ANU CSSA 2023/24 Election Results

Hello everyone! ELECTION RESULTS ARE IN!!!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who attended AGM this evening - it was a lot of fun I hope you had a lovely evening with the most slay community on campus in my most humble opinion.

Thank you so much to everyone who nominated for committee; it was an absolute blast counKng so many ballots with so many candidates. There’s still some souvenir ballots and agendas available in the common room - first come first serve :) Even if you were not elected, you are an appreciated part of the community and I hope to see you around in future.

Thank you also to Patrick and Lavender for supervising and assisting in the ballot counting - the secret memories in the counting room will forever bond us <3

Without further ado, I’d like to announce the CSSA 2023/24 committee:

President: Harrison Oates

Vice-President: Alex Mirrlees-Black

Treasurer: Daniel Herald

Secretary: Felix Friedlander

Industry Officer: Jasper Quirk

Postgraduate Officer: Leopold Zhou

International Officer: Judy Xie

Diversity Officer: Bambi Boyd

Ordinary Committee Member: Ashley Lamont, Ethan/Eden Miegel, Avery Rowe

Congratulations to those elected! You will take office in exactly 14 days <3 Thanks again to all nominees for nominating; and AGM attendees for attending.

ANU CSSA 2023/24 Committee Nominations

Nominations for the election of committee members at the upcoming AGM are now closed. Thank you and all the best to those who have been nominated.

Below is a list of nominees, and further down is each nominee’s statement.

Each candidate nominates for positions in an order of their preference; this means that if a candidate would be elected to multiple positions, they are elected to the position for which they nominated the highest preference, and the other positions are recounted. (This process is repeated if necessary.)

As a voter, you don’t necessarily need to worry about candidate preferences; they are published here so that you can make a more informed vote if you wish.

President:

• Matthew Chen
• Harrison Oates

Vice-President:

• Matthew Chen
• Alex Mirrlees-Black
• Harrison Oates

Treasurer:

• Matthew Chen
• Daniel Herald
• Ethan Miegel
• Myria Sarvay

Secretary:

• Matthew Chen
• Felix Friedlander
• Daniel Herald
• Julian Mo
• Myria Sarvay

Industry Officer:

• Tunc Can
• Matthew Chen
• Daniel Herald
• Jasper Quirk
• Prathmesh Sinha

Postgraduate Officer:

• Matthew Chen
• Leopold Zhou

Diversity Officer:

• Bambi Boyd
• Tunc Can
• Matthew Chen
• Jasper Quirk
• Myria Sarvay
• Prathmesh Sinha

International Officer:

• Tunc Can
• Matthew Chen
• Judy Xie
• Leopold Zhou

Ordinary Committee Member:

• Bambi Boyd
• Tunc Can
• Matthew Chen
• Daniel Herald
• Ashley Lamont
• Julian Mo
• Ethan Miegel
• Alex Mirrlees-Black
• Jasper Quirk
• Avery Rowe
• Myria Sarvay
• Prathmesh Sinha
• Judy Xie
• Leopold Zhou

Nominee Statements

Bambi Boyd (Incumbent Ordinary Committee Member)

Hi! I’m Bambi! I’m applying for OCM and Diversity Officer for the CSSA for the next year! I’ve really enjoyed volunteering as an OCM this year and helping out where I can, in particular in diversifying and ensuring inclusion is a top priority for the CSSA. This is something I’d plan on continuing and I’d love to work with a new committee to ensure the CSSA remains a diverse safe space for all, regardless of my role 😊

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Diversity Officer
2. Ordinary Committee Member

Tunc Can

Dear esteemed members of our community,

Over the last six and a half months as a Common Room Officer (CRO), I’ve embarked on a noble quest: to make the CSSA common room great again. And trust me, that journey has been nothing short of epic, with campaign moments that could easily feature in a blockbuster movie. One of my proudest feats? Crafting a digital replica of our beloved CSSA common room in Sims. Oh yes, I went there. Even purchasing packs out of my own pocket to ensure the design was on point. Some might say it’s extra, but I say it’s dedication!

One of the aspirations I’m brimming with is the integration of a card scanner for our vending machine. In today’s digital age, it’s essential that our amenities keep pace with the times, ensuring ease and accessibility for all. While the task might seem daunting to some, I believe that with a touch of innovation, some DIY spirit, and perhaps a few YouTube tutorials, we can create a solution that’s both efficient and cost-effective just like the table.

However, spaces and objects are but a part of our shared legacy. The larger portion lies in our actions, decisions, and collaborative endeavors. By joining the committee, I aim to bring fresh perspectives (quite literally, stems from being closer to the ground), innovative ideas, and a touch of humor, enriching our collaborative efforts and ensuring our strategies resonate with everyone we serve.

With your trust, I hope to work shoulder-to-shoulder with you, contributing my bit, learning from your experiences, and ensuring our committee remains a beacon of inspiration and progress.

Thank you for considering my nomination. Let’s continue our journey, turning each challenge into an opportunity and every meme into a shared laugh.

Warm Regards,

Tunc

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Ordinary Committee Member
2. International Officer
3. Diversity Officer
4. Industry Officer

Matthew Chen (Incumbent President)

I am iron man?

You know who I am.

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Ordinary Committee Member
2. Treasurer
3. Vice-President
4. President
5. Secretary
6. Industry Officer
7. International Officer
8. Postgraduate Officer
9. Diversity Officer

Felix Friedlander

Hi! I’m Felix, and I’ve been around the CSSA for a long time :)

After stepping back for a few years to let the committee pick up some new faces and find its own path, and with my potential graduation nearing, I’d like to offer my services as Secretary — one last ride, if you will :)

Things I’ve done:

• President for 2 years (2019–2021), OCM 2018–2019 (particularly design work) and 2021–2022 (particularly system administration), and CRO before and after that

• Ran a lot of events, coordinated stuff around the common room, helped run elections, and generally made myself useful for 5 and a half years

• Primary author of the current constitution & some other administrative documents

• Arranged the CSSA’s own server for the first time in many years, created the committee wiki, current CSSA website, (hardware side of the) current door sensor, etc.

• Led the multi-year effort to incorporate the association, which we achieved last AGM

• Performed the duties of the treasurer for a good while when they were unavailable

• & generally tried to make the CSSA a community for anyone studying or interested in computer science, and that people feel welcome in & want to contribute to!

What I’ll do as secretary:

• Pass on any advice, tricks, and society lore that I haven’t yet to the new committee and volunteers

• Get some things straightened out re: paperwork and internal records (which should be about making things easier for everyone, not harder!)

• Help the new treasurer with processes for accounting & approving expenditure (see above: easier, not harder)

• Help get us a membership app to be proud of (ideally in time for next Market Day!)

• Continue to generally make myself useful :)

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Secretary

Daniel Herald (Incumbent Treasurer)

Hi all, I’m Daniel, a second-year comp-sci student, studying Advanced Computing. I was a CRO for my first year at ANU, however have had the privilege and honour of being your treasurer for the last year. As part of this role I have assisted the rest of committee with running the society as well as events. For my role I strived to keep the finances in order by completing reimbursements, event grant forms and accounting expenses.

I’m primarily running for Treasurer where I will continue to work with the committee to spend and organize the society’s funds to provide great value to our members and the wider ANU community. Unlike last year, I also now have a year of experience (and great training from Felix!), so I feel like I am qualified for this position.

As secretary, I would strive to help the committee with keeping records. Part of this would be to help the committee work out a a system for committee to store member data than the current mess that we have, though I’m sure whoever fills this role will be able to do that.

As Industry Officer, I would strive to maintain contact and develop our sponsor base. This would include reaching out earlier and increasing the diversity of our sponsor base (rather than the many quant firms that we had this year).

Finally as an Ordinary Committee Member (as well as the above roles), I would help the committee run the society and events, hang out in the common room as well as Discord, and strive to make the society the best it can be for members and the wider ANU community.

Hope to see you at AGM!

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Treasurer
2. Secretary
3. Industry Officer
4. Ordinary Committee Member

Ashley Lamont (Incumbent Vice-President)

Sup gang, it’s me again. I’m back to haunt the society a third time around, which officially makes me a CSSA boomer. It’s also gonna be my last year at ANU so I want to start stepping back to help new folks take over exec, and also just vibe out and organise fun events, instead of needing to worry about high-level society management.
Anyways, for those who don’t know me, I’m Ashley, I go by she/they pronouns, I’ve previously been the CSSA’s diversity officer and vice-president. I’ve done a whole bunch of stuff in my time with the society, rebuilding CRObot, pushing for a new wiki that is open to all members, organising our first Game Jam (and Artifex Collab) in years, promoting diversity in the society through yassifying the server logo and then forgetting to change it back in July, organising new merch and EGN poster comissions, as well as desigining a few myself, and a whole bunch more. Anyways, suffice it to say, I’ve been around and seen a lot of what works and what doesn’t, and knowing that what I really want to do from here on out is just take a step back and get back to basics - running fun events for members, without worrying about exec stuff, I’m running for OCM. Plus, I can lend our new exec a hand and share my thoughts and opinions if they’re wanted by the incoming exec team.

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Ordinary Committee Member

Ethan Miegel

Hi, I’m Bash. I’ve been active around the CSSA for multiple years now and I want to give back.

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Ordinary Committee Member
2. Treasurer

Alex Mirrlees-Black

Hey everyone!

I’m Alex (she/her) and I’m running for VP of the CSSA! I study mostly computer science and maths in the PhB and some of you might know me from tutoring COMP1100 or COMP1600, on discord as Scibuild/Alex. Most of my interests in computer science itself lie in either the theoretical side or in the nitty-gritty system level details, but compilers and programming languages will always be special to me. I also love to hang out in the common room where I’ll either be up to something cursed or enjoying chatting with all of you amazing people!

I love the CSSA and its community and so I’m running under a very community centric plan for how I want the CSSA to operate in 2024. Predominantly, I want to bring more social events to the society, focusing on building community through running presentation nights, trivia nights and similar styles of events. To me, the CSSA is first and foremost an organisation to support computer science students and giving students the opportunity to participate these social events helps develop this in such a key way. And of course, this means more free food! I believe the best way for the CSSA to achieve these goals is with me as vice president being able to drive this vision.

Looking forward to seeing you all at the AGM!

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Vice-President
2. Ordinary Committee Member

Julian Mo

Life is short. My time here is even shorter. I like the community built up here and want to contribute back, so I’ll nominate while I can.

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Ordinary Committee Member
2. Secretary

Harrison Oates (Incumbent Ordinary Committee Member)

Hi all, I’m Harrison (he/him). I’m a second-year Advanced Computing (R&D) / Politics, Philosophy & Economics student. This year as an ordinary committee member has been incredible. I’ve taken the lead on organizing O-week’s Epic Games Night, joined a coalition of clubs fighting for a greater share of the SSAF pool, and helped out wherever else I was needed. Now, I want to take this cornerstone of campus culture to new heights.

What can you expect if you put your votes on Oates for president? I have a lot of ideas! Besides continuing our signature events, I want to establish a student research conference in the tradition of SIGBOVIK, making the CSSA the most prestigious venue for completely serious science on campus. I want to see greater outreach to students in CS-adjacent fields like Digital Humanities and collaborations with other clubs on inter-disciplinary events. I firmly believe that there are many problems can’t be solved with just technical know-how, and I want students to have the opportunity to explore how their CS degree can take them to places far beyond the traditional technical roles.

So, in conclusion, I’m running for President and would love to have your support. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. President
2. Vice-President

Jasper Quirk

I am a second year comp sci student, and I’ve been a part of the CSSA for the best part of a year now. I think the CSSA is a positive force at ANU, and I’d like the opportunity to increase it’s outreach. I am outgoing, charismatic, and care deeply about the success and wellbeing of other students. I believe these qualities will make me a excellent representative for the CSSA.

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Industry Officer
2. Diversity Officer
3. Ordinary Committee Member

Avery Rowe (Incumbent Diversity Officer)

Hiya all,

I’m Avery, your friendly neighbourhood biology student. I’m a 3rd year student that likes learning about computing, science, embroidery and anything I can get my grubby mitts on. Currently, I tutor/mark for COMP1720 and EXTN1019. I’ve had a brilliant time as your Diversity Officer for 2023 and would like to continue contributing to the society as an Ordinary Committee Member in 2024.

In terms of experience, I have had involvement with a few different STEM-based societies around campus – and I like organising funky events. There is a great community in the CSSA, and I would love to be able to continue meeting people, having fun and generally making people feel welcome/excited about computing at ANU.

Additional Qualifications:
Skill: Pide Delivery Driver
Qualifications: Has car, Has license, Has Pide Delivery Playlist

This candidate is an enthusiastic, driven individual. With over 1 year of experience delivering Domino’s with the Spiderman pizza theme blasting, their service is efficient, tastes great and is delivered with flair.

Compensation: 1x slice tax from each run.

I’d like to join the 2024 committee as an OCM so I can continue applying my life philosophy and:

1. Make cool things
2. Talk to people about cool things
3. Hear about other people’s cool things
4. Find ways to meet and find cool people who are into cool things

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Ordinary Committee Member

Myria Sarvay

Hey there, I’m a first year who really loves computer science, maths, physics, logic, and a whole lot of other things! I’ve worked on projects here and there, and I want to help make the CSSA a nice safe place for everyone!

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Treasurer
2. Secretary
3. Diversity Officer
4. Ordinary Committee Member

Prathmesh Sinha

Heya! I’m Prath, and I’m very excited to run and contribute to CSSA this year. I myself was the secretary of one of the biggest hobby societies ANU Anime and Gaming Society, where emailing and having meetings with sponsors was a responsibility that fell onto myself. Planning, organizing and leading events is not something I’m unfamiliar with. My interest in CSSA started from my BAC side of my degree, but the interest stayed only by talking to all the hard-working people like Matt and all the things he has done for CSSA. I’ve ever so slightly learnt about the inner workings about the club from my year as CRO, and I believe that I’ll be a perfect fit to blend into the CSSA team and community.

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. Industry Officer
2. Diversity Officer
3. Ordinary Committee Member

Judy Xie

Heya! I’m Judy, a second-year Science student, studying maths and computer science. I’ve been actively participating in CSSA events and it’s inspired me to take a step forward: I want to bring my vision to life to help CSSA grow and flourish!

As an international student myself, I know how hard it can be to get around the university and get appropriate help. I love communicating and connecting with others, and I’d be more than happy to help those in need. But let’s aim higher – I also want to boost engagement with students, letting them know we’re always around, and maybe even spread CSSA’s influence beyond ANU~

Speaking of experiences, I’ve been helping around at ANUCDC for the past year, particularly with organizing events, and was on a committee for a student-based NGO back in high school days :] Now, I may not have all the expertise required, but I’m willing to learn and improve to better suit the role (every challenge is an opportunity!). That being said, I’m eager to bring my skills to the table, get some events on, spread the word, and make CSSA extra cool.

Thanks for considering me :]

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. International Officer
2. Ordinary Committee Member

Leopold Zhou

Hello(19) again(20), again(21), again(22) and again(23) from Leo!

Finally I’m able to nominate myself as a postgraduate rep to make the contest more interesting, as I’ll soon be considered as a postgraduate student! (what a journey since the old days :^)

Most of you know me as the International Rep/officer for the past 4 years. I’m really grateful for this journey and so glad to know that my efforts in the past successfully helped many of you. This time I’d be really glad to see some new names popping up for the International Officer - I’m interested in seeing your vision and hearing some plans from you. So I put my name down for this position again and make it contested.

That said, I’ve really enjoyed working with CSSA committee and therefore I will continue my engagement in CSSA either as a committee member or as a member in general, where I will continue to help with events and link COMP courses to our CSSA events.

See you soon at our AGM ;-)

Nominating for (in order of preference):

1. International Officer
2. Postgraduate Officer
3. Ordinary Committee Member

Hi everyone,

The 2023 ANU CSSA AGM is booked in for 1 September, 2023.

When: 1st September, 2023 | Friday, Week 6 | 6:30pm Where: N101 Seminar Room, CSIT Building (right next to the common room)

The CSSA committee for 2023/24 will be elected at the AGM.

Candidates must fill out this form by Tuesday 22 August 9:00pm.

Reminder that you need to be an ANU student to apply for all the roles except Ordinary Committee Member.

If you want to vote during the election, you need to be a CSSA member! So join if you haven’t already!

If you can’t make it to the AGM, but would still like to vote, please use the proxy nomination form. Both you and your proxy friend need to be CSSA members, and attendees can only hold one proxy.

To make sure we have enough food; please RSVP using this form.

As Returning Officer for the election of committee members at the 2022 Annual General Meeting, I am pleased to announce the results of the election.

Elected to positions:

• President: Matthew Chen
• Vice-President: Ashley Lamont
• Treasurer: Daniel Herald
• Secretary: Sandy Ma
• Industry Officer: Michael Zhang
• Postgraduate Officer: (vacant)
• Diversity Officer: Avery Rowe
• International Officer: Leopold Zhou
• Ordinary Committee Members:
  1. Harrison Oates
  2. Jon Connor
  3. Lavender Neesham

Thank you to everyone who nominated, and congratulations to the incoming committee.

Nominations for the election of committee members at the upcoming AGM are now closed. Thank you and good luck to everyone who nominated.

Below you will find a list of nominees for every position, along with their provided candidate’s statement. Every position is contested this year except Postgraduate Officer, which once again received no nominations.

Each candidate nominates for positions in an order of their preference; this means that if a candidate would be elected to multiple positions, they are elected to the position for which they nominated the highest preference, and the other positions are recounted. (This process is repeated if necessary.)

As a voter, you don’t necessarily need to worry about candidate preferences; they are published here so that you can make a more informed vote if you wish.

Voting instructions will be published prior to the election.

Positions

President

Matthew Chen (1st pref.)

Ashley Lamont (1st pref.)

Mihir Pandey (2nd pref.)

Vice-President

Sandy Ma (1st pref.)

Ashley Lamont (2nd pref.)

Michael Zhang (2nd pref.)

Matthew Chen (3rd pref.)

Treasurer

Mihir Pandey (1st pref.)

Daniel Herald (1st pref.)

Matthew Chen (4th pref.)

Secretary

Sandy Ma (2nd pref.)

Matthew Chen (6th pref.)

Industry Officer

Michael Zhang (1st pref.)

Matthew Chen (2nd pref.)

Ashley Lamont (3rd pref.)

Postgraduate Officer

(no nominees)

Diversity Officer

Avery Rowe (1st pref.)

Ashley Lamont (4th pref.)

Mihir Pandey (4th pref.)

International Officer

Leopold Zhou (1st pref.)

Mihir Pandey (3rd pref.)

Ordinary Committee Members

Pavel Titov (1st pref.)

Harrison Oates (1st pref.)

Jon Connor (1st pref.)

Lavender Neesham (1st pref.)

Alex Mirrlees-Black (1st pref.)

Avery Rowe (2nd pref.)

Daniel Herald (2nd pref.)

Leopold Zhou (2nd pref.)

Sandy Ma (3rd pref.)

Michael Zhang (3rd pref.)

Matthew Chen (5th pref.)

Ashley Lamont (5th pref.)

Mihir Pandey (5th pref.)

Nominees

Matthew Chen (Incumbent Industry Officer)

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. President
2. Industry Officer
3. Vice-President
4. Treasurer
5. Ordinary Committee Member
6. Secretary

Hey everyone, I’m Matt. I’m currently a third year CS student. I’ve been around for ~3 years and been a CRO and most recently the Industry Officer. I’ve organised events from our EGNs, Careers Fair, BBQs, Tech Talks, a Hackathon, and a proposed Sydney Tech Visit. These have always been a good way for people to get to know more about tech, network and/or learn/try something new while meeting new people.

As president of the CSSA, it would be my goal to get these events, if not more organised again for anyone to attend. I would also aim to try get more engagement from the wider international student body studying computer science through slightly more targeted events (i.e international meet and greet). Not only would these hopefully get more people engaged with the CSSA, but also help to promote computer science at the ANU and help people settle in.

Other items that would be on my agenda would include running a longer and larger Hackathon event. A longer Hackathon would allow more people to participate, work together and hopefully learn/make something new. It would also be amazing to get more work done on the Hitchhiker’s Guide, an ANU wide degree planner, or convert any promising Hackathon projects into things the wider community could contribute to. Allowing people to contribute to a project whilst building up their skills or learning something new.

Further items include student run presentations (programming or other miscellaneous topics) to increase community engagement. It is also important to ensure the Discord server, common room, and any events remain a friendly, open, and welcoming space for anyone. It would also be important to get CECS issues (i.e.permission codes/course cuts) advocated for to be fixed.

Things like a CSSA merch/sticker run would also be a nice bonus 😊

Ashley Lamont (Incumbent Diversity Officer)

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. President
2. Vice-President
3. Industry Officer
4. Diversity Officer
5. Ordinary Committee Member

Hey y’all,

It’s me, ya (mostly) gal, back at it again. Comin’ at you with some hot’n’spicy election statements.

For those of you out there who don’t know me, I’m Ashley (She/They), I’m a second (soon to be third) year BIT student studying here at ANU. If you haven’t met me in person, you’ve almost certainly run into me online on discord (QueenAsh, previously AshCo) or Facebook (Ashley Lamont). I built and run ANU FSYC (now with (p)ropag(anda)’s help) and am also the outgoing CSSA Diversity Officer, where I continued the important work of yassifying the CSSA.

I’m gonna be running for a few different positions this year because what kind of outgoing diversity officer would I be if I didn’t ✨diversify✨ my application. I’m gonna be running for pres, vp, industry officer, div officer and OCM (basically the entire committee, I know). I want to run for president because I believe that I can help to make the club a better and more welcoming place. As it stands right now, this club is doing an awesome job at a lot of things, especially for existing computer science students, and in supporting students in their courses. I want to build upon this and use my experience in a range of areas to:

• Increase engagement with students outside of CECS and CS/IT degrees, and promote beginner-friendly vibes and events.
• Work with the community to develop events driven/motivated by student interest/passion, alongside our awesome lineup of bread-and-butter events like EGN and course study/support events.
• Continue working with CECS, SoCo and the student body to promote active work to improve conditions for minority students, and those affected by adverse conditions and circumstances.
• More stuff that I can’t fit here bc word limit

Hope that helps to get to know me a little, and I can’t wait to meet you all soon! Thanks, Ashley 😊

Mihir Pandey

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. Treasurer
2. President
3. International Officer
4. Diversity Officer
5. Ordinary Committee Member

I, Mihir Pandey, want to nominate myself for the above marked position. I’m an international student from India studying Bachelor of Advanced Computing(Honours) and I have adequate capabilities to carry out my duty for this position. Earlier, during my school days, I was the captain of my football team and I had led my National Cadet Corp-Army Wing’s(the largest youth army) troop on both Republic and Independence Day and looking at my performance, I was awarded the rank of Corporal and later on promoted to the position of Junior Under Officer, I was also awarded with a gold medal for being the best cadet at the end of my training. Moreover, I was given the badge of PREFECT (class, school and house representative) for maximum of 4 times.

For me, it has only been one semester at ANU, which was more of online than offline, but I have all the knowledge and adequate information to play my role for these positions and I also stood for the position of International Students President. Also, I would like to tell you that I have more than 6 years of Share Market trading experience which I started when I was in grade 7th and this will help me in carrying out my duties as Treasures. Sometimes, I finish my duties at the last moment, like this particular nomination, but they are within time and I promise that will complete all the tasks and have a good peer to peer interaction. I would also love to mention here that I have basic knowledge of JAVA, Python and MySQL, which I studied in my high school. Moreover, coming from such a diverse country India, I would bring a big cultural diversity in the team.

Therefore, I kindly request you to consider my name for the above marked position.

Sandy Ma (Incumbent President)

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. Vice-President
2. Secretary
3. Ordinary Committee Member

Hey folks,

It’s been an honour being your President this past year and hey, seems like I’m not ready to step away from committee just yet. For those who don’t know me - my name is Sandy (she/her) and I am in my fourth year of a double degree in computing and art history. I joined the CSSA like a week before el rona rolled around, so it’s been a whacky few years.

As Vice-President, I hope to support the incoming President in realising their vision for the CSSA and also be a friendly pillar for the new committee to rely on. I hope to continue the CSSA’s revitalised relationship with the College, hopefully continuing the small chunks of advocacy we have delivered through the past two years.

I may not be LaTeX proficient, but boy can I word process (I work as a consultant after all). As Secretary, I will deliver crisp meeting minutes, and handle communications to and from the CSSA. Additionally, I will hope to ramp up our newsletter frequency from quarterly to termly (2 per semester x). If there’s nothing to report, I hope the newsletter will at least serve as a little connection to the community (perhaps we’ll have a joke corner).

<3 Thank you for reading :~~)

Michael Zhang

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. Industry Officer
2. Vice-President
3. Ordinary Committee Member

Hey guys! I’m Michael Zhang, currently a second year student studying Actuarial Studies/Quantitative Finance. Unlike most of you, I’m not studying a computer science related degree but I have a keen interest in the topic and have planned to take the necessary courses required for a Compsci Major! I’d really appreciate the opportunity to enhance the ANU Compsci student body while getting the chance to hopefully meet everyone. In 2022, I’ve had the pleasure to fill the VP & industry officer role in the Actuarial Society where I was able to better connect our members to the corporate world. Our sponsorship base almost doubled and our relationship with most pre existing sponsors improved significantly. I look forward to making a similar impact on the CSSA and help our students launch their careers to the best of their ability.

Avery Rowe

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. Diversity Officer
2. Ordinary Committee Member

Hello friends,

I am Avery, and I am interested in contributing the CSSA for 2023 and bringing the vibes.

What, you’re a Medical Science student? Yep, I’m a 2nd year and have found a lot of enjoyment engaging with my CECS friends during my time at ANU. After being convinced to do COMP1720 in 2021, I found a new appreciation for programming and the desire to make cool things. I now work as a tutor for the same course and enjoy connecting with people that enjoy computing and come from a wide range of other fields.

Okay, do you have any relevant experience? Yep again. I’ve been helping out with the Science Society this year but have a experience with mentoring, event organisation and engaging with people in a lot of fields for the last 6 years. For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed connecting with people about things they enjoy and making fun ways for people to do the same

Why Diversity Officer? Overall, I am a ✨queer✨ and neurodivergent student at ANU and generally find a lot of joy in helping others and think that being able to directly help CSSA students in this way is pretty cool. I also find interdisciplinary engagement awesome and want to try and allow for students of all backgrounds under CECS to feel welcome.

What do you want to do in the CSSA? If I were to be elected as Diversity Officer or an OCM, I would like to apply my life philosophy to engaging with the CSSA (with a healthy supply of pide)

1. Make cool things
2. Talk to people about cool things
3. Hear about other people’s cool things
4. Find ways to meet and find cool people who are into cool things

Daniel Herald

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. Treasurer
2. Ordinary Committee Member

Hey all, I’m Daniel, a first-year comp-sci student, studying Advanced Computing. I have been a CRO for the past semester and have been actively involved in the society since O-week. Since joining this club, I have met so many cool people in the Common Room and at events such as EGN. Meeting new people who have similar interests is one of the bests things that a society can provide.

I’m looking to become a committee member because this club is awesome! As a committee member I would like to assist in organizing events throughout the year, since they provide great connection opportunities, allow participants to learn valuable skills, and usually have free pizza!

Additionally, I am running for Treasurer because I believe that I can help ensure that the paperwork is in order. As treasurer I would work with the rest of the committee to spend and organize the funds so that we can provide the best experience for members and ANU students. I have some prior experience in this domain from undertaking business/commerce in high school, and under the mentorship of the committee I believe I will excel at this role.

Thanks for considering me!

Leopold Zhou (Incumbent International Officer)

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. International Officer
2. Ordinary Committee Member

Hello again my friends. I’m Leo. This is my (potentially) last year at ANU doing computer science and management. Most of you know me as the International Rep/officer for quite a while (almost 3 years!) I’m thrilled to see that my effort in the past few years have helped many of you :)

Honestly this time I’d be really glad to see some new names for International Officer - I’m interested in seeing your vision and hearing some plans from you. That’s why I decide to put my name down for this position again and make it contested.

That said, I’ve really enjoyed working with CSSA committee and therefore I’d like to continue my engagement in the committee as an Ordinary Committee Member, in which I hope to contribute to a few events and link COMP courses to our CSSA events.

I’m looking forward to meeting you soon at our AGM ;-).

Pavel Titov (Incumbent Ordinary Committee Member)

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. Ordinary Committee Member

Being a Ordinary Committee Member and helping out the club this last semester has been very rewarding and has taught me a lot about how the university and club operates. This opportunity has allowed me to meet many brilliant people as well as great memories and it would be a privilege to serve again.

Harrison Oates

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. Ordinary Committee Member

I’m a first-year BAC R&D / PPE student passionate about the intersection of technology and society. I sit on the eSafety Commissioner’s Online Safety Youth Advisory Council, and have worked with Project Rockit and Meta on design principles for the metaverse. On campus, I’m the Competition Specialist at ANU Solar Racing, and the Captain of Boats at the ANU Sailing Club.

If elected as a Committee member, I will use my experience in advocacy with major NGOs to ensure that the CSSA continues its mission to serve the interests of Compsci students.

Jon Connor (Incumbent Ordinary Committee Member)

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. Ordinary Committee Member

Gday I wish to continue BBQing and going on hectic Holroyd runs for another term

Lavender Neesham (Incumbent Ordinary Committee Member)

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. Ordinary Committee Member

Hey all! I’m Lavender one of the current OCMs at the CSSA and a second-year student studying a BAC. I’ve really enjoyed my time working with everyone here and hope to continue in the role, doing my best to help out with organising events and keeping our clubs one of the best on campus. I have plenty of experience with organising both events and people as an SR at lodge, and obviously already have experience working for the club. I can’t wait to see who our new exec will be this year and look forward to another fun year with you all!

Alex Mirrlees-Black

Nominating for the following positions (in preference order):

1. Ordinary Committee Member

Hiya everyone, I’m Alex (she/her) and I’m studying my first year of PhB here at ANU, but doing a whole bunch of computer science as a part of that. I’m also around on the Discord as Scibuild, or in the common room, normally in my big purple puffer jacket.

Most of you probably don’t know me too well just yet so here’s a little about me. I like to think I’m quite friendly and have a passion for teaching and helping others. Within CS, I love compilers, programming languages and type systems but I’m also fascinated by the technology behind 3D graphics, optimising code, and cyber-security. Outside of CS I also study maths, and I like attempting to make and play music, particularly on the organ! Feel free to talk with me about any of these :)

Hoping to get involved in the CSSA a little more, I’m applying for OCM this year. I am a recently appointed CRO and have enjoyed using this position as an excuse to hang out in the common room more, which has shown me what a position on the committee might look like. I would, as a committee member, be very happy helping organise and run events, maintaining the common room and working on some of the CSSA software. I’d also hope to be another friendly face of the society, being the inclusive community to others as I saw at the beginning of this year.

Also, I think the CSSA can still improve its public image so more younger students are aware of how supportive and inclusive the society is, and that’s something I’d love to work on. This is a complicated thing though and there won’t be an easy solution, but that hasn’t deterred me before!

See ya around, Alex 💖

I just wanted to share some quick words about this, a bit of it’s history within computing and what it means for all of y’all!

For anyone who isn’t already familiar, transgender people are people whose birth sex doesn’t line up with their gender. This can manifest in a whole host of ways, from identifying with the complete opposite gender to the one at birth, identifying with something a bit less clear in the middle of the two traditional “binary” genders (male and female), or even just not quite feeling entirely comfortable as your assigned birth sex, but not enough to warrant a different gender entirely. There’s a ton of different ways that people experience this, as gender is quite a complex phenomenon, but it’s an experience that is very central to our humanity, and has been observed over thousands of years across cultures around the world, including a number of Australian First Nations cultures.

🏳️‍⚧️

A super common question that comes up with discussions like this however, is why does it matter? Why is a computer science club making a post about transgender people? There’s a really simple answer to this.

Because transgender people are all around us, and that includes computer science, and even the CSSA.

In fact, several current and past committee members are transgender, some of whom (like myself are “out”), as well as others who aren’t as visible, all of whom are equally valid. You will probably encounter transgender people at many points through your career, if you haven’t already, so it’s important to understand how to respect them, and make sure they feel welcome.

Several notable computer scientists and engineers throughout history as well, were transgender, and have had lasting effects on the industry at large even, such as (but not limited to):

• Wendy Carlos, a pioneer of electronics in music.
• Lynn Conway, an IBM computer scientist who developed a number of key advanced in processor technology, such as generalised dynamic instruction handling, and the Mead-Conway VLSI Chip Design Revolution.
• Sophie Wilson, a pioneer of the BBC Micro and ARM RISC Architecture, which is used now in most smartphones and many other devices, as well as being a source of much pain for COMP2300 students.

🏳️‍⚧️

So, what can you do to help support your trans friends, colleagues and co-workers?

First, this is probably as good a time as ever to mention that on behalf of the entire CSSA committee, we resolutely support our transgender friends, colleagues, and co-workers, and we do not, and will not tolerate any form of abuse or transphobia within any of our communities or events, online or in person. We believe that trans people are valid, and should be accepted, and deserve the respect and compassion that cisgender people receive every day.

At the end of the day, the biggest thing you can do is respect their gender and pronouns. (You can grab some pronoun roles in role-assign for this, and check it out on people’s server profile by clicking on their name!) If someone asks you to refer to them by they/them or he/him pronouns, doing it will mean the world to them (or him), and will make an incredible difference to helping them feel accepted and welcome.

Also learning more about the identities of those around you can help you to understand their experiences, and their struggles. Many of us will happily answer questions and do our best to help you understand our experiences, if you want to learn more about us, but otherwise, google is a great place to start.

Hi everyone!

Apologies for the silence - it’s taken us all a while to get into the swing of running an active in-person society again.

Thank you to everyone that came to our O-week Games Night, InstallFest, Careers Fair, or any of our sponsor events - we hope they were fun and/or useful and/or informative. If you have any suggestions for how we could improve our events (or an event you’d like to see run), feel free to let us know at this email, or in the #committee channel in Discord.

(Are you not in our Discord yet? You should join! https://cssa.club/discord - or if that’s too proprietary for you, check out https://cssa.club/irc - see you there!)

(Also, if you haven’t visited our common room in the CSIT building, we’d love to have you! It’s just down the hall from N115/N116.)

Midsem study event season is kicking off TONIGHT with the:

COMP1100/COMP1130 MID-SEM STUDY EVENT

Thursday 24th March (TODAY), 6pm - 10pm

Hancock West (enter the opposite side of Hancock Library building from the main entrance, then head up the stairs to the left)

FREE BBQ provided!

and then:

COMP1110/COMP6710 MID-SEM STUDY EVENT

Friday 25th March (TOMORROW), 6pm - 10pm

CSIT building (we’ve booked out basically the whole ground floor!)

FREE BBQ (or maybe PIZZA, we’re not sure) provided!

If you’ve never been to a CSSA study event, then you can expect a great collaborative study and discussion environment, with course tutors there to help you, study materials ready to go, and FREE FOOD!

Tell your non-CSSA-member classmates to come along too, no membership required (though it’s always appreciated!)

Sponsor event time!

Jane Street | Tech Talk: Decoding the role of Software Engineers

Friday 1st April, 5 - 6pm AEDT

on Zoom

You will have the opportunity to learn about our Software Engineers’ day-to-day responsibilities, a bit about our tech stack at Jane Street, what it is like to be a Software Engineer in a global quantitative trading firm, and career prospects at Jane Street. Register your attendance here by 4pm Wednesday, March 30.

Further details including joining instructions will be sent to participants on Thursday, March 31.

We hope to see you there!

That’s all for the first CSSA update of the year - until next time,

- The CSSA committee

Hi all,

We were planning to hold this AGM over Jitsi, an open video calling platform similar to Zoom, but a few people were having issues with it, so we’ve decided to fall back to Discord calling.

So, to join this evening’s AGM, join our Discord https://cssa.club/discord, and hop in the call when it opens at 6pm!

(Sorry for any inconvenience.)

The agenda for this evening’s AGM is now available - apologies for the delay, everyone!

https://cs.club.anu.edu.au/assets/2021-10-29-agm-agenda.pdf

See you at 6pm! (The meeting link will be posted here and in the CSSA Discord shortly before we start.)

Positions

President

Sandy Ma (uncontested)

Vice-President

Matthew Chen

Oliver Balfour

Sophie Chinn (uncontested for higher preference)

Sandy Ma (uncontested for higher preference)

Treasurer

Chris Ward (uncontested)

Sophie Chinn (uncontested for higher preference)

Secretary

Sophie Chinn (uncontested)

Sandy Ma (uncontested for higher preference)

Diversity Officer

(no nominees)

Postgraduate Officer

(no nominees)

International Officer

Leopold Zhou (uncontested)

Industry Officer

(no nominees)

Sophie Chinn (uncontested for higher preference)

Ordinary Committee Members

Ashley Lamont

Matthew Chen

Oliver Balfour

Felix Friedlander

Sophie Chinn (uncontested for higher preference)

Leopold Zhou (uncontested for higher preference)

Ashley Lamont

Positions in pref order:

1. Ordinary Committee Member

Blurb:

Hey everyone, I’m Ashley, although some of you may know me better as AshCo! (She/They)

I’m a first year (in 2021) student studying Advanced Computing. I’m also the main admin on the “ANU First Year Computing” discord server which I’ve built as an active hub for collaboration and learning amongst first year students in courses like COMP1130, COMP1140, COMP1720, etc. and have helped to grow and become ANU’s fourth largest discord server, and the largest ANU “Classes & Subjects” server*.

I’m hoping to try and become more involved in the CSSA as an OCM and to learn more about how it operates and how I can help to contribute to it and make it better for all computing students at ANU. I also hope to be able to use many of the skills and connections I’ve made through the FYC to help ANU students, especially newer students trying to navigate an increasingly complex world with challenges like Covid, Online learning and BGP Withdrawal Updates (let’s hope that joke ages well) alongside the CSSA’s existing set of excellent resources and support networks.

I guess there’s not too much else to really say beyond that, I’m here, I’m queer (although that’s largely besides the point, even if it does rhyme 😅) and I’m ready to do what I can if y’all will have me on board!

*(ANU Discord Student Hub, October 2021)

Sophie Chinn (Incumbent Secretary)

Positions in pref order:

1. Secretary (uncontested)
2. Ordinary Committee Member
3. Vice-President
4. Treasurer
5. Industry Officer

Blurb:

My name is Sophie and I am the current secretary of CSSA. In the past, I have also held the position of Vice President; in total, I’ve been an active committee member for nearly 2 years, and an active member of the CSSA for 4 years. Although I haven’t been active during lockdown, I have been highly active in the committee when CSSA was running things in person. I’m running for the positions listed solely to be a back up choice if you don’t want to vote for the new candidates. I highly advise to elect new people for the roles listed but please vote for me only if you consider none of the candidates can help out in the long term. From my experience, CSSA committee members go through burn out because the community inside and outside of the committee does not have enough committing volunteers to help the committee run events and/or committee members have new other commitments. I encourage you as a voting member to consider candidates who are responsible enough to fulfil their roles and at least uphold baseline communication & attendance to meetings (like give at least a notice of absence if you can’t attend things). My goal regardless of the election outcome is to restart a community environment where people not on committee gets involved with committee things such as helping out with events, coming up with ideas, and being an OCM outside of committee (I will definitely be applying for Common Room Officer in future because that is a good position to achieve my goal). So please only vote for me if you think there is no other suitable candidates. Thanks for reading!

Sandy Ma (Incumbent Industry Officer)

Positions in pref order:

1. President (uncontested)
2. Vice-President
3. Secretary

Blurb:

Hi everyone :) After a year’s stint in student politics, I have decided to humble myself and run for CSSA President. After two years in the Industry Officer position, I hope to bring support and reliability as we try (again) to revive campus life and our on campus presence (please rona don’t take this away from me).

If elected, I hope to adopt a proactive approach, making use of the Summer break to check in with the committee and hopefully design a vague plan/calendar for the year. From there, if we succeed we succeed, if we don’t achieve all our goals, I hope to at least make sure everyone has had a good time on committee ykno.

Additionally, this year in my role as ANUSA rep, I found it really helpful to have a direct relationship with the CSSA to help collate and support advocacy issues within CS at ANU (thank you Felix). I hope to continue this relationship next year, and also continue CSSA’s role as an advocate for welfare and educational issues within the CS community.

Essentially, as President I will make sure the CSSA:

• Revives our on campus presence
• Advocate for education issues within SOCO/CECS
• Better engage and support first, second, third years who have had their on campus experiences stolen
• Is a community you can go to for support!

Matthew Chen

Positions in pref order:

1. Vice-President
2. Ordinary Committee Member

Blurb:

Hello, I’m Matthew Chen, next year I will be a third-year computing student. I have been a Common Room Officer (CRO) for the past year now. I’ve been able to meet a lot of people both in and out of the CSSA because of it. In the past year I have become more involved in the CSSA and the ANU (both online and in-person, before covid ☹) and would like to take it a step further.

As Vice President, I would be committed to expanding the CSSA presence both on-campus and online. With the hopes of a return back to campus next year, I plan to bring back any events not run due to COVID and support existing events such as Installfest and Games Night. I would also investigate ways to boost collaborations/events with other clubs from all over campus. Also on the agenda would be new events for competitive/casual programming and teams for events such as Google Hash Code. Options for new CSSA merchandise to better showcase and promote the club, both on and off campus, will also be looked at.

As a General Representative, I would strive to support to the club and the committee where required and to help promote and expand the CSSA presence both on and off campus.

If I am elected for any of the abovementioned roles, I will endeavour to create the best community possible while bestowing my past experiences to future members. I would also be dedicated to creating and fostering a positive and engaging environment for all current and future CSSA and non-CSSA members who decide to join us on this journey.

Leopold Zhou (Incumbent International Officer)

Positions in pref order:

1. International Officer (uncontested)
2. Ordinary Committee Member

Blurb:

Hello friends. I’m Leo. I’m a third year computer science and business student. It’s been a while since I started as the International Representative - or International Officer - in 2019. The past two years are definitely challenging for many CSSA members, especially the international students cohort. I’m really glad that some of my efforts have helped you during the tough time. I’ve always been keen on CSSA events. You might have met me in some of them. Since we are (very likely) welcoming international students back next year. I’m excited about what I can do next year to help them enjoy the culture at CSSA. With more countries moving to the “new normal”, I’m very thrilled to bring more global opportunities to our members. One of my vision for next year is bringing some events + merch + free food supported by GitHub to ANU and CSSA. Hopefully this will also extend my original plan “building international partners”.

I’m looking forward to meeting you all at our AGM. ;-).

Oliver Balfour

Positions in pref order:

1. Vice-President
2. Ordinary Committee Member

Blurb:

Hi, I’m Oliver. In 2022 I’ll be a 2nd year computer science and maths student. I was a course rep for COMP1100 last sem and I’m a common room officer now, and I’ve been very involved in the CSSA community since O week. If you’re a first year CS student, there’s a good chance we’ve crossed paths already! If not, I’d love to meet you :-)

I have lots of ideas of where to take the club (no promises though!)

• Continue running lots of study events (with free pizza!)
• Revitalise the CSSA Hitchhiker’s Guide to include comprehensive reviews about most courses and advertise it better to incoming students
• Start up a talk series about topics like LaTeX, advanced Git, etc. with students and staff welcome to give presentations. I like the idea of cozying up in the common room and learning something new (with pizza of course!)
• Improve outreach to first year students. Lots of CS students are only vaguely aware of the CSSA and I feel we underserve students in adjacent fields like physics and maths who are interested in CS but don’t know where to start. I have a few ideas here!
• Continue to make the common room and Discord spaces inclusive and friendly :)

After the amount of free pizza, advice and support I’ve received through the CSSA community I’d love the chance to give back!

Chris Ward (Incumbent Treasurer)

Positions in pref order:

1. Treasurer (uncontested)

Blurb:

Me again, will continue to manage the cssa accounts effectively with accountability using Xero. Will do my very best in supporting the committee to return the cssa back to its pre covid glory

Felix Friedlander (Incumbent President)

Positions in pref order:

1. Ordinary Committee Member

Blurb:

Hi! I’m Felix, and I’ve been honoured to be your president for two years.

While my time in the big chair is well due to end, I’m running this year as an ordinary committee member, like many outgoing presidents of years past. This is primarily to help ease the transition to what is shaping up to be quite a different committee.

In addition to supporting the new committee in whatever ways they see fit, I would in particular like to keep tinkering away at improving the CSSA’s internal and public-facing infrastructure - as “CSSA sysadmin”, if you like - and I feel like an OCM is an appropriate position to do that from.

The CSSA is pleased to invite all members to our 2021

Annual General Meeting

to be held online, Friday 29th October (Friday of Week 12), from 6pm.

Details, including the agenda and (eventually) the meeting link, will be made available at https://cssa.club/agm2021. (There’s nothing there yet, be patient.)

Remember, if you’re interested in being part of the 2021-22 CSSA committee, nominations are still open until Sunday night! You can nominate for any position at https://cssa.club/nominate2021, and I’d encourage anyone interested to give it a go.

If you have any questions, you can contact the committee at anucssa@anu.edu.au, or the returning officer at jonathan.connor@anu.edu.au.

See you there!

Nominations for committee positions in the Computer Science Students’ Association (CSSA) are now open. The CSSA will be holding its AGM in Week 12, where all committee positions are elected. Candidates must fill out this form before midnight on 17th of October (Week 10 Sunday). All positions, except that of an ordinary committee member, may only be nominated for by a current ANU student.

If you’re unfamiliar with any of the positions, the election process, or would like to talk to current members of the society to see what it’s all about, you can join us online with Discord or IRC.

Minutes for the 2020 Annual General Meeting are now available here.

Congratulations to the next ANU CSSA Committee of 2020/2021.

Elected to positions,

• President: Felix Friedlander (Unopposed)
• VP: Sophie Chinn
• Sec: Elias Elwyn
• Tres: Chris Ward
• Intl Rep: Leopold Zhou
• Postgrad Rep: Abigail Thomas (Unopposed)
• Industry Rep: Sandy Ma (Unopposed)
• Diversity Rep: Mage Pye
• Gen Reps: Thomas Burnett Talyah Livanes David Quarel

Nominations for the 2021 CSSA committee are now closed and the list of nominees has been finalized. See you at the AGM at 3pm, Wednesday 23 September at Theatre 3.

President (unopposed)

Felix Friedlander

Vice-President

Nayoon Kim

Sophie Chinn

Felix Friedlander

Elias Elwyn

Treaurer

Chris Ward

Elias Elwyn

Secretary

Nayoon Kim

Talyah Livanes

Thomas Burnett

Sophie Chinn

Elias Elwyn

Felix Friedlander

Industry Representative (unopposed)

Sandy Ma

Postgraduate Representative (unopposed)

Abigail Thomas

Diversity Representative

Mage Pye

Elias Elwyn

International Representative

Leopold Zhou

Nayoon Kim

General Representatives

Sophie Chinn

Joshua Corner

Felix Friedlander

Robert Jeffrey

Mage Pye

David Quarel

Sylvester Shan

Chris Ward

Leopold Zhou

Thomas Burnett

Talyah Livanes

Elias Elwyn

Candidate Statements

David Quarel

I’m a tutor, and I like running study events, and being a link between courses and the CSSA.

Preferences:

1. General Representative

Talyah Livanes

Hi, I’m Talyah Livanes – most students and staff know me personally and online as Cappy. I’m a 23 year old undergraduate student undertaking a Bachelor of Design and I have nominated myself primarily for General Representative and also the Secretary role for the upcoming CSSA election.

Although based in the ANU School of Art and Design, I have always held a keen eye for Computer Science and Information Technology, picking up various courses as electives throughout my time at ANU. As things are now, I have a strong online presence throughout the ANU affiliated discord servers, especially as admin of the ANU Students discord server. With 2020 and all the challenges it has given us, I have amped up my involvement with the community as the online environment became our new norm.

As ANU continues to adapt to the challenges presented by this year and the next and converts into a hybrid learning institution, I hope to be a part of CSSA as either a General Representative or a Secretary, utilising my skills and experience to create a rewarding atmosphere both online and on-campus for students. If elected in either of my nominated roles, I will be committed to creating a more engaging, inclusive, and fulfilling community for the already welcoming and vibrant CSSA.

Thank you! Preferences:

1. Secretary
2. General Representative

Thomas Burnett

G’day, I’m Thomas. Next year I’ll be in my second year of a predominately physics and maths undergrad, with a bit of compsci sprinkled around.

In my year as a member, the CSSA has connected me with CTF cyber-sec comps, competitive programming, and has been there in the group chat to help troubleshoot misbehaving code or computers. For this I am grateful, and I see attributes like these, along with the culture, as being foundational to the Association.

If elected as a gen-rep, I would view issues through the lens of inclusivity of all students regardless of if their degree says CompSci. CSSA has helped satiate my need for compsci, and open my eyes further to the field. I would be honoured to help others in this way as a 2021 gen-rep.

If elected as secretary, I will do the required work early, and effectively. Mail merge, timetabling, clear immersive \LaTeX minutes, early notification of upcoming dates, who doesn’t love these sorts of things? You want them? I can provide them. That’s my pitch.

Preferences:

1. Secretary
2. General Representative

Sylvester Shan

Yeet it

Preferences:

1. General Representative

Felix Friedlander

Hi! It’s been a long year for us all, so I’ll keep it brief.

In short: I feel like I’ve been taking the CSSA in a reasonable direction as President, and I’ve plenty more plans (as a result of COVID, many of these plans are essentially last year’s plans).

In addition to all the stuff I said last year, however, I plan on having a big focus on enabling the rest of our committee to do the most they can for the society. (I’m already working on this, a little.)

A more detailed description of where I’ve taken the society and where I think we’re going will be in my President’s Report, if you’re interested. Otherwise, I apologise for the shameful lack of free food this year; we’ll find a way to do better one way or another.

Out of space now - thanks for reading!

Preferences:

1. President
2. Vice-President
3. Secretary
4. General Representative

Robert Jeffrey

I was Vice-President between 2017 and 2019. I’m hoping to help the CSSA find ways of engaging with first-year students, running social events that work during remote teaching, and organising academic events for students to learn about interesting new research.

Preferences:

1. General Representative

Elias Elwyn

Before I launch into the classic “tugs at your heartstrings” speech, I’d like to preface: Were I to be elected secretary, I will make it my mission to release minutes within this decade, in contrast with every CSSA secretary since Rachel, so I’m told. They will be pretty and typeset in LaTeX.

TL;DR of the rest of this statement: I’d very much like to do the thing.

I’ve been very engaged with the CSSA ever since I landed in Canberra (February this year), and have thoroughly enjoyed my time on committee as General Representative (from April). The CSSA has helped me find a community in a foreign place, as well as provided a place to learn the things that I don’t get to learn in class. The people here have put me back on a path that makes sense when I’ve gotten lost navigating bureaucracy, and showed me that I could be so many things that I didn’t know were possible before.

I’d like to help this world grow, to the best of my capability, as I’ve found my family here. I’d like to give back.

Under the guidance of the 2020 committee, and others, I’ve learnt much about the inner workings of societies and clubs, and it is very much something I’d like to be more involved in, especially seeing the joy it brings, and can continue to bring, to people – whether they be new to the school, area, or returning for yet another year.

I’m currently completing a BAC(R&D)/BS, and probably will continue to do so for another 6 years, poking around the areas of systems, logic, algorithms, as well as pure maths and maybe some physics if I can jam it in.

Preferences:

1. Secretary
2. Vice-President
3. Diversity Representative
4. General Representative

Sandy Ma

Hello :) My name is Sandy and I would love to be your industry rep again!

My term started when I filled in a casual vacancy so admittedly I did not get a lot of time to prepare for the role - if elected, I’ll be sure to spend the Summer preparing for some amazing sponsors and spicy sponsored events in O-Week.

Rona ruined a lot of my hopes and dreams for this year and I hope to use the opportunity of a second term to make those dreams come true.

Dreams include:

• Hackathons
• Resume workshops
• Mock interviews
• Networking events

All with industry mentors available to maximise our employability in the field!!

Preferences:

1. Industry Representative

Mage Pye (They/Them)

Hi all! I’ve been the diversity rep this year and I’d love to do it again. Even though this year limited the events we could run, I’ve built connections with CECS diversity and inclusion, ESA Queer* and Women’s reps, and Science Soc Queer*

I’m in the process of working with school and ESA to run autonomous Queer* meetups for CECS students, and I’m admin of the ANU Queer* STEM facebook group.

Next year I want to keep working on Queer* community events, making CSSA spaces welcoming for people who might not always feel welcome in computer science spaces, and generally making our community an even better place than it is.

Preferences:

1. Diversity Representative
2. General Representative

Abigail Thomas

Did it last year, didn’t get to do much bc covid, hopefully we can get back to doing stuff in person soon but if not I’m thinking about having an online chat.

Preferences:

1. Postgraduate Representative

Sophie Chinn

As Vice-President in the last term, I have done my best to support the CSSA committee members, from doing paperwork and filling out society forms to working with people to keep to deadlines and providing emotional support, especially in this remote-learning environment. The past term has proven that having someone on exec with a entirely different timetable than the rest of the team really helps with keeping projects on track. As the “resident biologist”, I would like to continue serving on any exec position so when everyone needs to dash off to do comp assignments, I can “hold the fort” and keep the society running until they are all free. I would like to let you decide which role I would serve best in, whether it be utilizing my scheduling and people skills as Vice-Pres, implementing my love for paperwork as Secretary, or be a hardworking gen rep. I believe that whatever role I will be selected for, I can serve my fellow ANU students effectively.

Preferences:

1. Vice-President
2. Secretary
3. General Representative

Nayoon Kim

First and foremost, if I get elected as a Vice President, I will focus on assisting the President organising events, doing my best for CSSA, and giving both academic and career support to students. Although there are not many events due to COVID recently, I will work for events such as Installfest, Virtual Games Night, and talks to run successfully. I will help students tired of COVID. I would like to contribute to CSSA and ensure a pleasing environment for all students. I will do whatever I can to support and improve CSSA. On top of that, I’ll work to make sure our study events and industry talks to continue smoothly do that CSSA becomes a society that every CS student wants to join and actively be involved. I want to be part of creating my fun and fruitful events and programmes for all students to gain something, and meet other people. Moreover, as an international student, I would like to offer additional assistance needed for international members here in CSSA - I believe there are quite numbers of them- especially when I can understand your needs.

Preferences:

1. Vice-President
2. Secretary
3. International Representative

Leopold Zhou

Hi all! I’m Leo. I’m a second year computer science and business student. I’ve been the International Representative since 2019. I’m keen on participating in CSSA events and helped organise a few. You might have met me in those study events (hopefully they can be back in person soon). Engaging actively in this community has brought me a wonderful experience. I hope to bring it to more international students.

My experience and background enable me with adequate interpersonal skills to deal effectively with people from multicultural backgrounds. That said, 2020 disrupted many of my plans, one of which is an international dinner. I hope to bring it to you in the coming year. I’m currently working on the International partnership program which will help CSSA get in touch with CS-related societies around the world so that our members can have a channel communicating with CS students from different backgrounds. I have contacted societies from several universities and I’d like to launch the pilot phase in this semester.

Again, “Talk is so cheap”, I’d like to show you the real work :-).

Preferences:

1. International Representiative
2. General Representiative

Chris Ward

In my time as treasurer in the last year, I’ve migrated the CSSA accounts to Xero, allowing us to clearly see where our income and expenses lie, and to ensure our funds are used appropriately. I have also continued to maintain our vending machine fleet to ensure additional revenue for the society.

Preferences:

1. Treasurer
2. General Representative

Welcome to Semester 2!

Hopefully these first few days of remote learning have treated you well. The CSSA is starting this semester’s social calendar off right away, with our

EPIC GAMES NIGHT: REMOTE EDITION

this

Wednesday, 29 July, 7PM - late

Yes, that’s TONIGHT!

We’ll be co-ordinating everything through the CSSA Discord - if you aren’t there already, you can join with this link: https://discord.gg/UETrGuS.

There’ll be Minecraft, Urban Terror, social deception games, various game tournaments thanks to the amazing people at ANU Esports, and more – come join in the fun and kick off the semester right!

Of course, the start of semester is more than an opportunity to catch up with friends, and without in-person tutorials, setting up your computer with everything you need for the new semester can be tricky.

Never fear, the CSSA is also running our regular

INSTALLFEST

this

Friday, 31 July, 5PM - 8PM

We’ll be there to help you get set up for COMP1110/1140 or COMP2310, as well as the VDI that many courses (including COMP1100) are using.

Just like many of your courses, we’ll be using Microsoft Teams to run this event - join the CSSA team at https://cssa.club/team.

And now, a word from our sponsor, Optiver:

Optiver is pleased to confirm we’re continuing to hire Graduate and Intern talent! Join our virtual information sessions to learn how your quantitative and technical skills can lead to success at Optiver. In our interactive Trading webinar, our Head of Trading Education will give you an insight into Optiver, explain the role of our traders and the culture that drives our success as a market leading trading firm. In our Virtual Tech Talk, our Head of IT Education will talk about Optiver’s techniques and strategies for tackling challenging technical problems. Sessions begin next Thursday 30th July. Register at https://bit.ly/3eWnCjn with access code: optiver.

That’s all for this week’s newsletter - and as always, if there’s anything the CSSA can do for you, you can email us at anucssa@anu.edu.au or reach us on any of our online platforms.

Hello from the ANU CSSA!

Like many student societies, we have been somewhat dormant over the past months, which have affected everyone in different ways. However, while it looks like CS will be anything but “normal” this coming semester, we’ll be doing our very best to keep you connected, entertained, and supported.

We have a bunch of events in the works! In particular, save the date for our fully remote Bush Week games night - Wednesday 29th July. Some exciting merchandise should also be coming soon. As always, you can keep updated by reading this newsletter, checking our website at https://cssa.club, and keeping up with our social media.

Due to the University’s COVID-19 precautions, the common room may not be open for some time. Rest assured we are working tirelessly to ensure the common room opens the minute it is safe and permitted to, and we’ll keep you updated. For those looking for another way to stay engaged with the society, you can join our Discord at https://discord.gg/UETrGuS - it’s a great way to connect with everyone in and around the CSSA.

After an absolutely crazy first semester, the College of Engineering and Computer Science is looking to recognise tutors, lecturers, and other teaching staff who’ve done a particularly good job of supporting their students despite everything. You can nominate anyone, or any course, that impressed you at https://cecs.anu.edu.au/remote-teaching-and-student-experience-awards-semester-1-2020 - nominations close on Monday (20th July), and the form is very simple, so if you’re thinking about submitting one, why not do it now!

Remember, if you want to share your specific experiences of remote learning, be it praise, criticism, or ideas for improvement, the CSSA is always happy to hear from you - drop us a line at anucssa@anu.edu.au or on any of our social platforms.

EY, a CSSA sponsor, has two virtual events coming up:

EY STEM Showcase

Keen to understand how and where your STEM degree fits in within professional services and EY specifically? Join us to learn more about the opportunities available to you and to hear from a range of EY professionals with STEM backgrounds about their career journeys.

When

Monday 27 July 2020 Time

1.00pm – 2.45pm AEST

RSVP here by 24 July

EY GenTech Career Showcase

Calling our tech students or tech enthusiasts! We’re collaborating with the EY wavespace™ team to bring you a virtual showcase that will help you build on your knowledge of EY and the career opportunities available to you and provide you with an immersive learning experience. We’re also excited to give you a teaser of our exciting new annual technology student event launching later in the year, EY Tech Fest.

When

Thursday 6 August 2020 Time

12:30pm – 2:30pm AEST

RSVP here by 29 July

That’s all for this week’s newsletter - until next week, stay safe!

Thank you to everyone who attended the Computer Science Students’ Association AGM and to the 30 members who voted.

I’d also like to thank all the nominees for putting their names up and their wonderful speeches.

The count of the election has been completed using the OpenSTV software available online and using the Meek STV method.

I would like to congratulate the following candidates on their new positions for the CSSA 2019/2020 committee:

President

Felix Friedlander

Vice-President

Sophie Chinn

Treasurer

Chris Ward

Secretary

Jon Connor

Industry Representative

Murdock Grewar

Postgraduate Representative

Abigail Thomas

Diversity Representative

Mage Pye

International Representative

Leopold Zhou

General Representatives

Josh Corner

David Quarel

Sylvester Shan

To everyone else, I wish you all the best for the rest of this semester and your future endeavours.

If you have any issues with the result or want to check the result, please email me at u5800279@anu.edu.au.

Have a good week!

Nominations for the 2020 CSSA committee closed this Wednesday evening, and with some last-minute additions, the list of nominees has been finalized. The committee will be passing this on to the Returning Officer to handle the election from this stage. See you at the AGM at 6pm, Wednesday 21 August in CSIT.

President

Felix Friedlander

Rahul Ghangas

Vice-President

Zak Brighton-Knight

Sophie Chinn

Felix Friedlander

Rahul Ghangas

Robert Jeffrey

Treaurer (unopposed)

Christopher Ward

Secretary

Jon Connor

Felix Friedlander

Robert Jeffrey

Industry Representative (unopposed)

Murdock Grewar

Postgraduate Representative (unopposed)

Murdock Grewar (unopposed for higher preference)

Abigail Thomas

Diversity Representative (unopposed)

Mage Pye

International Representative (unopposed)

Leopold Zhou

General Representatives (3)

Zak Brighton-Knight

Sophie Chinn

Jon Connor

Joshua Corner

Felix Friedlander

Robert Jeffrey

Mage Pye (unopposed for higher preference)

David Quarel

Sylvester Shan

Christopher Ward (unopposed for higher preference)

Leopold Zhou (unopposed for higher preference)

Candidate Statements

Zak Brighton-Knight

I want to be vice-president so that I can continue to foster the sense of community within the CSSA as well as improve the common room to entice more people to get involved with the CSSA community. As a member of the CSSA for the last three years I understand the diverse range of people in the CSSA and will strive to keep the CSSA as open and welcoming as possible for old and new members alike. I also want to run more events such as introduction to LaTeX, introduction to GNU/Linux and the terminal and introduction to working as a team using version control as I feel there is a no course in the university that prepares you to use these important CS tools

Preferences:

1. Vice-President
2. General Representative

Sophie Chinn

I am a third year engineering and biology student. I have been a CRO for the past semester and an active member of CSSA for three years. In the past semester, I have actively helped the committee with events, such as filling out forms and helping with logistics. I have also done my best to maintain the common room by keeping it tidy. As Vice President or General Representative, I aim to reduce the workload of my committee members by providing the man power to assist other committee members in getting tasks done. Although I am not a computer science student, I can help through filling out forms, managing events and maintaining lines of communications so the other members can focus on academic quality of the event. I believe I work well in a team and I hope to contribute in making a committee that will improve the students’ wellbeing.

Preferences:

1. Vice-President
2. General Representative

Jon Connor

Current holder of AGM, OGM, and committee meeting any% speed run records. I’ll finish a meeting before you’ve even read this statement.

Jokes aside, I’d be more than happy to continue for another year as the resident paperwork guy.

Preferences:

1. Secretary
2. General Representative

Joshua Corner

I try to be a positive influence on the common room, and on the committee’s decision making in general.

Felix Friedlander

Hi! I’ve been a general representative for the past six months or so, and I’m the person who’s brought you the new constitution, new website, most of the CSSA’s recent graphic design, and (in association with the Returning Officer) the efficient counting of the most recent committee election.

Compared to the troubled times of the past, the CSSA committee currently runs smoothly and with a minimum of infighting, and as such I’m not running on the promise of fighting some great injustice or fixing a gaping hole.

Instead, I’d focus on the smaller things, like better communication - with members, with the school and course convenors, with our industry sponsors, with peer societies, and with ANUSA. The number of events that don’t happen, or almost don’t happen, or happen at a bad time, or are underwhelming, simply because of inadequate communication by the committee is in my mind too high.

I’d work to see the return of monthly speaker events, not just with industry partners but with individuals at the ANU and elsewhere. These have been a highlight in years past and the CSSA has hosted a number of interesting speakers. Introductory workshops on Linux command line usage, Git, and (La)TeX have also been hugely popular when they have run in the past, as they fill in gaps that are taught piecemeal or not at all in many CS courses. These are also good targets for joint events, for example with the ANU Mathematics Society.

On the social side, much has been done to make the CSSA inclusive, and indeed our membership is more diverse than CS courses at large, however I believe more can be done to run social events for the benefit of a larger section of our members.

Out of space now - thanks for reading!

Preferences:

1. President
2. Secretary
3. Vice-President
4. General Representative

Rahul Ghangas

Come hear me at the AGM and you will know.

Preferences:

1. President
2. Vice-President

Murdock Grewar

This statement has since been removed at the candidate’s request. If you have any questions, please contact the CSSA committee.

Preferences:

1. Industry Representative
2. Postgraduate Representative

Robert Jeffrey

I’ve been the Vice-President under the Quarrel Presidency for the past two years, and I’m hoping to keep my role in the next committee.

I joked a lot in my first year that I did nothing, but I’ve since done my best to pick up the slack in organising our events & our committee. My main work this year was running the majority of our S1 study events (all three midsemester events and two of the final events) and working on the expansion of our vending machine empire.

My main goal in running for Vice-President is to support the organisation of the committee. I believe our committee mostly struggles with being organised in advance, and I want to work primarily on that. That means making sure our events are booked earlier than the week before, making sure our emails are managed and quickly responded to, ensuring tasks are properly assigned to individual people, and to follow up to make sure things gets done.

In terms of overall aims, if I was elected I’d want to continue our current events while expanding to new events. That includes expanding study events to more courses (e.g. COMP3600, COMP3670), running more industry & post-graduate events in conjunction with committee, running EGN again with as much planning as possible, and hopefully organising the committee to run the Sydney trip again.

Preferences:

1. Vice-President
2. Secretary
3. General Representative

Mage Pye

I’m Mage, I’m nonbinary and generally queer, and I’m running for diversity rep because I love the CSSA and I want to make it even better. Diversity is something that computer science struggles with as a discipline, for a lot of reasons. All kinds of diverse people enroll in CS degrees but many drop out because they can’t find a welcoming community, and as the CS students association we can play a big role in changing that. I want to run events for different groups of people, work to make the common room and our events more accessible to all kinds of people, and act as a point of contact with committee for people who might not feel welcome because of their identities. I am a member of the queer department, women’s department and disabilities student association, so I can represent a wide range of diversity, in a way that is helpful to the CSSA and to computer science students in general.

Preferences:

1. Diversity Representative
2. General Representative

David Quarel

I run Epic Games Night, and the study events. I tutor lots of first year courses, putting me in a situation well suited to handle study events.

Sylvester Shan

I think I could be helpful others to organising events, but not helpful to organise an event xd

Abigail Thomas

Imagine having a postgrad rep who’s actually a postgrad? I’ve had some ideas for how we could tailor study events to postgrad and later-year students, based on interest area rather than a specific course. Should be fun.

Christopher Ward

I have been on committee since March 2017. Since then, I have helped run many events (mostly in barbecue catering, to save money), improved our funding through vending machine acquisitions, and assisted with the rearrangement and cleaning of the common room at the start of the year.

Since the end of the financial year, I have migrated the accounts of the CSSA to Xero, improving accountability and budgeting. The new accounting structure allows for much clearer identification of income and expense streams, which will allow us to budget more appropriately and focus on spending money in a way that enriches the CS student experience. I have some experience in bookkeeping in Xero from running as a sole trader for a few personal business endeavours.

I was also responsible for writing the new membership tracking app, and am working on new features for the app, including a self-service membership portal and automatic newsletter management.

Preferences:

1. Treasurer
2. General Representiative

Leopold Zhou

I’d like to be the International Representative for 2020.

I am a business student who happen to be keen on computer science and love free software spirit. I happen to have interpersonal skills to deal effectively with guys from multicultural background. I have a vision to make it more accessible for international students to engage in CSSA. I have been working hard planning ways to implement that vision. I believe I have the necessary transferable skills demonstrated through working in other societies and my job. I have had a wonderful experience in CSSA and I want to help more international students to have the same.

“Talk is cheap so what about showing you the real work :-)”

Preferences:

1. International Representative
2. General Representative

Following our OGM yesterday, the CSSA committee is pleased to announce that our new constitution is now in effect. In accordance with that constitution, the CSSA would like to invite any nominations for the 2020 CSSA committee.

The following positions are open for nominations:

• President
• Vice-President
• Treasurer
• Secretary
• Industry Representative
• Postgraduate Representative
• Diversity Representative
• International Representative
• General Representatives (3)

Note that to nominate for any position other than General Representative, you must be a current ANU student.

To apply for one or more positions, please fill out the nomination form.

Your candidate statement will be published to all members prior to the Annual General Meeting (to be held on the 23rd 21st of August - time and location TBC). Elections for contested positions will be held at the AGM.

All nominations are welcome - if you’re keen to get involved, even if you’ve not had much involvement with the CSSA committee in the past, why not give something new a go?

2019’s first Ordinary General Meeting was held today, primarily to consider the CSSA’s proposed new constitution. The constitution was adopted as proposed except for one amendment allowing non-students to run for the position of General Representative. The constitution is available on the resources page.

Additionally, a motion was passed to make long-time supporter Tyrus Caldeira a life member of the CSSA. Tyrus has worked tirelessly for years assisting the CSSA with all manner of projects, and has been especially involved with organising Epic Games Nights for some time. The committee would like to congratulate Tyrus on this achievement.

Thanks again to everyone that turned up to the meeting to ask questions or raise concerns - like any democracy, the CSSA works better the more voices are heard.

Minutes from the meeting will be made available shortly on the resources page and on Facebook.

The CSSA has for some time been considering its constitution. The current constitution has been amended over time, but ultimately dates back to 2011 and the re-affiliation of the society. It has served us well, however there are some sections that are unworkable or have unfortunate consequences, and many of us in the committee feel that the time has come for a fresh start.

The proposed new constitution has been in the works for a while, and it is finally ready for public consideration.

With that said, the CSSA committee hereby gives notice of an

Ordinary General Meeting

to be held at 6:30pm on the 22nd of July in Room N102 (Computer Science & Information Technology building) to consider the following agenda:

1. Opening and Acknowledgement

2. Motions with Notice

Motion 2.1. That the constitution of the CSSA be replaced with the following: pdf

Nice and simple!

Food will be provided, and our usual Monday Games Night will be starting immediately after the conclusion of the general meeting.

If you have any questions or suggestions relating to the new constitution, please don’t hesitate to contact felix.friedlander@anu.edu.au.

For some idea of what needed improving, have a read of the old constitution (or ask anyone who has tried to run a CSSA election without violating it!)

Hope to see you there!

Congratulations to the following people for being elected to:

President

David Quarel

Vice-President

Robert Jeffrey

Treasurer

Faizan Siddiqui

Secretary

Jon Connor

International Representative

Danny Feng

Postgraduate Representative

Peter Quarel

Women’s Representative

Katrina Hu

General Representatives

Woojin Ra

Joshua Corner

Kunal Sareen

Chris Ward

Zak Brighton-Knight

Tommy Liu

Minutes from the AGM will be available in the near future. Thanks to everyone who turned up to the AGM, as well as all of our candidates.