Women in Computing at UCSD: Women in Computing at UCSD (WIC@UCSD) is a non-profit engineering organization committed to provide a supportive and resourceful environment for women in computing. I have been a member of WIC since my freshman year, and have gained a great deal of support and sense of community from it. My second year of undergrad, I decided that I wanted to have a bigger part in WIC, and sharing the support it had fostered for me. This is when I joined the board as the Programming Competition Chair. An opportunity that I truly cherish not only because it helped me build my technical skills, but also because it gave me leadership responsibility and the chance to help out my fellow student body.
Beginner's Programming Competitions: WIC@UCSD holds quarterly Beginner's Programming Competitions (BPC). These are programming competitions specifically designed for UCSD engineering students who have yet to take any upper division Computer Science and Engineering classes. Thereby giving students who are just starting out in Computer Science a fun, engaging, and technical opportunity to participate in outside of classes. Since its start in Fall of 2012, the competition has grown to about 130 students competitors per quarter. Participants are given two and a half hours to solve twelve to fourteen challenging coding problems! The competition is a great way for students to come blow off some steam in a fun and competitive environment. The problems are selected to be engaging and challenging, and yet doable for beginners in Computer Science. We try to base many of our questions to be similar to those that student may be asked in technical interviews to better prepare them for internships and jobs. Here are some problem sets we have made: My role as the Programming Competition Chair from January 2013 to May 2014 has been to coordinate and organize the quarterly Beginner's Programming Competitions. This has included writing questions, writing solutions to the question sets, setting up the competition environment and deploying necessary content to participant accounts, contacting sponsors, and leading a committee of BPC Planners. These responsibilities entialed both leadership and technical duties that have lead for me to be a better programmer as well as leader. Overall acting as this role has been a very important part of my undergraduate studies. Computer Science can be a difficult, yet rewarding, major. Although, unfortunately 60% of Technology and Engineering majors dropout or change majors. The BPC is our way to encourage students to stay with the major. Most dropouts out of Computer Science occur within the first few years of undergraduate studies. Therefore we believe it is important to give students an applicable resource outside of coursework where they can see the potential of Computer Science and experience it in a fun way.
BPC Sponsors: