This blog post will go over two of the libraries on campus. As a general rule they all have some sort of seating/tables if you just want to study. Seating like this is common throughout the campus but especially in the libraries.

There are two major library on north campus, Capen(also called Silvermen) and Lockwood.

Capen is the only library open 24/7 and is composed of three major levels. It’s more of a study area then a library and while you can go their to get books most it is dedicated to seating and tables. It contains a printing center on the first floor and 3 scanners on the second. On the third floor is has a small cafe called Whisper’s Cafe that sells coffee, premade sandwiches and small treats (also keep in mind that they don’t sell pizza or soup or any traditional warm meals, it’s a cafe after all). In addition, Capen has designated silent section on the third floor if you need it and both the 2nd and 3rd floor have entire sections that contain computers running windows. Finally Capen allows you to reserve certain spaces. The capen library has 16 private study rooms that can be reserved here: https://booking.lib.buffalo.edu/reserve/silverman. There very useful when working in a group but they are in demand. The competition for them shifts alot based on time and day but in general they are heavily used during midterms and finals so make sure to plan ahead. Capen also has to video recording studios that contain a mic, camera, projector, lights and are sound insulated. And 4 editing stations which have most the better known editing softwares installed on them. Capen also allow you to rent media equipment here: https://booking.lib.buffalo.edu/equipment.

Lockwood Library is an actual library, as in there are books everywhere on everything. It’s NOT open 24/7.  It has two parts, the main library and the cybery next door. The cybery is mostly study space and contains a printing center, the UBIT help center and computers. The main library is made of five or six levels, it has a scanner near the entrance, and like Capen, it has reservable private rooms (https://booking.lib.buffalo.edu/spaces?lid=3087). Additionally, it has librarians that specialize in particular subjects. They are available to meet by reservation and can be useful when your making papers on a particular subject and want a good starting point. There is a list of them here https://library.buffalo.edu/askalibrarian/inperson/bysubject.html.

Those are the 2 big ones, additionally there is the Health Sciences library in south campus and the law library on north campus.

This year I had the honor of receiving scholarships to attend two of the biggest women in engineering and women in technology conferences. Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing is the biggest conference for women in technology. Here women from all over the world from various backgrounds gather to support and celebrate each other. GHC is a truly empowering experience. The celebration spans 3 days and its main attractions are the keynote speakers and a huge career fair. The conference hosts a variety of panels and workshops on topics like leadership, management, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud computing, etc. It also provides funding and recognition to women-led startups that are aimed at making a difference in this world.  This year’s conference was held at Houston, Texas between 26th September to 28th September 2018.

There is a number of scholarships and travel grants available that either completely covers or aid in covering the conference expenses. I was awarded the Anitab.org GHC scholarship which covered all of my conference expenses. The application for this Scholarship opens around February-March. It requires you to fill out an application, answer a few questions about your experiences as a woman in technology, submit your resume and a letter of recommendation.

The Society of Women Engineers’ WE 18 conference is one of the largest conferences for Women in Engineering. This year’s conference will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota between 18th October to 20th October 2018. WE 18 is an excellent opportunity to meet the diverse women in engineering and learn from their experiences. It is attended by students, faculty, professionals and offers a number of workshops and seminars about the latest developments in the various engineering disciplines. This conference provides a much wider spectrum of exposure. It is an excellent opportunity if working across disciplines excites you! WE18 also boasts of a humongous career fair and excellent keynote speakers.

I was awarded the Google Travel and Conference Grant to attend WE 18. This Grant covers my traveling and housing expenses. The applications for this Grant open around June-July and they generally get back to you around a month before the conference.

Both of these conferences are hubs of tremendous opportunities to learn, grow and explore new career trajectories. The best part is the opportunity to connect with revolutionary women and get inspired by their stories. These success stories encourage us all to be proud WOMEN IN STEM!

This post was written by Lawreen Latif, a senior in Computer Science and the current director of UB Hacking.

UB Hacking is our annual student-run hackathon hosted at the University at Buffalo. From a pool of 1000+ applicants from across US & Canada, from over 20 universities, we select ~500 students to participate in a 24-hour hackathon where they get to showcase their creativity, teamwork and problem-solving skills through their software and hardware projects.

We work hard to provide a fun-filled, beginner-friendly learning environment and a multitude of resources for students to grow their technical skills by applying them to a project of their choice. Furthermore, working in a team-based environment gives them the opportunity to learn essential skills for the industry.

Our top two submissions last year were “TreatStrabismus” where 2 students created a VR game to treat Strabismus and “#cute_coffee_boi” where 3 students upgraded an ordinary coffee maker adding twitter functionality, web based activation and deactivation etc. My personal favorite was the “Mario Sketchbook” where users could create their own hand-drawn world for Mario to play in. (Check these and more project at Devpost!)  

Although these sound incredible, Hackathon projects can and often are encouraged to be much more simpler. You will be working for less than 24 hours and not many people can come up with a fully functional, bug free program.

The week before the Hackathon, we work with several on-campus organizations like ACM and Scientista to organize beginner-friendly workshops. We also have a hands-on workshop during the hackathon so students can come out with something to show. I would highly encourage students to attend these. We also lead a Project Ideation workshop both before and during the hackathon. If you don’t have an idea or a team, this would be a great place to start.

During the hackathon, don’t feel rushed to start working on your project. Spend the first 2 – 3 hours discussing what you want to build and what technologies you want to use. Try to find a project you’re really excited about. Write it down and break it into smaller tasks. Remember, it is very hard to stay motivated and work on a project if it is too difficult or too big, even if it checks all the “buzz” words.

Next, spend at least an hour before the submission deadline preparing your pitch. This is essential but often overlooked. You likely worked all night on your project so you want to present it to the judges in the best way possible. If you are in a team, maybe assign 1 – 2 members to work on the pitch. Get creative here! If you didn’t get to complete your project, show what you worked on and the potential you see in your project once completed.

Finally, a hackathon is essentially 24-hours you put aside to work on all the cool technology aside from classes. You could just pull up a tutorial for a project and follow that to completion. Maybe build a simple to-do list or a Javascript game, or maybe a small android game. Whatever you might have been thinking of but didn’t get to due to classes. We also have several sponsors and representatives attend UB Hacking. Take some time to talk to them during their workshops for the fireside chats!

One last note, due to the space and budget limitations, we often don’t get to accept as many student as we would hope to. If you weren’t accepted, you can still get involved by volunteering or mentoring. It’s a lot of fun and you definitely get to meet a lot of amazing students who are active in the department this way (+ free food and swag!).

We look forward to seeing you at UB Hacking!

If you’re going into CSE you will need a computer(it’s in the name after all). If you don’t have one, here are the minimum requirements.

Some programs require a lot of computing resources; however coding in itself doesn’t have to. For instance, while not recommended, you could code using a simple text editor like notepad.Options also exist for running programs that a budget computer might not be able to. If there is a program you need to make or test that requires a lot of resources, then you can opt to have it run in one of the UB’s servers(which you can access from your personal computer remotely).

For a personal computer, UB recommends some computer specifications, that while not set in stone, should keep you ok.

• Hard Drive: 500 GB HD space – this is where you will store your files.
• Memory: 4GB – RAM, short-term memory for application use.
• Processor: Any CPU single core at 2.0GHz – often considered the “brain” of the computer, does the complicated number crunching.

Keep in mind, these are the absolute minimum requirements, you will more than likely get better specs.  A cheap laptop that fits these requirements will run you down at least $300. Again, these are the absolute minimum requirements in accordance to UB, and will most likely serve as a work computer.

More options exist for a more a powerful computer(so you can play video games). Just keep in mind that more powerful laptops are going to be bigger/heavier and more expensive. If you plan to have only one computer to play and do work, then it might be a good investment. Keep in mind, however that most coding assignments will not need that much computing power. It’s up to you if it’s worth the weight of the laptop, and if you favor having a portable gaming device.I would recommend buying a small laptop for your schoolwork/coding assignments and an desktop PC for gaming at home. This gives you the best of both worlds without the disadvantages.

All Teachers Assistants(TAs) and professors have office hours, however the chemistry and math department take it one step further and have designated rooms that are staffed with TAs most of the day.

The Math department has the math center located on the mathematics building (very easy to remember) in room(s) 107/110. It’s staffed continuously from 9am to 4pm Monday through Friday and it can help with most undergraduate math classes. However note that it starts 2 weeks after the start of each semester. Link: https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/math/ug/math-help.html.

Chemistry 101, 102, and 105 through 108 are all considered ‘general chemistry’(there the introductory courses, you need to take 107 if you are a computer engineer). They have a help center in the natural sciences complex. This center replaces TA office hours for those courses and is generally open from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday(and sometimes for a couple hours on the weekend) depending on how the TAs decide to setup the schedule that semester. It starts a week or two after the start of the semester and ends the week before finals week.

In general having a TA explain a concept to you is a far faster and accurate way of learning it then researching it online so take advantage of these centers when you can.

If your wondering, there are a couple of things you can do before the start of your freshman year as a CSE major. Here are some simple tips to get you started:

1. Learn the basics of a programming language. Any language would work but I would recommend Python or Java. Focus on just getting used to the syntax and how to make simple programs, or even just try printing some things out in the terminal and see what happens! Learning computer science fundamentals, such as loops, conditionals, variables, and much more can really aid you with the learning curve when you have to take the course during the semester. For CSE115, you’ll want to focus specifically on Python and JavaScript.
2. Contact your roommates and introduce yourself. Figure out who is bringing basic living essentials, such as a fridge (if you want one) and other logistics that might be a concern (such as allergies).
3. Make a draft of your resume. You’re going to be fairly busy during the semester, so it’s worth it to at least have a first draft before the semester starts to give you more time.
4. Contact professors if your interested in doing research (if you feel you are ready). It’s never too early to reach out to a faculty member and get started on a project that you are curious about!
5. For those who are commuting to UB, don’t forget to get your parking pass! If you want to avoid the hassle of parking, invest in a Fronczak parking pass as it allows you access to the visitor’s parking year round!
6. Get to know your schedule. Scout the areas that you have your classes in so that you won’t be late for your class!
7. Be prepared! Make sure to pack some essentials with you on your first day of school. Pro tip: Textbooks in particular are fairly expensive, and some classes do not require textbooks! If you need a textbook, try searching for a PDF online or try renting it off Amazon.

Note that these are not required to do before you get to college but they can make your life a little easier.

Internships are extremely helpful in learning new skill, however compared to other extracurriculars, they’re more difficult to get. There are a couple reasons for this: First, unlike with clubs or research, there are few (if any) that will contact for internships directly from the university. Second, generally since interns don’t effect the bottom line of a company, they don’t pay you. However engineering internships will generally always pay you because for you to learn anything you have to be doing things that will affect the company’s bottom line. The first step to getting an internship is to get an interview. Here is a list (in increasing order of success) of how get an interview:

Use the internet: You can go to a company’s website and submit your resume and contact information. I has the least probability of success because it’s the easiest but must disconnected method, all they know is your name and your resume.

Use Bullseye/Linkedin: Bullseye is a service provided by the university that connects students with potential employers, you have to provide your resume and contact information but the employers there has a history of of recruiting from university at buffalo so it increases your chances. Linkedin is like a ‘professional facebook’ and it needs the same things but it supplies a couple extra tools the make it easier to identify potential employers. The general strategy is to use these tools that linkedin has to find a company you like/is looking for interns. Find someone in that company that you have something in common with (like going to the same university) and tell them your interested in applying as a intern but wanted to know more about the company and what they do. Then set a meeting and ask about their job and how to apply. If you use this strategy the company will have your contact info, your resume and can put a face to that, increasing your chances.

Go to the job fair: The university host two job fairs each year. One is in the fall is more STEM(science, technology, engineering and math) oriented. The other is in spring and focuses more on the other fields of study. You should come in a suit and a folder to store resumes. The general strategy is the following: first make a list of the companies your interesting in. Next go to there booth and introduce yourself, ask questions, talk a little and give them your resume and get there contact information, do this to everyone your list. Just a warning these conversations can last up to 5-10 minutes per person so if there is a line of 5 people it can be a while so make sure to go to the companies that you are most interested in or are the most well known first. Lastly you need to follow up on them and either submit your resume electronically or follow whatever instructions they gave you at the job fair. I should emphasize it’s your responsibility to follow up, they will almost never call you after the job fair to offer you an internship/interview even if they like you. The point of the job fair is not to give you a job but to give you a point of contact with the company.

Through a friend/family member: Simply put ask someone you know if there company is looking for interns, if so ask them how apply. This is by far the most effective tactic because then your friend is in a position to recommend you which increases your chances exponentially. Most people I know what have gotten internships do it through this method and the reason is simple. When a company is looking for someone to hire they want to know as much about you as possible, they are in essence taking a risk on if you will be an asset to the company or not if someone who knows you on a personal level can vouch for you then they will feel better about taking that risk.

In a nutshell, if you want an internship you need contacts and these are some ways of getting some.

Professors and Teacher Assistants(TAs) both have office hours, Generally you should go to the TA’s first, then the Professors. You should use office hours for the following reasons:
1. It will make you do your homework faster.
2. If you don’t understand a concept, they can explain it faster and better than google can(saving you time).
3. They have an idea of what the exams are like and can tell you where to focus your energy.
4. In some cases, they can give you previous exams/extra worksheets (This can be helpful if the professor give little homework and you want more material to study with).
5. They don’t get that many people during office hours and so there is a good chance you will get a free one on one tutoring session. Although this is dependent on the class and an how close you are to an exam or project deadline(days before exams can have lines out door if your unlucky).
6. You can make more connections with the people in your class as well as upperclassmen.
7. Seeking out help with the resources provided for you will allow you to practice being resourceful, which is an essential skill in the “real world”
In general, they will not tell you how to do your work so instead identify what you don’t understand and ask them about that, then apply that to the problem your having. Like jeopardy answer in the form of a question.

Having a resume is pretty important and you will need to submit one for an internship or a research opportunity. It’s a headache to make, but after you do it for the first time, all you need to do is update it now and then. Whether you are an incoming first-year student or a graduating senior, you can always polish up a resume for a potential employer!

Generally, if someone reads your resume, they should be able to figure out if you could do the job. If so, they will ask for an interview during which you will prove that you are a worthy candidate. CSE majors resumes are slightly different from from most majors in that the skills part of your resume will have far more content then the average resume(due to different coding languages and programs you will put in there). So don’t be afraid to list down the technical projects you have been working on, the work experiences you’ve had, and your involvements in extracurricular activities. Here’s the basic list of things your resume should have:

• Name, basic contact information
  • Like your email and cell phone number
• Your address.
  • It’s best to use this if your internship is near your home (Optional)
• School name, major, and graduating year
• Technical projects you’ve worked on
  • You should include personal ones as well. Employers love to see enthusiasm outside of the classroom!
• Research, internship, or TA positions
• Involvement in extracurricular activities
• GPA, especially useful if your GPA is above a 3.0 (Optional)
• Notable coursework (Optional)
• Skills (Optional)
• Interests (Optional)

The more relevant your resume is to the position you are applying to, the better. If you don’t really have any technical experience just yet, don’t worry! Just put what you have for now, and over the next four years, your resume will grow and you can replace your not-so-relevant experiences with your relevant ones.

Even if you placed everything above on your resume, it would probably be better to go to Career Services: http://www.buffalo.edu/career/resumes.html. I would also recommend you make an appointment with them when you have a draft of your resume ready. They are located in Capen Hall 259. They can really help you iron out the kinks in your resume and tell you where to look for internship/jobs. They are paid through your tuition so you might as well use them).

Another option is to attend a UBACM or a UBScientista resume workshop. The clubs usually have resume building workshops at least once a semester, so attend general student meetings and keep an eye out for an email from them for a date for their resume workshops.