in charge, responsible for event organisation, and relations with sponsors * *Secretary*: shares many responsibilities with the president, along with managing social media, and sending these newsletters * *Treasurer*: keeping track of the accounts, producing termly reports for the proctors, and ordering pizza All of the committee are responsible for the smooth running of our events, and we all took part in the teaching of Learn to Code this year. Geek Night 8 <https://www.facebook.com/events/396494164039562/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Saturday (8th week)* Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Oxford University Computer Society (CompSoc) aims to organise meetings and events for our members to use and further their computing interests. See all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page <https://facebook.com/oxcompsoc>, Twitter <https://twitter.com/oxcompsoc>, or visit our website <https://ox.compsoc.net> for more information about the society. -- Thomas Denney Secretary - Oxford University Computer Society secretary(a)ox.compsoc.net <mailto:secretary@ox.compsoc.net>

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Week 7 Newsletter: Microsoft HoloLens, LAN Night, AGM
by Thomas Denney 27 Feb '17

27 Feb '17

Hello all, Microsoft will be joining us later this week for a talk on developing apps for HoloLens, their augmented reality development. I had the opportunity to try the HoloLens last summer, and I strongly encourage you to come and have a look! After the talk there will be the opportunity to chat with the speaker, as well as the usual selection of food and drinks. Last Wednesday we hosted our first competitive programming event, and I'd like to begin by congratulating the winners - you can see their scores here <https://www.hackerrank.com/contests/compsoc-ht17/leaderboard>. After the success of this event we will definitely be running similar events in the future, so don't worry if you missed this one! This week's Learn to Code will be the final session of the term. We hope that those of you that attended enjoyed the experience and that you're planning to keep up the coding in the future! We would once again like to thank all of the volunteers that assisted with the sessions. The materials are available here <https://github.com/oxcompsoc/learntocode>. On Saturday, for the penultimate Geek Night of the term, we will be running a LAN Night. Next Wednesday we'll be holding our Annual General Meeting and electing a new committee. It is essential that we meet quorum for the election, so please be sure to either come or vote by proxy. If you are interested in standing for a committee position then please feel free to email Matt <mailto:president@ox.compsoc.net>, Chris <mailto:treasurer@ox.compsoc.net>, or me <mailto:secretary@ox.compsoc.net> to find out what the roles entail. Additional roles may be created at the discretion of the new president and secretary. Have a great week :) Thomas and the rest of the committee Events Microsoft Tech Talk: The Path to Mixed Reality <https://www.facebook.com/events/1150829498377582/> *Lecture Theatre A, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (7th week)* Microsoft HoloLens is the first fully self-contained holographic computer running Windows 10. It is completely self-contained-no wires, phones, or connection to a PC needed. Microsoft HoloLens allows you to place holograms in your physical environment and provides a new way to see your world. This session provides a mixed reality primer and an overview of the available tools & documentation to quick start your holographic application development. Pizza and drinks will be served after the event. Learn to Code <https://www.facebook.com/events/1804363963151491/> *Lecture Theatre A, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Thursday (7th week)* In the sixth and final session of the course we'll be reviewing all of the content, looking at Python modules and classes in more detail, and taking a look at other resources you might want to look at for learning to code. Like the previous sessions, much of the session will require you to work on a laptop, so we highly recommend taking one. We do expect demand to be very high for this course, so please try to arrive before the advertised start time as we need to register everyone (for fire regulations). You'll need to enter via the back door on Parks Road; there are CompSoc signs up at the department. If you're a CS student with a little spare time and enthusiasm, please consider volunteering by contacting the committee. Geek Night 7: LAN Night <https://www.facebook.com/events/377811005939167/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Saturday (7th week)* Join us for an evening of video games and pizza! Annual General Meeting <https://www.facebook.com/events/739607626208010/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (8th week)* As well as reports from the existing committee, we'll be electing a new committee; the president <mailto:president@ox.compsoc.net>, secretary <mailto:secretary@ox.compsoc.net>, and treasurer <mailto:treasurer@ox.compsoc.net> roles are all up for election. Feel free to email any of us if you would like to get an idea what the roles entail, but here's a rough summary: * *President*: ultimately in charge, responsible for event organisation, and relations with sponsors * *Secretary*: shares many responsibilities with the president, along with managing social media, and sending these newsletters * *Treasurer*: keeping track of the accounts, producing termly reports for the proctors, and ordering pizza All of the committee are responsible for the smooth running of our events, and we all took part in the teaching of Learn to Code this year. Other notices Facebook London Hackathon <http://www.fb.me/LonHack17> *Facebook London, 10 Brock Street, NW1 3 London - 11th & 12th March* Here at Facebook, we believe that every engineer possesses amazing ideas and creativity. Hackathons are a longstanding tradition at Facebook where our engineers stay up all night to create a working product or prototype from scratch. Remember- done is better than perfect. *Please note - all members of your team must register individually for the opportunity to attend* Register here <https://fblonhack17.splashthat.com/> Join Facebook in London as we stay up all night hacking, learning and having a some fun! Start brainstorming ideas & forming teams (of up to 4 people). We'll supply the food, fun diversions, prizes, and some expert guidance in the form of our engineers. We'll also provide reimbursement for public transportation. You bring your laptop, appetite, skills and ideas. The winning team will get the chance to compete against teams from other Hackathons at the Hackathon Finals and be judged by our executives- held at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park, California in November! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Oxford University Computer Society (CompSoc) aims to organise meetings and events for our members to use and further their computing interests. See all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page <https://facebook.com/oxcompsoc>, Twitter <https://twitter.com/oxcompsoc>, or visit our website <https://ox.compsoc.net> for more information about the society. -- Thomas Denney Secretary - Oxford University Computer Society secretary(a)ox.compsoc.net <mailto:secretary@ox.compsoc.net>

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Week 6 newsletter: Competitive programming, chat bots, and learn to code
by Thomas Denney 20 Feb '17

20 Feb '17

Hello all, Later this week we'll be hosting our first competitive programming event, the fifth Learn to Code session, and a chat-bot themed Geek Night. Our programming competition, on Wednesday night, will have a selection of a problems from previous competitions of varying difficulties. As well as earning the pride of winning, we will be awarding winners with gift cards (there will be separate prizes for those that have and have not competed in these kind of competitions before). On Saturday we will be experimenting with building chat bots using Microsoft's Bot Framework <https://docs.botframework.com/en-us/downloads/>, which allows you to build bots for services like Facebook Messenger, Skype, or Slack. The tools work on any platform and use either C# or NodeJS (we'll focus on the latter). We will have our usual selection of food and drinks. Microsoft will be joining us next week for a talk on developed augmented reality apps for HoloLens. As I'm sure many of you are aware we've seen really great demand for Learn to Code, and I would once again like to thank all the volunteers that have assisted us with running the sessions. The materials from all the sessions will now be made available via GitHub <https://github.com/oxcompsoc/learntocode> (hint: if you want to see where future sessions are going, take a look at the |future| branch). Have a great week :) Thomas and the rest of the committee Events Competitive Programming <https://www.facebook.com/events/408464376168242/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (6th week)* We're going to host a programming competition! We'll have a selection of ten programming problems to solve with points awarded for correct solutions submitted in as little time as possible. You can use any programming language you like, but we recommend C++, Java, or Python. You can compete individually or in teams of up to three people. For those of you that have never done competitive programming before, we recommend taking a look at websites like HackerRank and Kattis for sample problems. Make sure you drag you friends along too, as teams can work on more than one problem at once. If you have competed before, the level of difficulty should be similar to early rounds of ACM-ICPC. Pizza and drinks will be served after the event. Learn to Code <https://www.facebook.com/events/396719150705223> *Lecture Theatre A, Room 051, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Thursday (6th week)* In the fourth session we'll take a look at basic data structures in Python like lists and dictionaries, and explore how these data structures can be used to solve common programming problems. Like the previous sessions, much of the session will require you to work on a laptop, so we highly recommend taking one. We do expect demand to be very high for this course, so please try to arrive before the advertised start time as we need to register everyone (for fire regulations). You'll need to enter via the back door on Parks Road; there are CompSoc signs up at the department. If you're a CS student with a little spare time and enthusiasm, please consider volunteering by contacting the committee. Geek Night 6 <https://www.facebook.com/events/613787808811896/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Saturday (6th week)* We're going to be experimenting with the Microsoft Bot Framework SDK to build smart chat bots. Hopefully by the end of the evening we'll have the basics of a CompSoc Chat Bot! The usual selection of food and drinks will be on offer. Before coming, you may wish to look at some of the sample code and tools <https://docs.botframework.com/en-us/downloads/>. Please note that all the tools work on Windows, Mac, or Linux. Microsoft Tech Talk: The Path to Mixed Reality <https://www.facebook.com/events/1150829498377582/> *Lecture Theatre A, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (7th week)* Microsoft HoloLens is the first fully self-contained holographic computer running Windows 10. It is completely self-contained-no wires, phones, or connection to a PC needed. Microsoft HoloLens allows you to place holograms in your physical environment and provides a new way to see your world. This session provides a mixed reality primer and an overview of the available tools & documentation to quick start your holographic application development. Pizza and drinks will be served after the event. Other notices Facebook London Hackathon <http://www.fb.me/LonHack17> *Facebook London, 10 Brock Street, NW1 3 London - 11th & 12th March* Here at Facebook, we believe that every engineer possesses amazing ideas and creativity. Hackathons are a longstanding tradition at Facebook where our engineers stay up all night to create a working product or prototype from scratch. Remember- done is better than perfect. *Please note - all members of your team must register individually for the opportunity to attend* Register here <https://fblonhack17.splashthat.com/> Join Facebook in London as we stay up all night hacking, learning and having a some fun! Start brainstorming ideas & forming teams (of up to 4 people). We'll supply the food, fun diversions, prizes, and some expert guidance in the form of our engineers. We'll also provide reimbursement for public transportation. You bring your laptop, appetite, skills and ideas. The winning team will get the chance to compete against teams from other Hackathons at the Hackathon Finals and be judged by our executives- held at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park, California in November! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Oxford University Computer Society (CompSoc) aims to organise meetings and events for our members to use and further their computing interests. See all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page <https://facebook.com/oxcompsoc>, Twitter <https://twitter.com/oxcompsoc>, or visit our website <https://ox.compsoc.net> for more information about the society. -- Thomas Denney Secretary - Oxford University Computer Society secretary(a)ox.compsoc.net <mailto:secretary@ox.compsoc.net>

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Week 5 Newsletter: Ensoft talk, Learn to Code, Competitive Programming
by Thomas Denney 13 Feb '17

13 Feb '17

Hello all, This week Ensoft will be joining us for a talk on cloud-scale data centres. Next week, in a CompSoc first*, we'll be hosting a programming competition. For those of you that have never tried competitive programming before this will be a great opportunity to brush up your problem solving skills and see what the competitions are like. Meanwhile, for those that have competed before (and maybe you're even on this list <http://stats.ioinformatics.org/results/2016>), we hope that the problems will be of intermediate difficulty. As I'm sure many of you are aware we've seen really great demand for Learn to Code, and I would once again like to thank all the volunteers that have assisted us with running the sessions. The materials from all the sessions will now be made available via GitHub <https://github.com/oxcompsoc/learntocode> (hint: if you want to see where future sessions are going, take a look at the |future| branch). Have a great week :) Thomas and the rest of the committee * I'm not sure if this is strictly true, but it is certainly the first time under this committee... Events Ensoft Tech Talk: How to build a 300 acre computer <https://www.facebook.com/events/675360745957957/> *Lecture Theatre A, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (5th week)* Cloud-scale data centers are the biggest computing machines ever built, and warp the very structure of the Internet. This talk gives an accessible view into these creations, including how networking is evolving to enable them. Bio: Simon Chatterjee is Director & CTO of Ensoft, whose experience includes helping to bring into existence the Guinness Book of Records' "World's Highest Capacity Internet Router". Pizza will also be provided. Learn to Code <https://www.facebook.com/events/1296752107035202/> *Lecture Theatre A, Room 051, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Thursday (4th week)* In the fourth session we'll take a look at basic data structures in Python like lists and dictionaries, and explore how these data structures can be used to solve common programming problems. Like the previous sessions, much of the session will require you to work on a laptop, so we highly recommend taking one. We do expect demand to be very high for this course, so please try to arrive before the advertised start time as we need to register everyone (for fire regulations). You'll need to enter via the back door on Parks Road; there are CompSoc signs up at the department. If you're a CS student with a little spare time and enthusiasm, please consider volunteering by contacting the committee. Geek Night 5 <https://www.facebook.com/events/1336359586421973/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Saturday (5th week)* Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. We will also have an Adafruit IoT starterkit and a BBC micro:bit if you are interested in learning some embedded programming. Competitive Programming <https://www.facebook.com/events/408464376168242/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (6th week)* We're going to host a programming competition! We'll have a selection of ten programming problems to solve with points awarded for correct solutions submitted in as little time as possible. You can use any programming language you like, but we recommend C++, Java, or Python. You can compete individually or in teams of up to three people. For those of you that have never done competitive programming before, we recommend taking a look at websites like HackerRank and Kattis for sample problems. Make sure you drag you friends along too, as teams can work on more than one problem at once. If you have competed before, the level of difficulty should be similar to early rounds of ACM-ICPC. Pizza and drinks will be served after the event. Other notices Facebook London Hackathon <http://www.fb.me/LonHack17> *Facebook London, 10 Brock Street, NW1 3 London - 11th & 12th March* Here at Facebook, we believe that every engineer possesses amazing ideas and creativity. Hackathons are a longstanding tradition at Facebook where our engineers stay up all night to create a working product or prototype from scratch. Remember- done is better than perfect. *Please note - all members of your team must register individually for the opportunity to attend* Register here <https://fblonhack17.splashthat.com/> Join Facebook in London as we stay up all night hacking, learning and having a some fun! Start brainstorming ideas & forming teams (of up to 4 people). We'll supply the food, fun diversions, prizes, and some expert guidance in the form of our engineers. We'll also provide reimbursement for public transportation. You bring your laptop, appetite, skills and ideas. The winning team will get the chance to compete against teams from other Hackathons at the Hackathon Finals and be judged by our executives- held at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park, California in November! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Oxford University Computer Society (CompSoc) aims to organise meetings and events for our members to use and further their computing interests. See all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page <https://facebook.com/oxcompsoc>, Twitter <https://twitter.com/oxcompsoc>, or visit our website <https://ox.compsoc.net> for more information about the society. -- Thomas Denney Secretary - Oxford University Computer Society secretary(a)ox.compsoc.net <mailto:secretary@ox.compsoc.net>

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Week 4 newsletter: Bloomberg talk and Learn to Code
by Thomas Denney 06 Feb '17

06 Feb '17

Hello all, This week we have a talk from Bloomberg about how to efficiently implement quick sort in industry, the third Learn to Code session, and a Geek Night. In fifth week Ensoft will be joining us for a talk on cloud-scale data centres. As I'm sure many of you are aware we've seen really great demand for Learn to Code, and I would once again like to thank all the volunteers that have assisted us with running the sessions. The materials from all the sessions will now be made available via GitHub <https://github.com/oxcompsoc/learntocode> (hint: if you want to see where future sessions are going, take a look at the |future| branch). At last week's Geek Night we had a go at writing OpenGL shaders to generate an animated version of the CompSoc logo. You can take a look at some of the code here <https://github.com/oxcompsoc/shaders>. This one <https://www.shadertoy.com/view/ltKSW3> is my favourite, as it takes advantage of the text hidden in the logo! If you're interested at practising your programming skills or just learning something new, we often theme Geek Nights like this. Have a great week :) Thomas and the rest of the committee Events Bloomberg: Quicker Sorting <https://www.facebook.com/events/707824112729406/> *Lecture Theatre A, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (4th week)* Quicksort is a well-known sorting algorithm used to implement sort functionality in many libraries. The presentation isn't really about the algorithm itself but rather about how to actually create an efficient implementation of the algorithm: a text-book implementation of the algorithm actually is not that quick (even if the pivot is chosen cleverly). It takes paying some attention to detail to improve the implementation significantly. This presentation starts with a simple implementation and makes incremental improvements to eventually yield a proper generic and fast sorting function. All code will be in C++ but it should be possible to follow the majority of the reasoning with knowledge of another programming language. After the talk we will have pizza and the opportunity to speak to the speaker. Learn to Code <https://www.facebook.com/events/1680272885603248/> *Lecture Theatre A, Room 051, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Thursday (3rd week)* In the third session we're going to continue looking at |while| loops by building a number guessing game before learning how to write your own functions. Like this second session, much of the session will require you to work on a laptop, so we highly recommend taking one. We do expect demand to be very high for this course, so please try to arrive before the advertised start time as we need to register everyone (for fire regulations). You'll need to enter via the back door on Parks Road; there are CompSoc signs up at the department. If you're a CS student with a little spare time and enthusiasm, please consider volunteering by contacting the committee. Geek Night 4 <https://www.facebook.com/events/1656689631300367/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Saturday (4th week)* Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. We will also have an Adafruit IoT starterkit and a BBC micro:bit if you are interested in learning some embedded programming. Ensoft Tech Talk: How to build a 300 acre computer <https://www.facebook.com/events/675360745957957/> *Lecture Theatre A, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (5th week)* Cloud-scale data centers are the biggest computing machines ever built, and warp the very structure of the Internet. This talk gives an accessible view into these creations, including how networking is evolving to enable them. Bio: Simon Chatterjee is Director & CTO of Ensoft, whose experience includes helping to bring into existence the Guinness Book of Records' "World's Highest Capacity Internet Router". Pizza will also be provided. Other notices Facebook London Hackathon <http://www.fb.me/LonHack17> *Facebook London, 10 Brock Street, NW1 3 London - 11th & 12th March* Here at Facebook, we believe that every engineer possesses amazing ideas and creativity. Hackathons are a longstanding tradition at Facebook where our engineers stay up all night to create a working product or prototype from scratch. Remember- done is better than perfect. *Please note - all members of your team must register individually for the opportunity to attend* Register here <https://fblonhack17.splashthat.com/> Join Facebook in London as we stay up all night hacking, learning and having a some fun! Start brainstorming ideas & forming teams (of up to 4 people). We'll supply the food, fun diversions, prizes, and some expert guidance in the form of our engineers. We'll also provide reimbursement for public transportation. You bring your laptop, appetite, skills and ideas. The winning team will get the chance to compete against teams from other Hackathons at the Hackathon Finals and be judged by our executives- held at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park, California in November! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Oxford University Computer Society (CompSoc) aims to organise meetings and events for our members to use and further their computing interests. See all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page <https://facebook.com/oxcompsoc>, Twitter <https://twitter.com/oxcompsoc>, or visit our website <https://ox.compsoc.net> for more information about the society. -- Thomas Denney Secretary - Oxford University Computer Society secretary(a)ox.compsoc.net <mailto:secretary@ox.compsoc.net>

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Week 3: Learn to Code and Geek Night
by Thomas Denney 31 Jan '17

31 Jan '17

Hello all, I'd firstly like to thank everyone that attended Learn to Code, especially our wonderful volunteers. It was great to see Lecture Theatre A packed out ten minutes before the session even began, with even more people overflowing into Lecture Theatre B! If you missed the first session then you can find notes on it here <https://goo.gl/LPXnRS>, and we'd be delighted to see you this week. If you are still interested in volunteering then we would really appreciate your help this week as the sessions become more interactive. As per usual, we will have our weekly Geek Night on Saturday. Learn to Code attendees are more than welcome, and there will be plenty of people more than happy to provide one to one advice on programming. Regular Geek Night attendees will know that this year we've been doing a different programming challenge each week, and I'm more than happy to receive suggestions for future Geek Nights. Next Wednesday we will be hosting a Bloomberg talk on efficiently implementing quick sort. Have a great week :) Thomas and the rest of the committee Learn to Code <https://www.facebook.com/events/1698101570480173/> *Lecture Theatre A + Room 051, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Thursday (2nd week)* Learn to Code is back! If you've ever wanted to learn the basics of programming, refresh your Python knowledge, or get an idea of what computer scientists actually do all day then this is going to be a great course for you :). We aren't going to assume any prior programming experience, although to get the best out of the sessions we highly recommend that you bring a laptop so that you can follow along with some of the examples. In this second session we will be looking at executing different code based on conditions (if/elif/else) and looping (for/while). Both Matt and Thomas' sessions will cover the same content, but you may wish to go to the same session as last week for continuity. We do expect demand to be very high for this course, so please try to arrive before the advertised start time as we need to register everyone (for fire regulations). You'll need to enter via the back door on Parks Road; there are CompSoc signs up at the department. If you're a CS student with a little spare time and enthusiasm, please consider volunteering by contacting the committee. Events Geek Night 3 <https://www.facebook.com/events/1851746301738212/> *Undergraduate Social Area, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Saturday (3nd week)* Join us for an evening of relaxing, chatting, games, coding, and the usual selection of food and drinks. We will also have an Adafruit IoT starterkit and a BBC micro:bit if you are interested in learning some embedded programming. If anyone is in need of suggestions for a side project, I have a few cool ideas that I'd be more than happy to share. Bloomberg: Quicker Sorting <https://www.facebook.com/events/707824112729406/> *Lecture Theatre A, Department of Computer Science - 7pm Wednesday (4th week)* Quicksort is a well-known sorting algorithm used to implement sort functionality in many libraries. The presentation isn't really about the algorithm itself but rather about how to actually create an efficient implementation of the algorithm: a text-book implementation of the algorithm actually is not that quick (even if the pivot is chosen cleverly). It takes paying some attention to detail to improve the implementation significantly. This presentation starts with a simple implementation and makes incremental improvements to eventually yield a proper generic and fast sorting function. All code will be in C++ but it should be possible to follow the majority of the reasoning with knowledge of another programming language. After the talk we will have pizza and the opportunity to speak to the speaker. Sponsor notices Microsoft Imagine Cup One of the biggest student competitions is back and you can be part of it. Microsoft is hosting their annual Imagine Cup <https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/uk_faculty_connection/2016/11/30/microsoft…> competition, looking for the 'next big thing.' Previous entries have included everything from innovative games <https://www.imaginecup.com/en-us/team/99043>, to life changing apps, with many teams going on to form their own business <http://www.nacue.com/from-soundsynk-to-gloop-how-winning-microsoft-imagine-…>. This year we are partnering with our start-up team, to provide you with the skills you need to take your idea to the next level. Whether you are in your 1st year of University, or finishing up a PhD, you are eligible to enter. There are no categories for this year's competition, so you are free to be as creative as you like. The secret to success is blending the skills of technical and entrepreneurial students, to develop something that is not only amazing, but also has real world business value. There can be a maximum of 3 people to represent each team at the finals, but supporting members or mentors are encouraged to develop the idea. The winners will receive some incredible prizes, with the worldwide winners taking home $100,000 in prize money, $120,000 worth of Azure and a once in a lifetime experience they won't forget. That's everything you need to take your idea to the next level. Dates to remember: * Create your team and register <https://compete.imagine.microsoft.com/en-us/imaginecup?wt.mc_id=DX_874656> - Open now * Registration and submissions close - March 24th, 2017 * National finalists announced - 6pm April 3rd, 2017 * UK National finals - April 14th, 2017 * Worldwide finals - July 2017 Your submission doesn't need to be 100% polished and perfected for UK finals. We will be looking for a strong concept at the shortlisting stage, then if you are successful at the UK finals we will work with you to refine your idea and coach you, ready for the worldwide finals in July. You will be judged on the use of technology, the concept, innovation and feasibility of your idea. Utilising Microsoft Azure will be a key focal point for this year's competition and to support you we have a range of online resources <https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/uk_faculty_connection/tag/github/>. So, what are you waiting for? Get inspired by last year's UK finalists <https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/uk_faculty_connection/2016/06/09/interview…>, create your team and register <https://compete.imagine.microsoft.com/en-us/> for the Imagine Cup today! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Oxford University Computer Society (CompSoc) aims to organise meetings and events for our members to use and further their computing interests. See all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page <https://facebook.com/oxcompsoc>, Twitter <https://twitter.com/oxcompsoc>, or visit our website <https://ox.compsoc.net> for more information about the society. -- Thomas Denney Secretary - Oxford University Computer Society secretary(a)ox.compsoc.net <mailto:secretary@ox.compsoc.net>

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