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Announcements:

CSSS General Meeting - June 23, 2022

posted by Jared Murphy on June 16, 2022, 10:33 p.m.


Hi all,

This is notice of the Computing Science Student Society's next general meeting.

Date: Thursday, June 23, 2022
Time: 7:00PM
Location: TASC 9204

The following is the Agenda:
- Report of Officers
- Announcements
- Motions
- Open Floor
- Approval of minutes

Attached below is a copy of last meeting's minutes. Have a look and reach out to your exec team if you have any questions.

You are automatically a member of the CSSS if you are a declared CMPT Major, Minor, or Honours in any program of study offered at the undergraduate level by the School of Computing Science; or currently enrolled in any undergraduate course offered by the School of Computing Science; or are an Honorary Member of the Society.

Voting is restricted to members only.


You may attend the meeting remotely by joining the General Meetings voice channel on the CSSS Discord at the link below.
http://discord.sfucsss.org/

Hope to see you there!

- Jared Murphy, Director of Archives
attachment 1

CSSS x ESSS Ultimate [Registration due June. 15]

posted by Johnson Luong on June 9, 2022, 12:40 a.m.


Hello everyone!

Check out this event that our Event's Committee is holding:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking for a fun, physical activity after classes?
Want to play some Ultimate Frisbee?
Desire to uphold the honour of the CSSS by defeating those pesky engineers?
 
To all students - the Computing Science Student Society wants you to join us (and the ESSS) for some Ultimate!
 
Details
  • Date/time: Friday June 17, 2022. 6 pm - 7:30 pm
  • Location:
    • Players: Lower (outdoor) piano in the Rotunda (1 flight of stairs up from the lower bus loop)
    • Spectators: Terry Fox Field (game starts at 6:30 pm)
  • This event is free for everyone.
  • Registration is first-come, first-serve, so sign up right away! We hope to have teams of 16 with an equal gender split.
 
Register here! Sign-ups are open until Wednesday, June 15 at 7 pm.

 
Have questions?
Send an email to csss-doe-current@sfu.ca or ping @Director of Events on the CSSS Discord server!
 
See you there!
 
Oliver Xie
Director of Events | Computing Science Student Society
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Best,
Johnson Luong
Director of Communications | Computing Science Student Society
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Dr., Burnaby B.C V5A 1S6
jkl53@sfu.ca


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CSSS Board Games Night

posted by Jasper Song on June 8, 2022, 8:13 p.m.


CSSS members,

We will be having our usual board games night this Friday, June 10th, 5 PM-8:30 PM. It will take place inTASC1 9204; directions are attached below for those who need them.

For those unfamiliar, the CSSS' board games nights are regular events that occur once every two weeks; there is no entry fee. During these events, food and a wide range of board games will be provided. Student can connect, unwind, and enjoy a dinner together. As always, this event will be open to all SFU students, so bring your friends! We hope to see you there!

Sincerely,
Jasper Song
CSSS Assistant Director of Events

attachment 1

CSSS Biweekly Newsletter 14th Edition

posted by Johnson Luong on June 8, 2022, 1:12 a.m.


Biweekly Computing Science Student Society (CSSS)
Newsletter: 14th edition

Welcome to the CSSS newsletter!
Here we hope to inform our students of exciting opportunities and events, while cutting down on the sheer amount of emails sent for each individual event.
We hope you will find this newsletter beneficial! If you have any suggestions, events, or simply want to contact us, you can reach me at jkl53@sfu.ca
- Johnson Luong

📅 CSSS General Meeting

Q: What is a General Meeting? 
A: General Meetings are how the Computing Science Student Society passes information along to the student body and motion money to be spent on items and events. By attending you will get to have a better understanding how we operate and have a say in how we run.

The following is the Agenda:
- Report of Officers
- Announcements
- Motions
- Open Floor
- Approval of minutes

*Voting is restricted to in-person attendees

Date: Thursday, June. 9th, 2022
Time: 7:00 - 8:00pm
Location: In Person @ TASC 9204 (or Remote on the CSSS Discord in he #General_Meetings Voice Channel)

🎉Event's Committee

Want to get involved with the CSSS?🥳

Come take part in our Event's Committee. Where we'll be planning out events for the year. Everyone is welcome! 

If you would like to join please let our Director of Events (
Oliver, Liversticks#7734 on discord) know so we can give you the role to get access to the channels in our discord.

📢❗P.S. Our next Event's Committee meeting is coming up soon!
Date: Saturday, June. 11, 2022
Time: 10:30am - 11:30am
Location: On discord (message Oliver to get access!)

📜Preliminary agenda:

EDUCATIONAL
- Git workshop
- HTML/CSS/JS workshop
SOCIAL
- CSSS x ESSS ultimate game
- Dessert crawl
- LAN Party OPEN FLOOR

🎲  CSSS Board Games Night

Want to ✨vibe✨ with fellow classmates? Come join us for our Board Games Night! Food will be provided and this event is open to all SFU students, so invite your friends! 🎲

Date: Friday, June. 10,
Time: 5:00pm-8:30pm
Location: TASC1 9204

💻 Google Developer Students Club (GDSC) Exec Recruitment

Looking to get more involved within Tech and SFU? Google Developer Students Club (GDSC) are looking to fill the following roles:

External Relations
Marketing / Social Media
Graphic Designer
Technical Leads (3/4 Positions)


Deadline: Tuesday, June. 28,
Apply: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4TU94ZaieQ_rq0PY-Ct3EOwZHc8wU6axb0NpkFK94jB0o9A/viewform

🥏 CSSS x ESSS Ultimate

Yes you heard that right! 
Join us to preserve the honour of the CSSS or watch a friendly Ultimate game against our ESSS friends!

Registration: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/CSSS-vs-ESSS-Ultimate
Dates: Registration due Wed, June. 15 (7:00pm).
Game on Friday, June. 17, 2022
Time: 6:30pm-7:30pm
Location: Terry Fox Field (the stadium)

 

This is a free event! We are also looking for a team of 16 people to play for us! Registration to play in the match is first-come, first-serve.

For more information, email csss-doe-current@sfu.ca.

🥤  Seasonal Mystery Column

Want to see if RNG is on your side? Come test your luck at the ✨seasonal mystery column✨ (definitely not gambling 😏)

This is an additional column in the pop machine where you get a random pop for 75 cent and each entry comes with a chance to win a free pop ticket! 🎟️.

There will be special flavors in the mystery column such as 🍍Pineapple fanta and raspberry nestea

Find it at our infamous pop machine at our common room located @ ASB 9802

🥽 Visier Post-Workshop Message

Looking for a co-op starting in September 2022? Emily shared a few tips about recruitment at Visier...

"At Visier co-ops recruits students three times a year — January, May. September. I encourage all students to apply! I really look forward to receiving your application.

A common concern from the call last night was landing a job if your grades are not stellar. Consistently pushing yourself to apply and review your application package is super important, as well as taking advantage of the resource you pay for at school. Co-op coordinators are experts at reviewing application documents.

Consistently apply as well - you never know when the timing of your application just is perfect for the employer. Also, consider applying for QA/testing positions. These positions are great because you get exposed to working in a professional environment, and you get paid to learn critical standards and technical skills. At any company, these are excellent positions to start establishing yourself.

For those interested in exploring what automated testing at Visier is like, click here (https://jobs.visier.com/students/jobs/1392?lang=en-us) Learn more about Visier here (https://www.visier.com/blog/)

🐍 WiC Intro to Python Workshop

Looking to get your feet wet in Python? Good news: WICs is holding an upcoming Intro to Python 🐍 workshop that you may want to check out! No experience is required.
 
Date: Thursday, June. 9th, 2022
Time: 6:00pm - 7:00pm PST
Registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSewUkfsCAa9GYf_uqa7awMzmYCpsbOLRabo7_4zrkUfbLIezg/viewform
Zoom: https://sfu.zoom.us/j/61462121588?pwd=dkZYTjR4ZSswbEZyR1hZV1VCa2Jldz09#success

🐝FAS Hive Volunteering

Want to help welcome new students to SFU in the Fall? Be part of supporting new students by helping them connect and feel welcome at SFU!

SFU is looking for HIVE Welcome Leaders from all Faculties to facilitate social and orientation activities this Fall. Not only are you helping new students, you will develop your leadership, problem-solving, and event planning skills, and gain an honorarium for your time! Formal training is scheduled throughout June/July. Please check MyInvolvement for more information about this opportunity.

Apply: https://myinvolvement.sfu.ca/home.htm > Opportunities > Getting Involved > All Opportunities > FAS HIVE Welcome Leader.
Deadline: (Extended to) Sunday, June. 26th, 2022
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CSSS Director Meeting Questions

posted by Mitchell Gale on June 3, 2022, 7:22 p.m.


Hi All,

The Computing Science Student Society is meeting with the Director of the School of Computing Science next week. We would love for you to let us know what questions you might have regarding computing science at SFU.


Please fill out this Survey by Sunday June 5th, 11:59PM. Please fill it out once for each question (feel free to ask multiple questions)

http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/427752636



Similar to last time we will follow up with answers to as many of these questions as we can get to.


See below the previous announcement during the Summer 2021 & Fall 2021 semester with questions/answers discussed during that meeting.


Thanks,


Mitchell Gale

Computing Science Student Society President



From: Mitchell Gale <mgale@sfu.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2022 12:05 AM
To: cmpt-students@sfu.ca; csss-announce@sfu.ca; csss-honorary@sfu.ca
Subject: Re: CSSS Director Meeting Questions
 

Hi All,


Thank you for your patience, one of the questions lead to action that is still currently ongoing, so I let the discussion go for a bit before following up.


Here are my summarized, high-level notes from out meeting with the Director as well as other information I know from within the department.


Courses:

"Will there be an increase in course offering in Surrey?"

        Yes, there will be increases in the course offerings in Surrey.


"Will courses continue to have recording lectures?"

        The option of recording lectures is left to the individual instructors.


"CMPT 105w and CMPT 376w seem to have a lot of overlap in material"

        Since students still are in the middle of transitioning requirements from not requiring CMPT 105w to requiring it, there is some overlap. The plan for 376w is to make it more technical in the future.


"Are there plans to continue offering online courses?"

        Some select course offerings may be offered online, but a vast majority will be in person. Instructors will need to justify why their class will be better, if taught online.


"CMPT 405 covers similar material to CMPT 307"

        Initially parts of the course may be similar as it is a grad course (CMPT 705) as well, but once a foundation is made for undergraduate and graduate students the topics should dive deeper than CMPT 307.


Course enrollment issues (specifically CMPT 105W/CMPT 295)

        There have been 700 seats of CMPT 105W offered between Spring 2021 and Spring 2022. Issue could resolve itself as students catch up on taking it.   There have been 1000 seats offered of CMPT 295 between Spring 2021 and Spring 2022 which is already a lot of offerings and a lot of seats.


"When will the new courses such as Web Development I/II, Mobile Computing and others be offered?"

        Offerings will start in Summer 2022 and will happen in various semesters for various courses.



Admin:

"Why was the 2.4 GPA requirement added to enroll in so many CMPT courses?"

        The requirement has been in the school for a number of years but just started being enforced. Students with low GPA often struggled in higher level CMPT courses. Quality of courses also lowered because classes may have needed to support students who did not have as good of a foundation.


Question about students making ethical decisions for the companies they choose to do a co-op at.

                Discussions were sparked within the FAS Co-op office as well as on a course offering level on how to better educate and cover the wide range of ethical situations students may face throughout their careers. These ethical situations can be from the standpoint of the choices/actions made by the company at, large as well as the individual tasks required for their jobs. The School of Computing Science is trying to add it to both the Co-op and the general Computing Science requirements where it makes sense.


Concerns about teaching quality from instructors
               Biannual performance reviews occur with each instructor, feedback from the end-of-semester course evaluations are taken seriously. Please fill out and encourage your peers to fill out the evaluations (usually send via Email, sometimes physically filled out during lecture). Evaluation rates are considerably low in many courses. Syllabus is almost a contract between an instructor and their students, it should outline expectations of a class. Flexibility is up to the instructor's discretion, and may change based on class size, slight change in material coverage, etc. If the change is disruptive it can be reported and investigated by the CS department.


I know the School of Computing Science has been working on hiring some new faculty, hopefully we see lots of new, motivated instructors over the next few semesters teaching various courses.




Thanks,


Mitchell Gale

Computing Science Student Society President




From: Mitchell Gale
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2021 10:46 PM
To: cmpt-students@sfu.ca; csss-announce@sfu.ca; csss-honorary@sfu.ca
Subject: CSSS Director Meeting Questions
 

Hi All,


The Computing Science Student Society is meeting with the Director of the School of Computing Science next week. We would love for you to let us know what questions you might have regarding computing science at SFU.


Please fill out this one question survey by end of day Thursday December 16th, 2021.

http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/415802770


Similar to last time we will follow up with answers to many of the questions.


See below the previous announcement during the Summer 2021 semester with questions/answers discussed during that meeting. 



Good luck on your remaining finals.


Thanks,


Mitchell Gale

Computing Science Student Society President




From: Mitchell Gale <mgale@sfu.ca>
Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2021 12:08 AM
To: cmpt-students@sfu.ca; csss-announce@sfu.ca; csss-honorary@sfu.cacmpt-students@sfu.ca; csss-announce@sfu.ca; csss-honorary@sfu.ca
Subject: Re: CSSS Director Meeting Questions
 

Hi All,


Thank you for your many questions.


I asked the Director your questions and provided a summary of responses below.


Bold are the questions.

non-bold are a summary of the response/discussion had.

Indented sections are my comments on them.


As many of you know the remote course offering list can be found here. https://www.sfu.ca/students/support/classes-2021/remote-classes-fall.html


Some notes about Covid-19 and on campus learning.

 - Ventilation is being inspected and improved as well as additional filtration systems

 - Bulk of courses are in person

 - Instructors are being recommended to record lecture slides/voice and host online. In most cases this won't be a room recording as some lectures previously had, but likely a screen capture and audio recording. For in person classes, exams are going to be in person, so being close to SFU is important.



"CMPT courses have awarded the lowest average grades in SFU over the last 10 years, as well the lowest average grades for 2019/2020 (both lower and upper division courses). Are there any plans to deal with this at all, in regards to scholarship acquisition, grad school applications, and how our transcripts look to employers?"

Computing Science Courses are around the average grade given by SFU for the over the past 3 years (time frame they looked into this for).


He showed me the differences and it was exceptionally close to the SFU average for the past 3 years, within a few hundredths of a grade point.


"When is ASB construction set to end"

Scheduled to be done around the end of the Fall term.



"Can there be more evening classes?"

Evening classes are not offered often, they need to work with the instructors schedule. They also can make the course less accessible to people taking early courses causing large gap between their classes.



"Do concentrations still exist within Computing Science"

Yes they do.

http://www.sfu.ca/students/calendar/2021/fall/programs/computing-science/major/bachelor-of-science-or-bachelor-of-arts.html (Look near the bottom of the page)



"Taking courses CMPT courses abroad is difficult in terms of transferring of credits."

If not all the same topics are taught in a course at SFU it is possible that the course will not transfer over. There are lots of Universities and their courses change, so it's not practical to have a list of all Universities and which courses can be transferred.



"Will CMPT 318 (Cyber Security) be turned into a regular course"

Yes, it will be turned into a regular courses with a unique course number.



"Are there plans to be more Cyber Security courses in the future?"

Yes, there are plans to have more Cyber Security courses in the near future.



"Can CMPT 376w be made more technical"

Apparently the course is in a bit of a shift due to the addition of CMPT 105w some of the material now covered in CMPT 376w will be taught in CMPT 105w leaving CMPT 376w to see coverage change.



"What is happening with the removal of CMPT 127"

CMPT 127 is being combined with CMPT 125.



"Why do some upper division courses in the AI column not have CMPT 310 as a per-requisite?"

The school does not like making unnecessary per-requisites to courses as they can act as "gate-keepers".



"Will Cryptocurrency/Blockchain be added to coverage of courses"

They are important technologies and they likely will have components taught in future.


When exactly courses covering these technologies will be taught, it's not yet know.




We will do this again in the Fall.



Thanks,


Mitchell Gale

Computing Science Student Society President
csss_president@sfu.ca

Note:
July 13th at 4:30PM there is a discussion where students can talk with faculty on how they would like to see in person classes return.

Meeting ID: 663 5066 0702
Password: 528995


From: jkl53 <jkl53@sfu.ca>
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2021 6:07:04 PM
To: csss-announce@sfu.ca; cmpt-students@sfu.ca; csss-honorary@sfu.ca
Subject: CSSS Director Meeting Questions
 

Hi All,

The Computing Science Student Society is meeting with the director of Computing Science at the end of this month. We would love for you to provide us with some questions about the future of Computing Science at SFU, Covid related topics, any suggestions for improvements, or anything else you would like for us to ask.

Please fill out this form with your questions/suggestions by Saturday June 26th:
http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/403650706

I'll follow up with this email after the meeting with answers to many of the questions.

Best,
Johnson Luong
Director of Communications | SFU Computing Science Student Society




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