Minutes for the Meeting of the New Zealand ACM Student Chapters, Wellington, 2001

The meeting was opened at 14:24, Friday the 9th of November, 2001, at Victoria University, Wellington.

Present

• Stewart Marshall (Chair, Victoria, chair of meeting)
• Michael JasonSmith (Vice Chair, Canterbury, secretary for meeting)
• Tim Wright (Chair, Canterbury)
• Sherry Chen (Chair, Auckland)
• Richard Li (Massey)
• Johan de Boer (Vice Chair, Massey)
• Lee (Massey)
• Faris Al-Ali (Chair, Massey)
• Craig Box (Char, Waikato)
• Stuart Yeates(Waikato)
• Matt Jones (Waikato)
• Robert Biddle (Victoria)

Agenda

1. Welcome (Stuart Marshall)
2. Apologies
3. Chapter Reports (All)
4. Next Generation Tours (Matt Jones)
5. NZ Journal (Stuart Marshall)
6. Aus/NZ Meeting — Melbourne 2002 (Tim Wright)
7. ACM Financing and Sponsorship (General)
8. General Business
9. Close of Meeting (Stuart Marshall)

Welcome

• The meeting arose out of Tim Wright's earlier trip, that set up the student chapters.
• The meeting exists as an opportunity to discuss the problems faced by the chapters, and share ideas.

Apologies

There were no apologies.

Chapter Reports

The chapter chairs discussed current activities of each chapter.

Canterbury (Tim Wright)

• Canterbury has a close relationship with the Department of Computer Science, that has helped the chapter get started.
• Department helps subsidise student ACM membership.
• Canterbury has a large graduate involvement with the chapter, helped by no joining fees.
• The chapter has helped organise conferences, including the New Zealand Computer Science Research Students' Conference, 2001.

Auckland (Sherry Chen)

• The Chapter has recently merged with the Programmers Club (SDK).
• Executive of the ACM didn't want to do much, so the merging with SDK has helped revitalise the group.
• A regular discussion group is held that covers various pertinent topics.
• A Journal of Programming has been published recently.
• A larger membership would be beneficial to the chapter.
• Social events, such as a basketball game, barbecue, and site visits are also held.

Massey (Faris Al-Ali)

• The Chapter has recently formed
• Currently there are twelve members of the chapter, with quality being the focus of increased membership, rather than raw numbers.
• Talks with Chris Johnston (IBM) are underway to see if sponsorship is possible.
• Promoting the ACM Programming Competition is seen as a major function of the Chapter.
• Trying to assist Chapter members with industry placement is another goal.

Waikato (Stuart Yeates)

• Waikato has just formed their student chapter, with initial work now complete.
• The chapter has a combined social and academic focus, with a close relationship with the Department of Computer Science.
• The chapter is trying to raise awareness if Computer Science as more than a three year degree.
• Some debates, such as Is Computer Science a Part of maths, have been panned for the first month of the new year.
• The chapter is also concerned with fostering a relationship between the Universities, students, and industry.

Victoria (Stewart Marshall)

• The chapter had a similar genesis to Auckland, with it being preceded by a computer club.
• The chapter has been going for five months, but is struggling to get numbers up, as Victoria has a small postgraduate pool.
• Undergraduates make up a large part of the chapter, helped by a $1,500–2,000 sponsorship deal with Accenture. This money allows the chapter to provide incentives for membership, such as pizza at meetings.
• The earlier computing club had success with a gaming group that wrote a first-person 3D game and managed steady membership because of this.

Advice (Matt Jones)

Chapters need to provide members with something to do, but beware of nebulous tasks.

Next Generation Tours (Matt Jones)

• Tim Wright has finished a successful community-building tour of the North Island setting up ACM Chapters.
• Industry often have tours of universities looking for new employees. They have an advantage over universities, who are promoting graduate study, because they can offer money, and an extravagant lifestyle.
• The idea is to do a tour, similar to the industry recruitment tours, that encourages people to stay and do graduate study in Computer Science.
• The tours will tell everyone how wonderful it is to be a graduate student, despite having no money! It will help build a Computer Science community, with the universities working together, not competing, to encourage people to stay. For example, if a University has a better graduate programme in a particular field (such as Digital Library study at Waikato) then people should be encouraged to that university to study.
• New Zealand is a small country, and we have the chance to make a change, which we would not have in a larger country such as the United Kingdom.
• Plan
  • Tour will take place during one week in July, 2001.
  • There will be a team consisting of two students from each department.
  • Harold Thimbleby will be an international guest speaker, and will give a twenty-minute motivational talk.
  • There will be a fifteen minute talk about what it is like being a graduate.
  • An twenty minute informal chat will be held, that allows perspective graduate students to find out more about the various department and research groups.
  • Finally, a hour-long lunch will be held, with posters on display that promote the research groups from the different departments.
• Funding
  • The ACM has generously donated money to buy lunches.
  • The various Computer Science departments around the country have agreed to fund student transport.
  • The Royal Society for New Zealand (RSNZ) has provided its endorsement to the scheme.
• A liaison within each department. The following people volunteered to be departmental liaison.
  • Faris Al-Ali (Massey)
  • ACM Chapter Executive Committee (Canterbury)
  • Annette Steel (Waikato)
  • Stewart Marshall (Victoria)
  • Sherry Chen (Auckland)
• The liaison officers have to organise the two representatives from each department, get the department to create the posters, organise rooms, and do internal promotion of the Tour.
• Lecturers at Massey and Canterbury do their own promotion, but it was decided to keep the Tour separate from these events. The Tour will promote graduate study in general, without a focus on any particular university, so it will provide a good trailer for the internal events at Massey and Canterbury.
• It was decided that the tour should be promoted in the RSNZ Bulletin, as this would increase the profile of Computer Science within an organization that does not see it as a valid research field. Stuart (Waikato) volunteered to do this.

Journal (Stewart Marshall)

• A journal that promoted Computer Science, and the ACM Student Chapters would be a beneficial to all concerned.
• The journal would be upbeat, informal, and distributed New Zealand wide.
  • The journal would not have a research focus, but have pointers to research.
  • It would be published biannually, with a focus on Computer Science and Information Science students from second year.
  • Founding would be provided by companies who pay for advertising space.
  • A mixture of local and national advertising would be available.
• Content for the journal would be provided in small blurbs, similar to the various Bulletins put out by the ACM SIGs. The articles will promote the activities of the Chapters, and encourage participation in Computer Science, and travel between Universities.
• An editor for each section will be needed.
• A March, 2002, publication date is planned, leading up to the Tour.
• The journal is best described as a magazine, as it will have no peer-review.
• It would cost approximately $NZ10,000 to publish 4,000 copies of a 70 page magazine. Advertising rates would be similar to the New Zealand Herald, or NetGuide magazine, with rates kept low for the first run (just to cover costs). Subsequent editions may generate an income.

Australasia ACM Chapter Heads Meeting (Tim Wright)

• A meeting between the chapter heads in Australia and New Zealand will be held in Melbourne, Australia, in January, 2002.
• It was decide that trans-Tasman cooperation is too much to deal with at the moment, as intra-Tasman cooperation is taking considerable effort.
• The New Zealand heads will discuss the Tour, magazine, and the difficulty setting up clubs.
• Hal Bergel may be able to organise finance for the trip, but noting is definite.
• Tim Wright will contact Melbourne and find out about accommodation (where, and how much).
• All the chapter heads have to write a report and email it to Stewart Marshall.

Finance and Sponsorship

• Tim Wright will be meeting with Accenture to see if national sponsorship of the student chapters is possible. Tim is seeking $NZ1,600 for each chapter and some money for a national event. This level of funding is not much for a large company.
• The $NZ2,500 for setting up the New Zealand Student Chapters is now gone (with this meeting!)
• To get money from New York we need a budget and a community building event. If a focus for an event can be decided, then the chances for funding are greater.
• A discussion took place that argued the need for a national body to hold the budget for, and coorinate acitivites such as tour, magazine, and NZCSRSC.
  • Such a body would need its own consititution and bank-account.
  • Members of the body would be from the Chapters.
  • Initially the body would exist to fund, and distribute procedes of, the publication of the magazine.
  • Tim Wright will contact Hal Bergel to see how state-wide projects in the United States of America are organised.

General Business

• The Secretary will write a letter of thanks to Hal Bergel and Victoria thanking them for making this event possible.

External Education

• One of the roles of the ACM is to educate people in the wider community about Computer Science.
• The Canterbury Chapter has been running a class for interested high-school children.
  • Classes last for 90 minutes, with a 45 minute class, and a 45 minute programming lab'.
  • Michael JasonSmith cautioned people from teaching primary-school children, as they have short attention spans and a qualified teacher is really needed to control them.
  • Python is used as a programming language as it is easy to learn, works on most platforms, and has an extensive library. Tim Wright suggested that languages such as Logo, and KidSim may be more suitable for younger children as they are quite graphical and provide instant (graphical) feedback.
  • The Unplugged book (by Tim Bell, Ian H. Witten, and Mike Fellows) is used as the basis for the classes. Michael will see about getting a copy of the Unplugged book to the chapters.
• Tim Wright then discussed the University of Canterbury's Star programme, which teaches seventh form high-school students first-year computer science.
  • There is a two-hour lecture, and a two-hour lab each week.
  • The students do very well in the assessment, which they share with the University students.
• It was decided that the Chapters should have more of an involvement with the wider community.
  • Create links with teachers.
  • Go to schools and give Unplugged presentations.
  • Bring people together!

Problems with University

• Stuart Yeates raised the possibility of the ACM Student Chapters commenting on the financing problems faced by departments with increasing rolls, leaving staff, and falling funding.
• It was decided that the chapters should wait until they have a larger community presence before commenting on political issues.

Practical Components and Placements

• Faris Al-Ali raised the problem faced with Massey students who have a practical component to their courses, but struggle getting placements.
• The possibility of the ACM Chapters assisting with placement was put forward. This was extended to a summer-work directory, maybe working with the people in the department who advertise job positions.
• The magazine was seen as a good place to advertise these jobs, with an online notice board also possible.

Closing

Thanks to Victoria University, Wellington, for hosting this event. Meeting Closed, 16:48.