Reflections | Projections Through The Years
1995: The Birth of Reflections | Projections
What’s new? THE BIRTH OF REFLECTIONS | PROJECTIONS
KeyNote: Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Computer Inc. as the Keynote Speaker
Highlights: Theme of the conference was “Reflections | Projections”, had our first ever employment expo & programming contest!
The 1995 Midwestern ACM Chapter Conference was definitely one for the books! From what we know, the event pretty much had it all. From an employment expo, all the way to a dinner banquet, the 1995 ACM R|P conference was an all-encompassing event. And to top it off, we had Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Computer Inc., as the Keynote Speaker! The idea behind Reflections | Projections was to bring in impactful people in the industry to share their ideas and passions with us on what it means to be a part of the ever-changing, revolutionary, CS industry.
1996:
What’s new?: AI programming competition; Mech-Mania 2!
Keynote speakers: Tim Krauskopf (Founder of Spyglass Inc.), Erich Ringewald (maker of the BeBox.), & Alex Osadzinski (VP of Marketing at Be Inc.)
With the same annual theme as last year — “Reflections | Projections”, the 2nd ACM conference held a campus-wide employment fair and an AI programming competition, Mech-Mania 2! MechMania invited passionate students from across the midwest to code armies of mechanized warriors to take over the galaxy! Along with all this, since conferences aren’t just all work and no play, social events were scheduled all throughout the weekend.
1997:
What’s new?: Sounds & Visions, Barbeque, more sponsors!
KeyNote: Steve Dorner, Qualcomm
Highlights: Mech-Mania 3, Special IEEE guest speaker, Conference party!
The third annual ACM chapter conference came back strong, with more color, more vigour, and a plethora of things to do for anyone interested in computers or technology! Once again, with sponsors such as Abbott Labs, ComEd, Silicon Graphics, Boeing, IBM, John Deere, and so on, ACM R|P shows how the field of science and technology reaches far beyond the scope of a single computer. Technology is about impact, and through speakers such as Joe Gross from CCSO Unix Systems, and Jay Kreibich from Paradigm Entertainment, the conference did just that — it showed how diverse the field of computer science can possibly be!
1998:
What’s new: Panel discussion on Women in computing!
KeyNote Speaker: Bjarne Stroustrup, the designer & original implementer of C++ and the author of “The C++ Programming Language”.
Highlights: Arts & Music in CS, RoundTable on free software, computers in genetics & women in tech!
The 1998 ACM chapter conference was back with a fresh look but an unchanged philosophy of what it means to be a part of cutting edge computer technology! Apart from all the inspiring speakers, the Panel Discussion on Women in Computing was another highlight of the event! From our very own Susan Linnemeyer (Asst. Dean & Director, Women in Engineering) to Kathy Cupect (Software Developer at Geneer), we had inspiring women lead a discussion on what it means to be a woman in the tech industry. They hit vital topics such as why women don’t take up careers in CS & how the media portrays CS. It was a powerful dialogue that empowered the female engineers of the future!
2001:
What’s new: Tetris Game design & philosophy, computer security panel, hacker ethics.
KeyNote Speaker: Dr. Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. Software Engineer at IBM
Conference Highlights: Computer Security Panel, computer viruses, and forensic computing!
2001 was a big year for R|P. The conference grew to a grow in size and scope, eventually taking on the title of the National Student ACM Conference. With 350 students from 12 universities and supported by 45 corporate sponsors, ACM R|P had approximately 14 individual lectures, panel discussions, and workshops that will address the past, present, and future of computing!
2003:
What’s new: Computing Job Fair, Picking locks with cryptography, puzzle-hack!
Keynote Speaker(s): Barbara Simons, the ACM national lecturer!
Conference Highlights: Immersive computing, Internet voting, Panel on working security in a working environment!
2003 was the year of cryptography, security and multimedia! A puzzle hack final party, and an exhilarating talk on “Picking Locks with Cryptology” by Matt Blaze, were only two of the many attractions at R|P 2003. Along with all this, Barbara Simons, the ACM national lecturer, gave a talk on Computerized and Internet voting! The ninth annual conference also had a creative portion, where undergraduates were invited to submit research projects or ideas to present in the form of a poster. The projects were along the lines of open-source development, independent study, & semester group projects.
2006:
What’s new: Sentiment in Human authored texts, entrepreneurship, impacting society with CS!
KeyNote Speaker: Max Levchin, co-founder and former CTO of Paypal
Jawed Karim, Jeffrey Altman, Burnie Burns, and Max Levchin are only a handful of the inspiring people that make R|P 2006 a huge success. With Max Levchin, the cofounder of Paypal, sharing his wisdom on being an entrepreneur while in college; Jawed Karim, the co-founder of YouTube, taking us through his journey on YouTube as a concept to the hypergrowth that it has seen today; and many more inspiring stories, R|P 2006 was a treasure trove of inspiration, innovation and genius.
2007:
Back with a different, more vibrant color scheme, the R|P 2007 logo isn’t the only new thing about the conference. The 13th annual computing conference on October 12–14, brought together some of the great minds of today and yesterday. With 19 speakers from across the country, from industry and academia, two programming competitions from Yahoo! and in-house developers (MechMania), and a job fair, the conference ended with flying colors.
2013:
Conference Highlights: Semiconductors, mobile application development & computer science theory!
The 19th annual conference was expected to have over 900 student attendees and over 30 corporate sponsors. From a NodeJS workshop to a talk on “What Happened to the Human Brain” by our very own John Hummel, R|P 2013 was diverse and engaging to audiences of all kinds. We had Joe Lonsdale (the founder of Palantir and Addepar), Robin Walker (the Co-Developer of Team Fortress), and several other experts in their field to talk to our student community!
2015:
What’s new: Fresh logo, Startup fair, startup panel, Microsoft, GoDaddy, Palantir Talks!
Speaker Highlights: Anna Patterson, VP of Engineering, AI at Google, Cassidy Williams, Software Engineer at Clarifai, Jason Tan, Co-Founder and CEO of Sift Science!
2015 was the year of innovation, entrepreneurship, and brilliance. With the startup fair offering hands-on experience and the ability to make an impact, students challenged themselves and learned faster than ever before. We had Alan Braverman (the co-founder of several startups including Xoom, Geni, Yammer, & The Giant Pixel Corporation), Greg Baugues (developer evangelist at Twilio,) Jerry Talton (CEO of Apropose), Winnie Cheng (Chief Data Scientist at Bankrateand), and many more inspirational speakers from all walks of life.
2017 & beyond:
What’s new?: NEW LOGO, added a startup fair, & extended conference to a week long event!
KeyNote Speakers: Brian J. Fox (creator of GNU Bash shell) & Chris Gladwin (founder of Cleversafe & co-founder and CEO of Ocient)
2017 was the year of a logo change and an extension of the conference into a week long event! It consisted not only of a career fair but a start-up fair as well! We had Brian J. Fox, the author of GNU Bash Shell as one of our keynote speakers!
R|P has always been a source of innovation & drive for the CS community here at Illinois, and it will continue to do so for years to come! Shivali Patel, director of R|P 2017, says “R|P to me, is a hub of quality career fairs, a unique startup fair, and an overabundance of R|P t-shirts!” So don’t forget to register for a one-of-a-kind tech conference and experience technology like never before!
