Welcome to UCLA CS — 2020
Written in collaboration with ACM, SWE, and UPE. See more resources at https://linktr.ee/CS_Resources_at_UCLA.
This year has truly been unlike any other — filled with pandemic, social injustice, and so much more. Despite everything, a new school year has rolled around again, bringing a promise of regularity in a time of chaos.
Welcome class of 2024. Though your circumstances are unique, know that you’re all trailblazers in this new unfamiliar world. Remember, you’re not alone. UCLA’s tech community is here to welcome you with open arms — whether you’re someone with zero experience or a well experienced developer.
This post will give you a brief overview of all the CS related clubs and resources.
Academic
These clubs provide tutoring and review sessions that will help you succeed in the classroom.
HKN is the EE honors society. They provide tutoring for lower div CS classes.
Tutoring Schedule: http://hkn.ee.ucla.edu/
TBP is the Engineering honors society. They provide tutoring for engineering classes like Physics and Math.
Tutoring Schedule: https://tbp.seas.ucla.edu/schedule/
Upsilon Pi Epsilon is the first and only existing international honor society in the Computing and Information Disciplines. The mission of UPE is to recognize academic excellence at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the Computing and Information Disciplines. UPE at UCLA provides daily weekday tutoring, CS course review sessions, mentorship workshops, tech talks and more! Anyone is welcome to attend!
Beginner friendly?
Yes! Anyone is welcome to attend our tutoring sessions, workshops, tech talks, etc! No experience necessary!
Education
These organizations are focused on sharing the knowledge of CS and tech to various communities within or beyond UCLA! If you like community service and teaching, these are the organizations for you!
ACM Teach LA is a K-12 outreach club dedicated to providing equitable access to CS education in the LA Area! We teach classes, run events, and write code so that everybody gets to enjoy CS. And importantly, we want to help you grow: as a student, a teacher, a programmer, a leader, and as a person!
Skills you will use/learn:
Through teaching and curriculum development, you’ll practice your teaching and public speaking skills, learn more about all the different areas of computer science, and be a role model for kids all over LA!
There are also opportunities to practice software development as part of our dev team: you’ll become a pro web developer, using the basic building blocks of the web (HTML, CSS, JS) and a variety of libraries (React, Redux, Firebase, d3, etc.) to make some awesome websites!
Beginner friendly?
We love beginners, newcomers, and people from diverse backgrounds. We don’t care what major you are, if you know how to code, or if you’ve worked with kids before; we can teach you everything you’ll need to know for your first day! Our breadth gives you opportunities to learn all sorts of skills, from CS fundamentals to hands-on project experience, or soft skills like public speaking and leadership. And, we especially value diversity as it brings so much to the classroom, both in how we think about teaching and as role models for kids. Long story short, you’re pretty cool, and we probably want you!
How to reach out:
Our website has all the information you need to know about our club: https://teachla.uclaacm.com
exploretech.la is a student organization that hosts an annual event aimed at encouraging & inspiring local high school students to pursue possibilities in computer science, engineering, and technology. Through a day filled with exciting workshops, engaging panels, and a variety of student and industry booths, we hope to empower students with the ability to explore the diverse fields of STEM.
Beginner friendly?
Any UCLA student can join exploretech.la. All majors are welcome, and no prior engineering experience is required!
How to reach out:
Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram @exploretech.la, and sign up for our mailing list to receive information about our info session and applications. You can also come meet us at our info session on Wednesday, October 7th @ 7:30–8:30 PM PDT on Zoom!
Diversity
These organizations are focused on increasing diversity and inclusivity in CS. They’re here to prove that CS and tech are really for everyone!
ACM-W supports, celebrates, and advocates for the full engagement of all who are interested in computer science. We endeavor to increase all aspects of diversity in the technical field by providing a range of programs and services to UCLA students, including mentorship, professional development, and networking opportunities!
Skills you will use/learn:
Networking, Industry-focused skills (e.g. version control, negotiation, etc.)
Beginner friendly?
Yes! The majority of our member-base is new students/those new to CS. Our mentorship program is tailored to help demystify the field for newcomers, and assist in planning for a future in industry/grad school!
How to reach out:
Join ACM’s mailing list: https://www.uclaacm.com/, and ACM-W’s Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/uclaacmw
Competition
Competition based organizations are all about building and solving fast. Want to test your skills? We recommend these organizations!
ICPC is an academic sport where teams of three students work together to solve the most algorithmic problems in the shortest amount of time. As a club we teach algorithms, hold training sessions, and prepare for the regional ICPC competition in the middle of Fall Quarter. In the Winter and Spring, we hold an algorithms bootcamp and organize a local programming competition for UCLA undergrads.
Skills you will use/learn:
algorithms, data structures, problem solving, writing code quickly, technical interview skills
Beginner friendly?
A good working knowledge (loops, conditionals, functions, arrays etc.) of your favorite programming language is required. No algorithm experience is necessary though.
How to reach out:
Join the ACM Discord! https://bit.ly/ACMdiscord
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ucla.icpc/
Unmanned Aerial Systems at UCLA
UAS@UCLA designs and builds autonomous drones. Those include fixed-wing and multi-rotor drones used for competitions such as a mock search-and-rescue mission, or high endurance challenge, or more advanced topics and research areas.
Skills you will use/learn:
Controls theory, Simulation, RF engineering, machine vision recognition. Primary languages used are C, C++, and Python
Beginner friendly?
We are beginner-friendly! We require no previous experience or application, and allow members to join one of four subteams (airframe, ground, vision/AI, controls) where they will be given mentorship and tasks set to their skill level/ experience.
How to reach out:
We have a form on our website, or reaching out to our email, unmannedsystems.ucla@gmail.com are the fastest ways to join the organization
Electrical Engineering/ Hardware
Tired of coding and computer screens or has hardware ever interested you? You should definitely check out these EE clubs!
Our award winning student branch here at UCLA was founded in 1963. We have devoted our energies towards bringing hands-on, practical experiences to engineering students throughout the campus, as well as creating opportunities for students to interact with industry professionals, develop their professional skills and more. This year, we are offering four year-long projects for students of various levels of knowledge: OPS/Open Project Space, Micromouse, Aircopter, and DAV/Digital Audio Visualizer! We also host IDEA Hacks, UCLA’s largest hardware hackathon in January!
Skills you will use/learn
Skills used will vary between projects, and will range from PCA Design with EAGLE to FPGA. Come to our Fall GM and Projects Infosession to learn more about each project!
Beginner friendly?
Yes! OPS (Open Project Space) is a year-long project designed for complete beginners.
How to reach out:
Message our facebook page @ IEEE at UCLA!
We are a technical advocacy group for women and minorities in Electrical Engineering, operating as a branch of IEEE’s WIE (Women In Engineering). We empower both students at UCLA and younger girls in our community.
Skills you will use/learn
basic circuits, career tips, managing a healthy school life balance
Beginner friendly?
Yes, every workshop is beginner friendly and members will have the freedom for creativity.
Specialized Orgs
These organizations all focus on a particular topic in tech that aren’t mentioned above. They offer things such as projects, workshops, and much more! There’s something for everyone!
ACM AI aims to nurture curiosity and enthusiasm in artificial intelligence and machine learning. We host workshops and events to help you learn the latest AI technologies.
Skills you will use/learn:
AI, Machine Learning, TensorFlow
Beginner Friendly?
We have an Intro to Machine Learning: Beginner Track workshop series that just assumes basic knowledge of coding and data structures. Knowledge of Python would be a huge plus.
How to reach out:
Join the ACM Discord! https://bit.ly/ACMdiscord
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/uclaacmai
Website: https://uclaacmai.github.io/
Cybersecurity sounds hard. We get it. Our mission at ACM Cyber is to create a community in which both experts and beginners alike can grow in the field of cybersecurity skills and knowledge. We hold workshops throughout each quarter geared towards novices and hobbyists curious about the world of cybersecurity, on topics such as forensics, web hacking, cryptography, and reverse engineering. We want to make cybersecurity simple and accessible for everyone. We also hold Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions in which teams can participate collaboratively to solve cybersecurity challenges. All our events are open to anyone and everyone, even if you have no experience whatsoever.
Beginner friendly?
Yes, absolutely! All our workshops are open to anyone that wants to hop in and learn something, or just to practice some CTF challenges. Our workshops and CTFS are created with the assumption of minimal CS experience.
How to reach out:
Join our Discord Server! https://discord.gg/j9dgf2q
We design, manage, and support the entirety of ACM’s brand identity. And implement better design across ACM at UCLA’s technology, and express our club’s value through UX and branding.
Skills you will use/learn
Graphic Design, User Experience Design, Front End Engineering
Beginner friendly?
We are beginner friendly in our workshops! We will teach how to design your resume, UI/UX portfolio, mobile app, etc. But for officers, we generally recruit for designers who have a portfolio or developers with a front end project to show us, so less beginner friendly for recruiting.
How to reach out:
Email: https://www.facebook.com/groups/acmdesign
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/acmdesign
Website: http://design.uclaacm.com/
ACM Game Studio helps introduce students to video game development. We hold tutorials to teach everyone how to use the essential tools then facilitate project groups where members will build a full-fledged game
Skills you will use/learn
C #, Unity(Game Dev Platform), Collaboration, Animation, whiteboxing, post-processing
Beginner friendly?
Yes, our tutorials are split into advanced and beginners so even if you have no experience its perfectly fine!
How to reach out:
Join our discord where we will announce everything! https://discord.gg/bBk2Mcw
We are a group of coders dedicated to teaching students how to build amazing things and explore the world of tech. We teach quarterly workshops on topics such as web and mobile development, and host fun events like our annual beginner-friendly hackathon, Hack on the Hill, to give students a chance to put their creativity to the test in a friendly competition.
We are a student-run organization whose mission is to empower the community by providing the means to build amazing things and explore what is possible through code. We offer quarterly workshop series designed to teach beginners who have little to no background experience with coding. Hackschool, our fall beginner web development series, teaches the fundamentals of how to build a website complete with a front-end and back-end. In different quarters, we’ve taught either iOS or Android development in our mobile web development series, Hack Sprint. We also host an annual 12-hour beginner friendly Hackathon, Hack on the Hill, to give beginners a glimpse into what a real hackathon would feel like. Our events are for coders of all skills levels, so whether you’ve been to 10 hackathons or you just learned “Hello World,” we’re happy to have you. Stay connected with us through our website and social media links!
Skills you will use/learn
Web/mobile development (HTML, CSS, JS, React, Swift, Kotlin), software skills (git, bash, etc), Python
Beginner friendly?
Yes! We believe in community learning, both for our officers and members. Our workshops and events are entirely beginner friendly. Additionally, there is no CS skill prerequisite for becoming an officer. As long as you’re passionate, we can help you learn everything you need!
How to reach out:
email: uclaacmhack@gmail.com
Bruin Entrepreneurs is the premier entrepreneurship club on campus. Our goal is to encourage and grow entrepreneurship in our members through a variety of different outlets. We have a myriad of opportunities for students to get involved with entrepreneurship on campus, and we offer all the resources to do so. We strongly believe any person can be an entrepreneur, and we’re here to help on that journey in any way we can.
Skills you will use/learn:
Pitching and Pitch Decks, Getting Funded, Building a Business Plan, Branding, Team Building, Interacting with VC’s, How to Launch a Product, Design Thinking, Guide to Startup incubators and accelerators, A/B Testing, SEO, Lean Startup, Networking
Beginner Friendly:
Everyone is welcome, and we encourage new people to always come by.
DB Online explores the intersection between technology and society through various websites and projects. We build websites such as dailybruin.com, Bruinwalk, and The Stack.
Beginner Friendly?
Yes. We train you in everything we want you to know during your intern quarter.
Skills you will use/learn
HTML, CSS, git, web design, JavaScript/TypeScript, d3, Python, Django, RESTful APIs, GraphQL, SQL, Docker
We are a student run group of Linux advocates and users. You will learn a lot about Linux in 35L and it is heavily used in industry. Feel free to drop by our lounge at Boelter 3820 any time.
Skills you will use/learn:
Linux, computer networking, and other geeky things
Beginner Friendly?
Yes, everyone is welcome.
Nova is a team of students at UCLA who aim to create high-impact technology that empowers nonprofits to better serve their communities. At Nova, you’ll be joining a small, tight community of passionate developers, designers, and businesspeople who are eager to make an impact. Join an ongoing project or start your own! Schedule calls with nonprofits to learn about their sector and experiences! Develop your technical skills, work with real clients on real problems, and learn about the world while finding your way to give back.
Skills you will use/learn:
Web/mobile development, design, PM, data science, nonprofit industry experience
Beginner friendly?
Yes!
How to reach out:
We’re recruiting this fall! Apps due 10/7. Check our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/novaforgood) for updates.
UCLA Campus Events Commission (CEC)
CEC is a student-run group that organizes free film, speaker, and concert events for students. The biggest events of the year are Bruin Bash, the fall concert in Pauley Pavilion, and UltraBloom, the spring EDM concert in Sunset Rec. Check out the main website at uclacec.com to see some other past events!
Skills you will use/learn:
Front-end and/or back-end web development (React, Node, Mongodb, Express, Keystone, and Digitalocean), Mobile development (React Native). CEC also has a Print (design) department and Media Production department if you want to develop those skills.
Beginner Friendly?
Previous coding experience is necessary. Previous web development or mobile development experience is a huge bonus, but also apply if you want to learn! CEC is supportive. If you’re a first year CS major who is interested, but worried that you don’t have enough experience, consider applying in the spring!
Have you ever felt that all you were learning at UCLA was theory, with little opportunities to build out practical applications? DevX is a brand new program dedicated to solving that very problem! Build out real-world projects to help tackle pressing problems frustrating the UCLA community, grow your technical skills by pairing up with experienced students, and build a network that lasts beyond graduation.
Skills you will use/learn:
Project Management, Full Stack Web Development (various technologies depending on the team)
Beginner Friendly?
Yes. Lots of passion and determination are a prerequisite to apply though.
How to reach out:
Apply here: https://cutt.ly/devx-member
Deadline: Wednesday, October 7th, 2020 at 11:59 PM
UCLA Radio Web is responsible for making all things development related for UCLA Radio.
Skills you will use/learn:
HTML, CSS, Sass, JavaScript/ECMAScript, node.js, React, webpack, Swift, git, agile
Beginner Friendly?
We prefer people with some web or programming experience, but it doesn’t need to be with any of the technologies we use. We encourage anyone who is interested to apply.
Multidisciplinary Orgs
These clubs involve a wide variety of skills and technologies. If you want to dabble in different technologies and explore new things, you should check them out.
Looking for a community to explore your interests in computer science and technology? ACM at UCLA welcomes students from all backgrounds, interests, and skill levels to join us in our passion for tech! As UCLA’s largest CS student org, ACM at UCLA comprises 8 committees, each with a unique topic and mission, such as web and mobile development, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, game design, diversity in tech, and so much more! To stay up to date about our events, check out our social media and don’t be afraid to reach out!
Beginner friendly?
Yes! All of our 8 committees are very beginner friendly and some offer beginner tracks so you can come in without any knowledge in any topic!
How to reach out:
All of our social media and resources are here: https://linktr.ee/acmucla! Be sure to sign up for our weekly email newsletter to stay up to date!
Creative Labs was created to merge the designers, developers, and creatives of UCLA into one club. We host quarter-long project teams, workshops, and speaker events.
Skills you will use/learn:
UI/UX Design, JavaScript, Web Development, Photoshop, Lightroom, Sketch, Teamwork, AR/VR, Audio Making and more
Beginner Friendly?
Yes, for some projects and all workshops. A couple projects require specific skill sets that are project-dependent.
LA Hacks is one of Southern California’s biggest hackathons, bringing over 1000 students to Pauley Pavilion for 36 hours of innovation, creativity and execution. Such a large event is only possible through the efforts of a fantastic organizing team. This ranges from people working in Sponsorships, Finance, Hacker Experience, Dev and much more. This team grows to become your family for the entire year, going through ups and downs like you’ve never experienced before, all to climax into one hell of an event.
Skills you will use/learn:
Frontend: HTML, CSS, JS (React)
Backed: Golang
Services: Python, C++, essentially anything that could contribute to a meaningful service that integrates well with the core backend
Beginner Friendly:
For most of our developer focused projects we would like to see prior experience in frontend technologies (from basics to frameworks), backend web development and/or mobile/VR experience. This therefore requires an intermediate level of knowledge, but we are always open to beginners that can show that they can learn quickly and get working.
Where can I check out other organizations?
Enormous Activities Fair (EAF)
Historically, this event gives you a chance to see all of the clubs at UCLA. This year, EAF was held virtually on instagram. Check out EAF here!
