October 28, 2022
The School of Computing and Information (SCI) is home to the Computer Science Club (CSC) - the largest student organization for computer science on campus. Available to all majors, CSC aims to foster an inclusive environment for members to increase their skills and have more access to resources in the field of computer science both professionally and personally. The club has over 400 members, and caters to a diverse range of both people and interests, prioritizing the inclusion of minorities, as well as variance in majors or areas of study.
In recent years, the club has grown in both size and quality of programs and resources offered to members. Current CSC president Jamir Grier (shown above), a third-year student studying computer science, led several projects that contributed to the club’s recent success, including the design of a Discord server to facilitate collaboration and connectivity between members, and more events to expose members to resources and opportunities.
The club hosts regular meetings on Wednesday nights, where members can attend workshops on professional development or designing projects with peers, corporate and alumni panels, and social events that provide a low-stress environment to connect. “We want to make sure that CS students have the space to still be people, not just students turning into code warriors,” said Grier.
“We have different types of companies come in and talk to students, as well as different types of people talking to students,” said Grier. Recently, the club hosted an event featuring Allen Yu, a former senior project manager at Microsoft, where he spoke about his experience with mental health and how to build a successful career in the field.
A popular way for students in computer science fields to develop their skills is through coding challenges and events called Hackathons. At the start of October CSC co-hosted a coding challenge alongside the Minority Association in Computing (MAC) club and is currently preparing for its third annual CSC Hacks Hackathon.
This year, however, the club has its sights set on a more ambitious goal to challenge members: Pitt’s first-ever Makeathon. Grier explained that the CSC officers began prototyping the idea for the Makeathon, saying that “there’s lots of Hackathons that you can go to where you show up, join a team of a few people, do a coding sprint, and then produce a minimum viable product to show judges. But that’s fairly shortsighted of exactly what field it’s focusing on.” Taking inspiration from similar challenges including the medically-themed Pitt Challenge and the business-focused Kuzneski Innovation Cup, CSC has started planning an event that will produce a more tangible product in order to include engineers and people that do physical product design. For the challenge, CSC will provide resources such as Arduino kits, mini computers, servo motors, robot arms, and more that participants will utilize to create a product. The challenge is currently planned for Spring 2023.
“When I took the role as president, I said that I hope CSC won’t sound like a weird acronym,” Grier said about his hopes for the club. With more events and upcoming opportunities, the reach of CSC is continuing to grow. For more information on the club, visit the CSC website.