Ideas on what to do/lecture on for Programming Club in college?

Question

Hey guys,

This semester I started a programming club at my university since we did not have an existing similar group with the idea that it would be a place to hang out for computer science majors and partake in activities such as lectures on interesting topics, social events and group projects.

However as this is the first semester starting this (and admittedly I am not the best organizer), I am running dry on ideas especially since outside help has been lacking so far. If possible do you guys think you could give me some pointers on lecture topics, event ideas and a good way to get people involved in some group project (its quite hard since everyone is busy).

So far I have used some of my prior knowledge to give intro lectures to things like webscraping, python and scheme. I have one person helping me post programming puzzles to our website (only one person replied to the first one) and our LAN party that we hosted only got about 6 people :/.

I am really at a loss here since when we sent out the department wide email we got over 80 interested responses and since then only about 20 people have been showing up to the meetings. I would really like this club to be a success since we have no other real group and I feel that having a community outside of class is important.

Thanks for your time, and any pointers you might be able to give.

Answer 1

Try to figure out what each individual person in the club finds interesting about programming and work around them. Maybe at your university your club mates are not fond of LAN parties or programming riddles. (If I were still in your school, I definitely would have joined :D)

If they are Computer-Science majors at the University, use the gathering as a way to get other programmers advice on homework solutions or any topic on their lesson they find to be confusing or need more attention.

What catches my interest about programming, and maybe yours too, is the way earlier algorithms came about, not just in code but in history. I never forgot learning the ways Euclid developed algorithms to determine the GCD. Algorithms in general, to me mind you, are fanascinating things.

If anything, this club will be a great way for you to network with other students along campus.

You will figure out a way!

Answer 2

There are plenty of great topics. If you need inspiration, google around for similar clubs at other universities. Often times you'll see their schedules.

Many times, clubs like the one you're trying to start end up being student chapters of the ACM. You could track down various student chapters and see what they've been up to.

Since you're just starting up, get the 20 people who do show up to talk about what they would find interesting.

Some other ideas:

• Find out about regional programming contests and see if anyone wants to form a team. Again, I think the ACM is useful here. At least they were when I was in school.

• Reach out to local software shops, if you have the location for it. See if they'd be interested in having someone come out and present on some topic they know about.

• If there are grad students around, have them come around and talk about research they're involved in. If you're at a college without a graduate program in CS, hunt down a nearby university and bug them for grad students.

Answer 3

In the beginning...
it may be worthwhile to offer several, shorter, topics for each session. Doing so has several advantages (and a few risks)

• The presentations remain relatively general, in a 25 minutes presentation, one doesn't get in enough detail to bore folks that are not actively practicing the underlying langage/technology etc.
• It is easier to find volunteers for short presentations
• Folks will more readily show up if there's at least one topic that seems of interest to them and the chances of this happening increase with say three presentations rather than one.
• After each session you can collect feedback, and see what works, and what doesn't (and possible why) and hence fine tune things are the group's interest clusters become more evident.

Except for basic presentations aimed at presenting a particular language, i.e. giving a flavor of what the syntax looks like, what the general strengths and purposes of the language etc, I'd stay away from language-specific topics, as a way to be more inclusive. Instead I'd try topics like Artificial Life, various sub-topics of linguistics / NLP, game design, Web technologies, history of computer hardware...

Another cool feature to have as you try and build up a group, is "jam sessions", maybe the last 30 minutes of the meeting, where a few folks each time have the floor, for a maximum time of (say) 9 minutes to discuss/demo any topic of their choice (with possible censorship needed as per University guidelines, but otherwise very open and wierd is cool: open people's mind, and otherwise, not bother them for more than 9 minutes).

The main risk with this generally "light"/generic regimen is that some of the folks may want to go more in-depth, a get tired of this topic butterflying. Maybe after a few sessions you can have better feel for clusters of interest (indeed a session could be about the CS and mathemtics behind social networking, recommendation systems etc..) and you can start "putting more meat on the bone", in specific areas, be they language-driven (a Python interest group) or topic oriented (Natural Language Processing or Game development or ....). Also you can/should be up-front about this trial-and-error approach, so that folks understand the content's depth may increase over time.

Finally when you have a better feel for what the group likes and dislikes, you should seek to have outside participation, from local industry players, from faculty outside of CS/IT, possibly there'd be nothing wrong with bringing in, say, a anthropoloist/linguist to discuss Lakoff's prototype concept and its relation to categorization/filtering/abstraction, for example. Aside from networking opportunities (and I'm not talking LAN parties lol), this outside outlook could provide additional interest from the group.

Answer 4

Hi... try this

there you can find a lot of stuff on good programming problems for your club!!

Answer 5

I would try something that also had a hands-on component, like building a Mars-rover type robot. Plenty of software involved, on different levels, and the near-instant tactile feedback that you receive is motivating.

It's also just plain fun.