Amazon collaborated with WICS on February 25 and hosted an info session. Space was limited so only students that RSVPed were allowed to enter. Luckily, WICS tried their best to accommodate as many people as possible. WICS managed to allow about 100 students to listen in on the info session so that they could learn more about working and applying to Amazon.
Verizon Info Session
On February 18, WICS hosted a Verizon Info Sessions. Female engineers from Verizon came and talked about the opportunities at Verizon and what it’s like to work at Verizon. The first half of the info session was a mixer focused mainly on more personal socialization, while the second half was an info session about Verizon with a Q&A at the end. Over 30 people showed up and learned a lot about Verizon!
Study Session
On February 11, WICS hosted a study session. Since it was midterms week, WICS decided it would be beneficial for members to collaborate and study together. Upperclassmen helped the underclassmen out with work they didn’t understand while snacking ice cream and cookies. About over 10 people showed up and had a great time eating ice cream and studying together!
First General Meeting
On Wednesday of the first week of winter quarter, WICS held its first general meeting. Over 50 of our members swarmed in as our president Angela Liu and vice president Stephanie Eng announced our plans for this quarter. After learning all about the events and projects this quarter, various members stayed to play board games with each other and bond. Make sure to come by next quarter to see what events we have!
Facebook Women Panel
Facebook Women Panel
by Nikita Thakore
In Week 5 on Monday, November 3rd, WICS was proud to host a Facebook Women Panel, wherein a recruiter and five engineers from Facebook took the time to answer questions about their experiences working for the world’s biggest social network. Their backgrounds ranged from developing Facebook’s Android apps, to being on the iOS Messenger team, to working on a secret, still-developing Facebook application. It was a great opportunity for attendees to get a glimpse of what jobs at Facebook have to offer, while enjoying delicious food, courtesy of Baja Fresh.
When asked what they enjoyed at Facebook, the ladies unanimously remarked that they enjoyed the freedom to work on projects of their choice, and the creativity of their work environments. “Everyone all has the same title – Software Engineer,” Lynn explained, “so it’s very easy to go up to someone and ask them anything. The people at Facebook are really humble.”
The team also highly praised Facebook’s Engineering Boot Camp program, a six-week program designed to introduce new engineers to the company’s code base. Jess, a former intern who recently went full-time, noted that it greatly helped her to figure out what she wanted to work on, while Kathy described it as “the best summer camp ever!”
The panel ended promptly at seven, due to the engineers’ having to catch their flights back home, and the night closed with attendees being able to submit their resumes and pick up some Facebook swag. We had a great turnout, with over 60 people attending, and overall, the event was a terrific experience for everyone involved. Hopefully, it’s indicative of the popularity of the panels yet to come!
WICS First General Meeting and Mentorship Mixer ’14
Written by: Gurveen Sekhon
On Monday October 6th, WICS held our first general meeting of the year and kicked off the 2014-15 Mentorship Program. We gave a brief overview of what our club is about and introduced this year’s board members. All this information can also be found on our website in case you missed the meeting. There were also prizes given out for the raffle right before the Mentorship Mixer began. There were prizes such as Google blankets, Bags full of swag, T-shirts, a copy World of Warcraft, a Kindle Paperwhite, and much more!
Our Mentorship Program had a really strong kick off this year. A lot of students and mentors came out and got to know each other in groups based on where their interests laid. Make sure to join next year’s Mentorship Program, whether as a mentor or a mentee.
WICS Final Python Project Meeting
Written by: Gurveen Sekhon
At the last WICS Python Flappy Bird project meeting on May 19th, everyone submitted their projects and were entered into a raffle with cool prizes! Yummy sandwiches were served for dinner and everyone that came out to the meeting received really cool Google swag such as eos chapstick, a Google whiteboard sticker, and much more!
The first place winner received a fancy set of Google headphones!!! Make sure to come out to the quarterly project meetings next year to learn new programming languages and win some more cool prizes! Thanks to all that came this quarter, hope everyone got a better insight on Python and Pygame.
Spring Potluck with ICS Clubs
Written By: Gurveen Sekhon
Monday, April 28th, WICS held our Quarterly ICS Potluck. More than 30 students from various ICS clubs attended! Everyone brought some really delicious food! There were WingStop Wings, Pasta, Pizookie from VGDC and lots of other really good food. WICS also made our ever popular Nutella, strawberry, and boysenberry crepes filled with strawberries and bananas this time! That’s definitely a very rare opportunity!
There were also groups playing Apples to Apples, Cards against Humanity, Uno, and more. All in all, it was a fun day to let loose with fellow ICS students during the first wave of midterms.
WICS Launches a Flappy Bird Python Project
Written by: Katie Khuu
For this quarter’s programming project, WICS has decided to make a Python version of the popular Flappy Bird game. The first project meeting on April 21st had over 70 attendees, a combination of WICS members, non-members, and non-UCI students.
To start off, WICS guided them with a PowerPoint presentation on how to download Python and Pygame modules and explained how to start the project. WICS board members also displayed an example of their completed project–a flying anteater in a cape moving through narrow pillars–to encourage participants and to promote creative designs. Help was available for those that had difficulty installing or getting started. After the presentation, there were downtime for attendees to chat and work with others. Food was available as a quick boost.
The Flappy Bird Python project will span for 5 weeks with tutorials included every week for those that are new to the Python language. This is a great way to get programming practice for anyone thinking about attending hackUCI or have already signed up.
For more information and updates about the spring project, join the WICS project group.
WICS First General Spring Quarter Meeting
The first general meeting of the quarter was held on Thursday, April 3rd. With the last quarter wrapped up with the Android Development workshops, this quarter brings more projects, information sessions, and social events for members to look forward to!
In terms of professional development, WICS will be holding a total of 5 Python Project Meetings on Mondays at 6:30pm. There will also be a couple tech talks and tours, such as the Western Digital Tour, The Portal Open House, and the WITI Talk on Agile Development. There are also quite a few social events planned for WICS members to network and socialize with other students. A few events, just to name, are the ICS Quarterly Potluck, Bowling, and the SWE & Phi Sigma Rho Mixer.
Some major events of this quarter are the CWIC SoCal, ICS Day, and HackUCI! Check out more information on our events calendar and our Facebook page. Also, if you want to be more involved with WICS and interested in writing weekly blogs and recaps of the events, fill out this form and you will get an email with more information!
