Welcome Week 2024

- Date Posted: Sep 22, 2024

Welcome CSS members, to a new year of UoB!

To start off another year full of fantastic CSS events, we’re running 2 weeks full of freshers activities to get involved with, with lots to do, even if you aren’t a first year!

Aside from mixers, everyone’s free to attend any timetabled event below!

Here are some big ones open to everyone coming up soon:

Board games night — Monday 23rd September 6pm-11pm — CS Building

Come to the CS atrium for a night of board games and pizza! Get to know other people in CSS while you learn how to play something new! We’ll also have a quiet room setup in room 222 if you’d like to take some time to relax in a quieter environment. Make sure to bring your student ID if you’d like to get alcohol at the event, and no need to bring your own, that’s our job!

We will have board games ready on the night, but you’re welcome to bring your own too! If you’re planning on bringing your own games, let us know what you’re bringing here: https://cssbham.com/bgn

If you’re interested in what others plan to bring, you can check that out here: https://cssbham.com/board-games

Regarding pizza, if you have any dietary requirements you want us to account for, please fill out the form here: https://cssbham.com/bgn-dietary-form - we’ll always have vegan, vegetarian and meat options available!

CSS Scavenger Hunt — Tuesday 24th September 10am-4pm — UoB Campus

Learn the lay of the campus with CSS’ scavenger hunt, find study areas and food outlets around the uni. Find us at our stall from 10am — 4pm once you’ve completed it in the CS building for an exclusive Old Joe Tex sticker! Join up with up to 5 other people and have fun exploring!

Sign up here: https://cssbham.com/scavenger-hunt

CSS goes to Ming Moon — Friday 27th September 1pm-3pm — Ming Moon, 16 Hurst St, Birmingham B5 4BN

Come along with CSS on our annual trip to Ming Moon! Located in Birmingham city centre, Ming Moon offers a pan-Asian buffet, and it’s the perfect place to socialise, meet new people, and enjoy a diverse food selection.

Regarding travel, Trainline is a useful way to quickly find and buy train tickets, and CSS will be doing a walking train from the CS building, as well as meeting at the venue. Join our discord server (invite link at bottom of the newsletter) to get information on the walking train nearing the event.

The price of the buffet is £16.99, and £3.40 for a return train ticket from the University train station, available here

CS Societies Night — Monday 30th September 7pm-8pm — Lecture Theatre 1, Teaching and Learning Building

Interested in cybersecurity? Game development? VR? If you’re interested in other tech-related societies in the uni, come along to CS Societies night to learn about 6 other CS and STEM societies, pizza included!

Societies attending:

• AFNOM - The ethical hacking society
• GDS - Game Development Society
• oSTEM - Out in STEM
• VGS - Video Games Society
• VR - Virtual Reality
• AlgoSoc - Algorithmic Programming Society
• CSS - Computer Science Society (that’s us!)

You can find their discord servers in the UoB discord hub here: https://discord.gg/9CH8VtfWQr

The rest of the building will be quiet, so feel free to leave at any time to decompress or cool down.

Mixers

CSS is running a few mixers where you can get to know other people in the same year as you, whether that be first years, final years, or postgraduates.

Below are the dates, times and locations:

• Final Year Mixer — Thursday 27th September 4-6pm — CS Atrium, CS Building
• Postgraduate Mixer — Tuesday 1st October 1-3pm — Joe’s Bar, UoB Guild
• First Year Mixer — Wednesday 2nd Wednesday 1-2pm — Joe’s Bar, UoB Guild

For the final year mixer, pizza and soft drinks will be provided, for the postgraduate and first year mixer, Joe’s Bar has a variety of food and drink available.

Pub Night — Friday 4th October 7pm-12am — The Soak, 563-569 Bristol Rd, Selly Oak, Birmingham B29 6AF

Join CSS at The Soak for a night of drinks, socialisation, and fresh mixed grill. We’ll be rounding off the end of freshers activities at one of the best pub and grill houses in Selly Oak!

Make sure to bring a form of Photo ID (Not student ID!) if you’d like to buy alcoholic drinks, which will be checked at the door.

As well as the above, AFNOM, oSTEM, and VR will be running their own events as seen on the timetable, join their discord servers from the hub at https://discord.gg/9CH8VtfWQr to learn more!

If you know anyone who’d like to join, send them our way at https://cssbham.com/join so they can sign up!

If you have any questions, or just want to say hi, we’ll be at our stand in the CS Atrium on the 24th and the 25th of September, as well as being available on our discord server at https://cssbham.com/discord. Hope to see you around!

Rohit J
Special Events Officer
CSS Committee