Outstanding Chapter Activity 2012-2013

Name: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana ACM Student Chapter

Address: Bogotá, Colombia

Throughout history many people have transcended time with their contributions to humanity, starting the process from an idea or a context that unites resources and thoughts that lead the human mind to generate new ways of doing things. Beyond solving particular problems, their mortality of their names has been achieved by finding a significant contribution, without exclusive purposes wanting to do things better and transforming reality for an overall benefit.

The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana ACM Student Chapter is an integration of these people. Everyone has a choice between observing how changes occur and tolerate situations that make us uncomfortable, or change our reality, be the drivers of global transformation and become creators of the future without leaving behind the values ​​that allow us to grow as human beings. The formation of our group is based on these choice, which drives us to be one of the most active and dynamic student groups of the university with new and creative activities and events of great academic and personal contribution to its participants and recognized by the community.

Our team consists of students, graduates and faculty members from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, one of the most important educational institutions of the country, recognized as the best private university in 2011 thanks to the complete and excellent education that is provided to its students, including an emphasis in the formation of ethical values, interdisciplinary, academic quality and important relevance to team work, responsibility and community service.

In this way, and taking into account the context of our environment and the capabilities of our members, we offer different kinds of experiences to the community such as academic workshops, and social, sporting, and charitable activities. Through these activities, and using the tools provided by ACM, we improve the University’s students’ learning mechanisms and strengthen the level of interest they have for their academic and professional activities.

Our Chapter stands out as an active and dynamic student group with a reputation and ideologies that demand constant monitoring and evaluation on the Board’s behalf given that based on the knowledge acquired from our activities, new experiences are proposed and created, always aligned with our Chapter’s seal and the context in which we operate. Thanks to the extraordinary ability of our team members and the University’s support, we have become a valuable group of people when it comes to planning, organizing, directing and controlling activities, to the point of having faculty members and directives ask us for help in organizing and participating in activities that require judgment, experience, responsibility and proactivity.

We will be the focus point of the University’s Systems Engineering community and the Number one Chapter in Latin America, recognized as the benchmark in terms of events, conferences, publications and projects.

Over time, we have learned and transmitted to the members of the chapter a passion for detail and preparation of the experience lived in academic, social integration, charity and support activities. Each activity must have the highest quality and deliver a trascedendental message to its participants. Furthermore, it’s prepared by people with great ability, enthusiasm and responsibility, focusing on areas of: planning, logistics, advertising and social networking.

Our activities between July 2011 and April 2012:

1.     Colombian programming contest Circuit: We organized and hosted three events for the Colombian programming contest Circuit, intended to prepare teams from the universities of our country for the National, Regional and World programming contests organized by ACM-ICPC. We had an attendance of about 100 people. http://acm.javeriana.edu.co/maratones

2.     Flash AS3 Workshop: Given the interest of students on developing websites, games and general applications using this tool, we created an introductory course on the use of this tool with simple and versatile methodology.

3.     Student Groups Fair: We participate in an event host by the University used to advertise our group to the entire University community.

4.     Programming contest Introductory Workshop for schools: We made a workshop about programming contests for high school and middle school students during 3 months, after which we invited them to train with our university’s rookie team.http://acm.javeriana.edu.co/category/maravia/noobsiam

5.     Internal programming contests: Each semester we organize two internal programming contests where any student of the university can participate. The goal is to enroll new members in the university’s programming contest team.

6.     Algorithmic Thinking programming contest: Twice a year we organize two simple contests where the problems are focused on topics covered in the first programming course.

http://acm.javeriana.edu.co/2012/04/maraton-de-pensamiento-algoritmico-5

7.     Halloween for all: Through fund-raising among the Systems Engineering students, we organized some Halloween activities for children from under privileged communities. http://acm.javeriana.edu.co/2011/11/fotos-halloween-2011/#more-1996

http://acm.javeriana.edu.co/2011/10/haz-feliz-a-un-nino-este-halloween

8.     Technology course for The Escuela María Inmaculada Foundation: Four members of the Chapter are volunteering as teachers of Technology in an elementary school.

9.     First International Seminar on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: The chapter helped with the logistics of an event that had lectures about clean energy production technologies through the nanoscale, which is positioning itself as a potential alternative to meet this challenge.

http://acm.javeriana.edu.co/gnano/eventos.htm

10.  Expojaveriana: It’s an event where high school students can learn about the different bachelor programs in the university. The Chapter helps with this activity to show that here are student groups that complement the academic formation of students and collaborate to achieve an integral education.

11.  Chapter’s third birthday: To celebrate the third year since the foundation of the Chapter, a party was held with members of the community.

http://acm.javeriana.edu.co/2011/02/el-capitulo-javeriano-acm-esta-de-cumpleanos-2/#more-1378

http://acm.javeriana.edu.co/2012/03/celebracion-cumpleanos-acm/#more-2262

12.  Political Sciences Research Project: We are collaborating on a joint effort with political science and environmental and rural studies faculty. The goal of this effort is the simulation of a multiagents system, representing fishing in different sectors of a Colombian island in order to show what would happen in the near future depending on how the people of the island practice fishing.

Students who take computer science and related courses, and typical majors of our chapter members:

Number of students in Systems Engineering: 48

Number of students in Electronic Engineering: 2

Number of students in Industrial Engineering: 3

In our faculty, there are 2727 undergraduate engineering students, and 3321 if we include master, specialization and PhD students. Among them, there are 398 students who take computer science.

 

Web page: http://acm.javeriana.edu.co/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/acmjaveriana