- csc-general - CSC Mailman

Alt-Tab Speaker Series - Thursday Nov. 29 6-8pm @ MC5479
by Computer Science Club 22 Nov '18

22 Nov '18

Greetings fellow programs, Alt-Tab is coming up next week on Thursday Nov. 29th 6-8pm at MC 5479. We have an amazing group of members giving short talks on topics of their choice: Anna Lorimer - <redacted> - All about Slitheen (no, not the dr who alien) Will Gertler - Quantum Information- a Primer Fatema Boxwala - GANs, Generative Art and Edward Bellamy Alex Zvorygin - Designing Large Scale Systems for the Web Patrick Melanson - ᴜɴɪᴄᴏᴅᴇ Zichuan Wei - Quantum Computers: what they are and what they can do Come enjoy some cool talks and free food! -Uday Veep, CSC

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Prof. Gregor Richards gives a talk on November 12, 5:30 PM in MC 4063
by Computer Science Club 07 Nov '18

07 Nov '18

Greetings Programs, We will be having a prof talk with Professor Gregor Richards, on November 12, 5:30 PM - 7 PM, in MC 4063. He will be talking about netplay in emulators, which allows for playing video games over the internet. Prof. Richards is the maintainer of the netplay infrastructure for RetroArch, a popular emulator frontend for multiple platforms. Abstract: You've got a game, but you didn't write it. You're running it by emulating the machine it was meant to run on, and the machine it was meant to run on never had support for networking. Now, you want to play with your friend, over the Internet. Oh, and it's not acceptable to incur any latency between your controller and the game while we're at it. Surely that can't be possible, right? Wrong. This talk will discuss the re-emulation technique for netplay used commercially by a system called GGPO and freely in an emulator frontend called RetroArch, and how similar techniques can be applied to make networking work in other scenarios it was never meant for. This will be an unprepared, impromptu talk with no slides, so it should either be a fascinating dive into a little-heard-of technique, or an impenetrable mess of jargon and algorithms. Either way, it should be fun. -- Neil Parikh AVP Computer Science Club

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Richard Mann Prof. Talk - Cancelled
by Computer Science Club 05 Nov '18

05 Nov '18

Greetings fellow programs, Due to an unexpected illness, Professor Richard Mann's talk today is cancelled. Apologies for the late notice, -Uday VP, CSC

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Richard Mann - Prof Talk @ Nov 5, 5:30 PM in MC 4063 && Call for Alt-Tab Speakers!
by Computer Science Club 30 Oct '18

30 Oct '18

Greetings Programs, We will be having our first prof talk of the term with Professor Richard Mann on November 5, 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM, in MC 4063. He will be talking about the BBC micro:bit - an embedded computer that's popular with hobbyists and comes with a variety of peripherals. We are also looking for speakers for Alt-tab! Have something you want talk about? Want to rant about {X technology} to a captive audience? If yes, then email vice-president(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca with an abstract. Alt-Tab is the CSC's lightning talk event (albeit slightly longer), and talks are 10-15 minutes long. Read below for more details! (Details for both of these events follow) ========== Prof. Talk ========== Abstract: BBC micro:bit (microbit.org) was introduced in 2015 and has since become popular with educators and hobbyists. Micro:bit uses an ARM Cortex M0 processor running the "mbed" OS/runtime (mbed.arm.com) It has a built in LED 7x7 array, two buttons, compass, accelerometer, infra red transceivers, and low power wireless communication. Most importantly, it has multiple analog and digital pins to connect to the external world. Web based tools compile gui/blocks, javascript, or python to executable (HEX) files that run on the device. The device appears as a USB drive. It is programmed by copying (dragging) the HEX image to the device. Once programmed, the device runs standalone and communicates with the the host computer via a serial port API. All of this is great fun and a gateway into electronics and real time programming. In this talk I will present a brief introduction to micro:bit, electronics, and electronic signal measurement (voltmeter, function generator, oscilloscope). We will measure the run time performance of the micro:bit, in particular the operation of the analog inputs and outputs and the response time/latency of the device and consider its suitability for user interface, music and audio projects. ========================= Call for Alt-Tab Speakers ========================= CSC will be hosting Alt-Tab, a slightly longer version of lightning talks. It will be a night full of friendly talks during the week of November 26. We need speakers! Contact vice-president(a)edu.uwaterloo.ca, with your tentative talk title and a short abstract if you would like to give a talk. Slides are not required. Please aim for a 10-15 minute talk. I'll send an email with the list of talks closer to the date of the event. Please send titles and abstract by November 19th. Here are some topics that our members have presented before. The titles make them seem more technical than they actually were. - Overview of SAT solvers - Communication complexity - Register allocation in compilers as graph colouring - Web application security - PXE booting - UI and UX - Train signalling and sensing - Typed Racket - Modern GPU architecture - The comment that took Stack Exchange down and the algorithm that could have saved them - Register Allocation With Graphs -- Neil Parikh AVP Computer Science Club

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Gloves 101 - Monday Oct 29th 5:30-6:30pm at QNC 1506
by Computer Science Club 23 Oct '18

23 Oct '18

Greetings fellow programs, Do you have a pair of favorite gloves that you wish you could use with your phone? Do you not have that but have always wondered how touchscreen gloves work? Join us on Monday Oct 29th 5:30-6:30pm at QNC1506 to learn how you can make your own pair of touchscreen gloves! Fatema Boxwala will be teaching a hands-on workshop with all materials provided (but you can also totally bring your own). Come and learn a super easy introduction to wearable electronics and sewing! Thanks! -Uday Veep, CSC

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Unix 101 on Monday October 22, 5:30 PM in MC 3003
by Computer Science Club 15 Oct '18

15 Oct '18

Hi all, The CS Club is hosting an UNIX 101 workshop on October 22, 5:30 PM in MC 3003. Interested in Unix, but don’t know where to start? Then come learn some basic topics with us including interaction with the command line, motivation for using it, some simple commands, and more. This event targets first years with minimal Unix experience. Light refreshments and snacks will be provided. See you there! -- Neil Parikh AVP Computer Science Club

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Code Party 0 on Thursday Oct 18, 6:30 PM, EV3-1408
by Computer Science Club 11 Oct '18

11 Oct '18

Hi all, The CS Club is hosting our first Code Party of the term from 6:30pm until ~9:30pm in EV3-1408, on Thursday October 18. Come code with us, eat some food, do some things. Personal projects you want to work on? Homework projects you need to finish? Or want some time to explore some new technology and chat about it? You can join us at Code Party 0 and do it, with great company and great food. Come any time after 6:30pm. -- Neil Parikh AVP Computer Science Club

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Jane Street Talk & Power Outage
by Computer Science Club 07 Oct '18

07 Oct '18

Hi everyone! Jane Street's Yaron Minsky is coming to Waterloo to give a talk aimed at undergraduate students. The talk titled Data Driven UIs, Incrementally will be held in DC 1302 on Oct. 15th 5:30-6:30pm. Yaron Minsky got his BA in Mathematics from Princeton and his PhD in Computer Science from Cornell, where he studied distributed systems. He joined Jane Street in 2003, where he started out developing quantitative trading strategies, going on to found the firm's quantitative research group. Here's a brief description of the talk: Trading in financial markets is a data-driven affair, and as such, it requires applications that can efficiently filter, transform and present data to users in real time. But there's a difficult problem at the heart of building such applications: finding a way of expressing the necessary transformations of the data in a way that is simultaneously easy to understand and efficient to execute over large streams of data. This talk will show how we've approached this problem using Incremental, an OCaml library for constructing dynamic computations that update efficiently in response to changing data. We'll show how Incremental can be used throughout the application, from the servers providing the data to be visualized, to the JavaScript code that generates DOM nodes in the browser. We'll also discuss how these applications have driven us to develop ways of using efficiently diffable data structures to bridge the worlds of functional and incremental computing. Also, we have been informed of a planned power outage that will affect CSC equipment on Oct. 9 at 11pm until Oct. 10 at 5am. During this time, all CSC systems and services will be unavailable Please ensure that you have saved all work before then and that you have a backup of any important files. We expect that most services will recover automatically once power is restored, however anything requiring manual intervention will be restored later in the day. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Systems Committee by email at syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Thanks! Calum exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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CSC & WiCS & MathSoc go outside!
by Computer Science Club 30 Sep '18

30 Sep '18

Hi all, The CSC is having our first event of the term, co-hosted with WiCS and MathSoc. We will be having a bonfire this Wednesday, Oct 3rd 7-10pm, at Columbia Lake Firepit 2 (NW of CIF). Smores and snacks will be provided! Here's a map that shows the firepit location: https://uwaterloo.ca/economics/sites/ca.economics/files/uploads/files/firep… Come by and socialize with fellow members! -- Neil Parikh AVP Computer Science Club

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Fall 2018 Election Results
by Computer Science Club 18 Sep '18

18 Sep '18

Hi all, Elections took place tonight, here is the list of results: President: Zichuan Wei (z34wei) Vice-President: Uday Barar (ubarar) Treasurer: Alex Tomala (actomala) Secretary: Neil Parikh (n3parikh) Systems Administrator: Jennifer Zhou (c7zou) Office Manager: Alexander Zvorygin (azvorygi) Librarian: Neil Parikh (n3parikh) The position of Fridge Regent/IMAPD is still open. Please contact exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca if you are interested. Neil Parikh Secretary Computer Science Club

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F18 Elections Nominations Closing
by Computer Science Club 17 Sep '18

17 Sep '18

Hello everyone, The nominations period for the CSC election will end at 6:30pm today. The election event will be tomorrow on Tuesday, September 18th at 6:30pm in the MC Comfy Lounge. There will be food. You can find the list of nominations so far at https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/elections/. If you can't attend the election, you can vote remotely by sending (using either your @csclub.uwaterloo.ca or @edu.uwaterloo.ca address) a list of candidates you approve of for each position to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Note that you need to be a member to vote or to be elected. You will have an opportunity to sign up at the start of the election event. -- Jennifer Zhou System Administrator Computer Science Club | University of Waterloo

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Fall 2018 Elections
by Computer Science Club 10 Sep '18

10 Sep '18

Hello CSC members. The CSC elections will be held on Tuesday, September 18th at 6:30pm in the MC Comfy lounge. We will be electing a President, Vice President, Assistant Vice President (formerly Secretary), and a Treasurer. The elected exec will appoint a System Administrator, Office Manager, Librarian, and IMAPd. You must be a MathSoc social member (e.g., a math faculty undergrad) to run for an elected position or System Administrator, or to vote. If you'd like to run or nominate someone for a position, please put a piece of paper with their name and user id in the nominations box in the CSC or email that information to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. The nomination period will end one week from now, on Monday. A full description of the positions and procedures are in the CSC constitution. We need at least 15 members to start the meeting. There will be food. Direct questions to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca.

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Update on August Power Outage - taurine and sucrose unavailable
by Computer Science Club 04 Sep '18

04 Sep '18

Hello all, As of Saturday, Sept. 1, power has been restored to the machine room and the Systems Committee has restored most systems and services following the power outage in August. Unfortunately, we are currently unable to boot taurine and sucrose. We are unable to estimate if/when they will be repaired, so you should consider using alternate general use systems (corn-syrup and high-fructose-corn-syrup). If you have any questions/concerns, please contact systems-committee(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Further information will be shared when available. Thanks, Zachary Seguin Systems Committee Computer Science Club | University of Waterloo syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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StarCon CFP
by Computer Science Club 13 Aug '18

13 Aug '18

Hi all! Hope everyone is joining the break between terms. With your time off, consider applying to speak at StarCon, a lightning talk conference here at UW. StarCon is returning to Waterloo next January 19 & 20, and you can now submit an application to speak at the conference. Conferences and technical talks are wonderful ways to share experiences and pick up something new, so if you've never given a talk, StarCon *still* wants to hear from you! Last year, half of their speakers were first-time speakers and 40% were students! (Check out the 2018 talks for inspiration: https://starcon.io/talks/) If your talk is selected, you will be provided with mentorship opportunities as well as $100 to recognize you for the time and effort you put into working on your talk. Learn more and apply at https://starcon.io/cfp. Talk proposals are due September 1st. Cheers, melted CSC Prez

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Downtime (August 19-30) due to planned power outage
by Computer Science Club 02 Aug '18

02 Aug '18

Hello all, We have been informed of planned power outages that will affect the availability of Computer Science Club systems during the month of August. The Math & Computer (MC) building will be without power from Tuesday, August 21st until Thursday, August 30th. As most of our equipment is located in this building, club machines will be unavailable during this time. The Systems Committee will begin shutting down club equipment after 12pm EDT Sunday, August 19th. Please ensure that you have saved all work before then and that you have copied any important files out of your CSC home directory. We are hoping to maintain the availability of our Open Source Software Mirror (mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca) throughout the entire outage. The following services will be hosted in Davis Centre (DC) during the MC outage. However, DC will also experience short outages on August 25th (7am - 3pm) and August 29-30th (7pm - 3am), where these services may also be temporarily unavailable: - Email (see the notice at the bottom of this email) - Web hosting (CSC website and outage notifications for member/club websites) We will begin to restart machines once power has been restored and is stable. Please note that it will take some time to restore 100% of our computing infrastructure. Updates to this notice will be available on the CSC homepage (https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca) If you have any concerns or questions, please contact syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. EMAIL NOTICE: Since our home directories will not be available during the outage, we will be temporarily making a copy of everyone's .forward, .procmailrc and .maildir directories on our mail server. In order to ensure successful mail delivery, please ensure that your .procmailrc does not reference any executables located in your home directory. If your email is not forwarded to another email address, it will only be available via IMAP or webmail (https://mail.csclub.uwaterloo.ca) Thank you, Systems Committee Computer Science Club | University of Waterloo syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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Computer Science Club
by Computer Science Club 16 Jul '18

16 Jul '18

Hi all, Tomorrow (Tuesday July 17th) at 6:00pm the CSC will be hosting a prof talk by Richard Mann on "Sound: From microphones to speakers and everything in between", in MC 4041. Come listen to the talk and enjoy some free food. Abstract When you hit record on your phone how is the sound recorded? Air pressure changes come to a microphone, which converts electricity to voltage. The analog signal is digitized by an analog to digital converter (ADC), and finally stored as a digital file in memory. For playback, the process is reversed, and output to head phones or a (tiny) speaker. In a loud room does your phone distort? Can you hear the sound clearly? Phones are getting better. But what is needed to achieve professional quality sound recording? Dhruv Jauhar Vice President Computer Science Club

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Capture the Flag This Evening (July 11th) at 6pm and TerribleHack this Saturday
by Computer Science Club 11 Jul '18

11 Jul '18

Hi all, Just a reminder that this evening at 6pm in STC 0010, there will be a Capture the Flag competition hosted by the CTF Club in collaboration with the CACR and the CSC. It's a fun way to test your programming, web, networking and trivia skills in the context of computer security. No prior experience is required, it will be a fun event (I really enjoyed the last one of these I did). The event will start at 6pm in STC 0010, food will be provided, bring your laptops. For more information, see ctf.uwaterloo.ca. Also, TerribleHack is this Saturday (July 14th). Unlike most hackathons that are focused on innovative and practical ideas, TerribleHack is solely about programming for the sake of programming and having fun - even if that means reinventing less efficient wheels. TerribleHack will run from 9am to 7pm in M3 1006. For more information, see terriblehack.website. Marc Mailhot Secretary Computer Science Club

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Alt-Tab Tomorrow (July 4th) at 6:00pm and other upcoming events
by Computer Science Club 03 Jul '18

03 Jul '18

Hi all, Tomorrow (Wednesday July 4th) at 6:00pm the CSC will be hosting Alt-Tab, a series of short talks from CSC members, in MC 4058. Currently planned talks include: - Abstract Machines, what a PL person thinks a computer looks like! - Rendering with Signed Distance Fields - Strength, weaknesses, and applications of genetic algorithms Come listen to what fellow CSC members are interested in, and enjoy some free food. There are also two more exciting events coming up this month. Next Wednesday, July 11th, there will be a Capture the Flag competition hosted by the CTF Club in collaboration with the CACR and the CSC. It's a fun way to test your programming, web, networking and trivia skills in the context of computer security. No prior experience is required, it will be a fun event (I really enjoyed the last one of these I did). The event will start at 6pm in STC 0010, food will be provided, bring your laptops. For more information, see ctf.uwaterloo.ca. On Saturday July 14th, TerribleHack returns for its 10th iteration. Unlike most hackathons that are focused on innovative and practical ideas, TerribleHack is solely about programming for the sake of programming and having fun - even if that means reinventing less efficient wheels. TerribleHack will run from 9am to 7pm in M3 1006. For more information, see terriblehack.website. Marc Mailhot Secretary Computer Science Club

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Alt-Tab Request for Talks
by Computer Science Club 22 Jun '18

22 Jun '18

CSC will be hosting Alt-Tab, a slightly longer version of lightning talks. It will be a night full of friendly talks on Wednesday, July 4th, 6:00 PM until late. We need talks! Contact djauhar(a)edu.uwaterloo.ca, with your tentative talk title and a short abstract if you would like to give a talk. Slides are not required. Please aim for a 10-15 minute talk. I'll send an email with the list of talks closer to the date of the event. Here are some topics that our members have presented before. The titles make them seem more technical than they actually were. - Overview of SAT solvers - Communication complexity - Register allocation in compilers as graph colouring - Web application security - PXE booting - UI and UX - Train signalling and sensing - Typed Racket - Modern GPU architecture - The comment that took Stack Exchange down and the algorithm that could have saved them - Register Allocation With Graphs There will be food. Marc Mailhot Secretary Computer Science Club

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Office Training - Spring 2018
by Computer Science Club 20 Jun '18

20 Jun '18

Hello Everyone, I'll be conducting a group office training session on Monday June 25 at 3:00 pm in the CSClub office (MC 3036). Please attend if you would like to become office staff. If you can't make it, contact me directly. Thank you, Aditya Thakral Office Manager

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CSC and WiCS Go Outside
by Computer Science Club 29 May '18

29 May '18

Hi all, This coming Monday, June 4, the CSC and WiCS will be heading outside to the Laurel Creek firepit at 6:00pm. There will be a bonfire, good company, smores and other snacks. The firepit we will be using is in the bottom right of https://uwaterloo.ca/economics/sites/ca.economics/files/uploads/files/firep…. Hope to see you there, Marc Mailhot Secretary Computer Science Club

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Code Party 0 this Monday
by Computer Science Club 22 May '18

22 May '18

Hi all, This Monday (May. 28), Code Party 0 will be happening starting at 6:30pm in STC 0020. Come work on personal projects, schoolwork, or anything else with other CSC members. Food will be served. Marc Mailhot Secretary Computer Science Club

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Spring 2018 Election Results
by Computer Science Club 14 May '18

14 May '18

Hi all, Elections took place tonight, here is the list of results: President: Melissa Tedesco (matedesc) Vice President: Dhruv Jauhar (djauhar) Treasurer: Tristan Hume (tghume) Secretary: Marc Mailhot (mnmailho) Sysadmin: Jennifer Zhou (c7zou) Office Manager: Aditya Thakral (a3thakra) Librarian: Archer Zhang (z577zhan) Fridge Regent: Marc Mailhot (mnmailho) Marc Mailhot Secretary Computer Science Club

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CSC elections tonight! 7pm Comfy
by Computer Science Club 14 May '18

14 May '18

Greetings programs, especially those of you who joined this term! We sent out an email a couple weeks ago about elections. They're happening tonight at 7pm in the Comfy! There will be Timmies. For those who didn't get the email, we need *15* people to hold an election, and we'll be electing who will run our club for the Spring term. Also, we'll be amending our Constitution and Code of Conduct (https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~pj2melan/csc/about/amendments-explanation) Details at the event, or reply to this email with questions. These people were nominated: President: Melissa (matedesc), Haoran (h594wang) VP: Dhruv (djauhar), Haoran (h594wang) Secretary: Dhruv (djauhar), Marc (mnmailho) Treasurer: Tristan (tghume) These people were nominated for non-elected positions: Office Manager: Aditya (a3thakra), Archer (z577zhan), Haoran (h594wang), Yash (y2mathur) Pop/Fridge Regent: Marc (mnmailho) Librarian: Aditya (a3thakra), Archer (z577zhan), Anamaya (agarodia) Sysadmin: Jennifer (c7zou) This club can do some cool things (like new furniture or fun social events!) But we can only do them with the help of individual members (and especially new members!) Looking forward to seeing any of you at MC Comfy lounge tonight, 7pm! Facebook event: https://m.facebook.com/events/190562591585612/permalink/190562604918944/ -- Gestalt Embodiment of the CSC

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CSC s18elxns Monday 14th, 7pm in the Comfy
by Computer Science Club 02 May '18

02 May '18

Hello CSC programs, new and old! Want to decide what snacks the office gets? Want to eat Kismet instead of Twice the Deal at events? The CSC elections are coming up in two weeks, if you nominate yourself for a position you can wield this unimaginable power and more! Elections are Monday the 14th, at 7pm in the MC Comfy lounge. We need 15 members to start the meeting, and we will be bribing you __with food!__ We'll be electing the positions of President, VP, Secretary, and Treasurer. Those four exec will appoint a sysadmin (ratified by the meeting), office manager, librarian, and IMAPd. If you're interested but not sure which position to run for, reply to this email about running for secretary, librarian, or IMAPd. After we elect everyone, we'll make some amendments to our Constitution and Code of Conduct. The summary is here: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~pj2melan/csc/about/amendments-explanation If you would like to run or nominate someone for any of the elected positions, you can put your/their name and Quest ID as well as a list of positions on a piece of paper into the nominations box in the CSC office (MC 3036/3037) or send an email to Aditya Thakral at cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. We'll periodically empty the nominations box and notify the people nominated via their @csclub.uwaterloo.ca (or failing that, @edu.uwaterloo.ca) email address. Please note that club officer positions (elected positions, plus Systems Administrator) are restricted to MathSoc social members. Nominations will close at 7:00pm on Sunday, May 13th (24 hours prior to the start of elections). At this time, I will publish the list of nominations via the CSC mailing list. If a position has no nominees, you can nominate yourself during the meeting. Voting will be done in a heads-down, hands-up manner and is restricted to MathSoc social members. A full description of the roles and the election procedure are listed in our Constitution, available at https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/constitution. Any questions related to the election can be directed to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. See you there! -- Gestalt embodiment of CS Club Consciousness

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