11 KiB
Best Society
Page: https://cp.ulwolves.ie/committee/awards/2025/s_best
Organisation & Events
Please detail the society's aims and objectives.
The overall aim and goal of the Computer Society is to promote the use and enjoyment of computers within the University, by all students including those for whom it is not an academic requirement.
To this end we employ the use of the computing skills, knowledge and resources of the society, computer based information services, combining both the practical and the entertaining, to bring computers to the masses.
In recent years we have also been strongly promoting social skills and networking of our members.
How has the society's work fulfilled these aims and objectives? (max 400 words)
6 points
Skynet
At the heart of Computer Society lies our (33 years old) Skynet computer cluster.
- Host services for Computer Society and other Clubs/Socs
- Member websites
- Clubs/Society websites
- We used to host UL Wolves on it
- Train our members in using enterprise grade hardware and software
- Be a point of contact with ITD
- Touchstone for our alumni members to interact with our younger members
Talks and Presentations
We try to do as many social events as we can, tech is a field where creativity and soft skills are as important as the technical skills.
To facilitate this we invite in speakers from industry to talk about their experiences.
Notable speakers in the last year:
- NetApp
- Intel
- IEEE
- Patch
We also encourage members returning from co-op/internships to talk about "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" of their experiences.
This has lead to these members improving their public speaking abilities as well as inspiring our younger members.
What UL doesn't teach
The courses that UL (in particular CSIS) teach are really fantastic.
However as an institution it can be slow to react to the ever changing landscape.
As a student run Society (full of passionate people) we are agile enough that we are able to create targeted events to cover the cutting edge of technology.
By providing these Peer Learning supports we aim to help people to become more invested and involved in their academic degrees.
Conferences and Competitions
To help encourage professional development we now go to at least two conferences a year as a society.
There are a multitude of programming based competitions now held in Ireland annually.
We are now supporting and encouraging our members to go and compete at these.
Inter C&S and Committees
Networking is important, we have formed strong links with Games Development Society, Games Society and Anime&Manga.
Additionally we provide games servers to any Club/Society who ask for them, to help facilitate bonding in that Club/Soc.
We are heavily involved in the Virtual Committee Networking, we believe that networking and communication is the way forward to improve all of Clubs/Societies. We have worked with UL Wolves in order to help manage the discord server, providing each Club/Soc with its own space.
Closing Remarks
Computer Society is like glue, we help our members form strong bonds as well as strengthen relationships between Clubs/Socs.
Please give details of the society's committee structure and how committee members functioned as a team. (max 400 words)
6 points
Our committee structure has been stable for many years and takes the form of:
Elected Committee
These are the center of the committee and comprise of:
- Chairperson
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Safety Officer
- Public Relations Officer (PRO)
- Senior Systems' Administrator
- Ordinary Committee Members (OCM)
One other quirk is while many on the committee are technically OCM's we have found it is best to name their roles.
Currently this would include "1st Year Rep" and "IT Officer".
This is especially true for intensive roles such as Treasurer or PRO wherein we have "Assistant Treasurer" or "Assistant PRO".
Skynet Sub-Committee
Skynet sub-committee is in charge of the Skynet computer cluster.
The skynet cluster hosts many of the services for our members and other Clubs/Socs.
They run, upgrade and train members in use of the cluster.
Advisors
Advisors are former committee who have been asked to remain part the committee.
They provide a "Wisdom of the Ancients", knowledge and experience from their time on committee as well as their current industry connections.
SISTEM Sub-Committee
This year we are also joined by the SISTEM sub-committee whose goal is to organise and run SISTEM.
SISTEM is Ireland's only student run tech conference: https://sistemconf.com/
It is the spiritual successor to SkyCon which we used to run.
Please detail the challenges encountered by the society this year. (max 500 words)
8 points
GDPR - Virtual Committee Networking
As part of our work on the Virtual Committee Networking we had to gain GDPR approval.
This was the most significant aspect of the 6-month effort as it involved various stakeholders:
- C&S
- GDPR Liaison
- UL Wolves
During the process we had to show what data we were collecting and to clearly show that it was being stored securely.
We were successfully able to gain both C&S and GDPR approval for this venture.
Engagement
As a Society whose core membership are digital first, inter-personal interactions are always pose a difficulty.
Understandably our (online) Discord server is a lively hub of activity where alumni are side by side with our college faring members.
In person events have always been an area we have had issues keeping attendance numbers up through the year.
For the most part this is because our members often prefer the online interactions.
The solution we have found is to plan out each semester in advance, scheduling a mix of events, from technical to social.
We have also done outreach to the students of CSIS, presenting in classes (with permissions of the lecturers) as well as word of mouth.
For example we were specifically asked to present to the ISE course.
What systems have been put in place to ensure the continuity of the society and to ensure its ongoing success? (max 400 words)
15 points
Training up new committee members
We are a 30+ year old society whose focus is Computers, however we know that you cannot ensure the continuity you cannot entirely rely on technical solutions for a people problem.
Training people up with on the job experience is far more invaluable than any handover document.
On our current committee we currently have two "assistant" roles:
- Assistant Treasurer
- Assistant PRO
These folks will be stepping up to the core roles in the future, helping to secure our society for (hopefully) another 30 years.
Advisors
Advisors are former core committee members who have been asked to stay (somewhat) involved in Computer Society.
The goal of this is to be able to draw upon their experiences and council in order to guide the society forward.
Because of Covid the "Training up new committee members" faced difficulties, however we were able to draw upon our alumni in order to carry on.
We did loose a solid chunk of institutional knowledge but with their help we were able to rebuild and forge a new path forward.
Open Governance + Wiki
A phrase in industry is "If its not written down it never happened", exemplifies how important good written documentation/notes are.
This is where the "Handover Documents" which all C&S have to do come into play.
These have one major problem though, they are hidden away and folks rarely actually read through them.
Our first way of tackling it is Open Governance, an idea we nabbed from DCU's computer society. (https://forgejo.skynet.ie/Computer_Society/open-goverance)
In it we have important materials such as Minutes, Event details, our Constitution, our Logos and Handover Documents, not to mention the text in this Awards Submission.
All this information is public (transparency) and constantly made available to our members.
Our second public information cache is our Wiki (https://wiki.skynet.ie/).
This contains much of the knowledge of how to run the Skynet Cluster.
Our president is currently doing his FYP on this aspect of the society, documenting as much as possible in order to hand the torch forward.
We want to instill this transparency mentality into our members, so we are trying to lead by example in doing so.
If we ever fail to pass on the torch these repositories of information should be a catalyst to Reboot the Computer Society in the future.
Detail the society's membership. (max 400 words)
10 points
Membership Growth
We are currently sitting at 133 members (109 being current students) which is an increase compared to the 122 we had by the end of last year (2023/2024).
This is significantly up from a low of 84 in 2020/2021 wherein 60 were alumni (~24 current students).
The current growth is largely due to previous committees hard work laying a solid foundation for us.
Communication
As a very digital based society we do make use of many online methods to communicate with our members.
- Discord
However we do, from time to time use physical posters to advertise to a wider audience.
Diversity
We are diverse, its (quietly) a core part of our identity as a society, we dont really want (or need) to shout from the rooftops about it.
However last year many of the husts made it a central part of their presentation, so here is something which should give you a solid idea of who we are.
You will find many of our members are also part of Games, Games Development and Anime & Manga, which you would expect.
History, International, Out in UL, Philosophy & Debating are also places you will find them.
For the more hands on folks they find their way to Aeronautical and IEEE.
If they are feeling adventurous then Outdoor pursuits and Underwater Hockey may beckon them.
Please list the number and variety of events held
15 points
{A fuckton}
Finance
Details of income and expenditure?
5 points
Describe how you managed your finances this year. (max 300 words)
5 points
Please provide details of the success securing funds for the running of the society. (max 300 words)
5 points
- Netapp
- LERO
- Patch
Communication, Engagement & Publicity
Please outline all aspects (both digital and non-digital) of your communication and publicity this year. (max 800 words)
14 points
Posters
Discord
Please give one example of a campaign that was successful and the impact this had on the target audience? (max 500 words)
6 points
YouTube Video
Prob wont be doing this, but will be useful for nexct year (???)