Social Coding’s primary mission is to encourage students to collaborate on open-source projects, enabling them to learn new technologies, acquire essential skills, and build impressive portfolios. My journey with Social Coding began in Fall 2021, marking my first exposure to open source and collaborative programming. Over the years, I have greatly valued the opportunity to connect with new individuals and develop my skills as a software developer.

Fall 2021 - Spring 2022

Upon joining in Fall 2021, I participated as a member in a project called Student Roulette. The objective of this project was to create a centralized platform where student organizations at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities could publish their events, allowing users to subscribe and receive notifications about upcoming activities. Utilizing technologies such as Express, React Native, and MySQL, I took on the role of frontend developer, gaining valuable experience in React Native and mobile application development. This role also underscored the importance of communication and collaboration within a development team.

Fall 2022 - Spring 2023

In my second year, I was elected as the Director of External Relations. During this time, I established and strengthened relationships with the university and various Computer Science student organizations on campus. My implementation of a new strategy for user recruitment and retention resulted in a doubling of membership and enhanced support for projects within the organization. Additionally, I initiated the Workshop initiative, aimed at teaching new students about technologies that could be integrated into their projects.

Missing Semester of Your CS Education

The Missing Semester of Your CS Education is an adaptation of a course developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), designed to equip students with tools essential for their careers as software engineers. This includes Git and GitHub, the Linux command line, Bash, various IDEs, and test case writing. I collaborated with Evan Voogd ↗ to create the curriculum for this course, which garnered significant interest from students across campus, and we intend to continue it in the future.

SQL & Databases

The SQL & Databases workshop, developed in collaboration with Evan Voogd ↗ , was designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of database usage. Topics covered included schema design, basic querying, relationship modeling, and designing scalable infrastructure. This workshop was among the most successful in Social Coding’s history, and we plan to offer it again in the future.

Gopher Grades V2

Another project I contributed to was Gopher Grades V2 , aimed at enhancing the previous Gopher Grades application to provide students with comprehensive grade distributions across the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. In this role, I served as the Data Lead, ensuring the quality and accuracy of the data.

Prerequisite Flowchart

Additionally, I worked on a project designed to help students visualize their academic pathways at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. As the backend and visualization lead, I successfully generated visual representations; however, the project faced challenges due to the absence of a proper data source, as the university lacked an appropriate schema and public API. Nonetheless, this experience was invaluable, significantly improving my skills in visualization, backend development, and data cleaning.

Fall 2023 - Spring 2024

In my third year, I was elected as the President of Social Coding. In this capacity, I shifted my focus from project development to enhancing organizational infrastructure. Alongside the board, we restructured project management, expanded our treasury’s scope, developed new workshops, and implemented recruitment and retention strategies that led to substantial growth in the organization.

Fall Tech Kickoff

We initiated the Fall Tech Kickoff to unite students interested in Computer Science prior to the start of the school year. This event was remarkably successful and significantly contributed to our increased participation during orientation and throughout the Fall Semester.

Social Coding Website

I developed the Social Coding website ↗ using Next.js and Chakra UI, which significantly improved our visibility on campus and facilitated outreach to more students. The website serves as a centralized hub for all information and resources.

Corporate Relations

As part of our growth strategy, we began establishing connections with companies from the Twin Cities and beyond. Our partnership with SPS Commerce marked the beginning of this initiative, and we aim to expand these relationships in the future

Web Development Workshop

In collaboration with Evan Voogd ↗ , Elena Nelson ↗ , and Joey McIndoo ↗ , we developed a workshop focusing on web development. This workshop covered essential topics such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Express, and React, along with key concepts like accessibility. It proved to be highly successful, with many project teams utilizing it as a resource to develop their own websites.

Alumni Panel

To strengthen our connections with alumni, we organized an Alumni Panel, inviting former members of Social Coding to share their experiences and career journeys. This networking event was well-received, and alumni expressed their admiration for our organizational growth. We hope to host more events like this in the future.

Fall 2023 MVP Presentations

This year’s MVP Night drew over 100 students, providing an exciting platform for teams to showcase their innovative projects and share the challenges they encountered. Participants presented a diverse array of projects, including a Computer Vision Wheelchair that demonstrated autonomous navigation using hand detection neural networks.

The event not only celebrated the creativity of our members but also facilitated valuable networking opportunities, connecting students with industry professionals and alumni who offered insights and feedback on the projects. The enthusiastic response reinforced our commitment to fostering collaboration and innovation within the organization.

Fall 2023 Final Presentations

This semester, we achieved a record number of projects and participation, making it a highly successful term for Social Coding. Our Final Project Presentation was a standout event, showcasing the hard work and creativity of our students.