West Hatch Computer Science Society

January 20th, 2024 By Hannah Javed & Emily Phan

"The science of operations, as derived from mathematics, is capable of giving an analytical method for the operation of every kind of knowledge." - Ada Lovelace

• Welcome to the West Hatch Computer Science Society Blog, where curiosity drives exploration and coding meets creativity!

In today’s session, we brainstormed a variety of exciting ideas for activities and events to be held in future meetings. Some of the ideas include hosting an internal society hackathon, visiting local IT firms to gain insights, and connecting with CS alumni. We also discussed organising a text-based game development project, running competitions for younger students, and holding NEA workshops. Additionally, we explored opportunities for collaborations with other societies, offering CS revision sessions, and organising parent talks. We also considered attending IT conferences featuring Young Professionals and providing career-focused workshops.

The West Hatch Computer Science Society had an amazing experience at the Lloyds Banking Group - Technology Careers Live, hosted by Young Professionals. The event provided valuable insights into career opportunities in tech, covering areas such as work experience, apprenticeships, and job simulations with Lloyds. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore the world of FinTech, hear from industry experts about innovation, and learn how students can contribute to impactful projects in technology. A huge thank you to Grainne Longman, Robbie Peebles, Ian Browne, and all the speakers for making the evening so engaging and insightful. We look forward to applying the knowledge gained as we continue to explore exciting career paths in tech.

We’re organising an internal hackathon for society members, next Monday. From the development team, we’ve selected three groups to compete, whilst the design team will take on the role of judges. Additionally, we’ve chosen three word prompts to inspire the competition!

The rules are as follows:

• Groups of no more than 3 members
• AI tools are not allowed (Google is permitted)
• 1 hour to complete the task
• No prior coding, but research is allowed
• Word prompts: freedom, eagle, and cult

Thank you for reading West Hatch Computer Science Society's blog. Whether you're currently a member or someone new looking to get involved, we are excited to welcome new members and new ideas.

Until next time, keep innovating and coding!

Hannah and Emily

January 13th, 2024 - By Hannah Javed

"The most important thing about a technology is how it changes people." – Jaron Lanier

Welcome back, students! The Computer Science Society is excited to kick off another productive term filled with collaboration, learning, and new opportunities.

The Computer Science Society has been supporting each other as students work on their NEA for their A-level Computer Science. For the NEA, students can choose to develop a website, app, or game, and must document the process, including analysis, design, coding, and evaluation. This coursework provides an excellent opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and collaborate with their peers.

The recent addition of VS Code and Pygame to the school's computers is a great boost for students working on interactive text-based games. These tools allow for more efficient development and offer greater flexibility. The society plans to discuss how best to utilise these resources moving forward.

Thank you for reading West Hatch Computer Science Society's blog. Whether you're currently a member or someone new looking to get involved, we are excited to welcome new members and new ideas.

We look forward to connecting with you next week.

Hannah

December 16th, 2024 - By Hannah Javed

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." — Alan Kay

Welcome to the West Hatch Computer Science Society Blog!

As we approach the close of 2024, we reflect on a year of incredible progress, learning, and innovation. This year has been full of exciting breakthroughs in computer science, and we've seen how these developments have shaped our academic community.

Unfortunately, due to some technical challenges, our planned game development project has been put on hold. We are currently facing issues with setting up the correct coding environment, including the installation of Pygame, which is essential for game development. Additionally, our current skill set, and available tools are not yet sufficient to move forward with this project. However, we are committed to overcoming these obstacles and are actively working to resolve them so we can resume the game development initiative as soon as possible.

In the meantime, we are considering alternative activities to keep everyone engaged and learning. We plan to organise workshops, hackathons, and visits to local IT firms to offer hands-on experience and networking opportunities. As we continue to explore computer science, we aim to tailor our sessions to accommodate varying skill levels. For example, today’s session focused on the basics of Python, where we covered fundamental concepts such as print statements, variables, and different punctuation in coding (like brackets and inverted commas). These sessions are designed to help everyone, whether you're new to coding or looking to deepen your understanding, and we will continue alternating our approach to suit the diverse abilities of our members.

As we close out this year, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to every member, who has been a part of our journey. Your enthusiasm, collaboration, and dedication have been the driving forces behind the success of this society. We look forward to building on this momentum and continuing to support each other in the year to come.

Wishing you all a restful holiday season and a happy new year ahead! Here’s to another year of growth, discovery, and pushing the limits of what we can achieve together!

Happy Holidays from the Computer Science Society!

December 9th, 2024 - By Hannah Javed

"Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering." – Bill Gates

Welcome back to the world of code!

During a previous session, the concept of providing a secret link for the design team to play the game during its development phase was discussed. This link, which has now been successfully created, enables members to access and play the game directly through a browser, without the need for prior installation. While this approach is useful for external testing, it does not offer functionality for the development team, as it does not support code editing or modifications.

The development team made huge progress in refining the code for the upcoming game, with a primary focus on enhancing its functionality and interactivity. Elena played a key role in guiding members through the intricacies of the game's code, providing clear explanations and hands-on instruction. This included a deep dive into the design and implementation of the NPC data structure, as well as the development of the conversation response tree, which is crucial for the game's dialogue system. Through these collaborative efforts, members gained valuable experience in game development and improved their understanding of the complex coding concepts.

The design team made significant strides in enhancing the user experience by creating interactive text boxes for NPC conversations, ensuring seamless dialogue integration within the game. In addition, they continued to develop captivating PixilArt designs, with a particular focus on capturing the distinct aesthetic of a New York Bar, which added depth and atmosphere to the game’s environment. Furthermore, the team began designing the kitchen room, incorporating detailed elements such as a cook. These efforts collectively contributed to creating a more immersive and visually engaging experience for players, while allowing members to apply and refine their skills in both design and creative development.

Thank you for reading West Hatch Computer Science Society's blog. Whether you're currently a member or someone new looking to get involved, we are excited to welcome new members and new ideas.

Until next time, keep innovating and coding!

Hannah

December 2nd, 2024 - By Hannah Javed

"In programming, the hard part isn't solving problems but deciding what problems to solve." — Paul Graham

Happy December, Readers!

As we roll into the final month of the year, the Computer Science Society had an exciting session packed with insightful discussions and hands-on activities, from both the Design and Development Team. Today’s session was a perfect reminder of the power of collaboration and the importance of staying curious in this ever-evolving field.

Following last week's session, the Design Team made great progress on their escape room aesthetics. They successfully completed the PixilArt design of the IRS Headquarters scene, adding exciting details to bring the space to life. To highlight the intergalactic theme, the team chose a space-themed background, blending futuristic elements with the IRS office setting. This unique touch adds an otherworldly feel to the scene, aligning with the game's broader cosmic narrative. Next session, the team will begin to work on a kitchen aesthetic, experimenting with various design elements and setting the stage for an immersive culinary environment. The Design Team is eager to continue building out more rooms, with plans to create scenes like the New York Bar and the Painting Room, further expanding the game’s diverse and imaginative settings.

In addition, members of the Social Media Team proposed an idea to showcase the impressive work being done by members of the Computer Science Society. A LinkedIn post could be created to highlight individual projects, such as creation of an app, as well as contributions in fields like robotics and engineering. This feature would provide recognition for the hard work and creativity of members, while also inspiring others within the community. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate the diverse range of projects and achievements within the society, and this upcoming post promises to be an exciting addition to the Computer Science Society's LinkedIn.

Furthermore, the Development team focused on tasks unrelated to Pygame while awaiting the necessary installations from the IT department. The initial work involved designing algorithms for NPC-related procedures using flowcharts to map out their operations on NPC data. These procedures were then implemented in Python, successfully achieving the desired functionality. This included operations such as linear searches to identify appropriate conversations, as well as a general talkToNPC function to automate NPC interactions and streamline development for future stages. Additionally, the NPC structure was revisited, this time applying Object-Oriented Programming principles to enhance its design.

Thank you for reading West Hatch Computer Science Society's blog. Whether you're currently a member or someone new looking to get involved, we are excited to welcome new members and new ideas.

Wishing you all a productive and inspiring week ahead!

Hannah

November 25th, 2024 - By Hannah Javed, Emily Phan and Rianna Chirea

"In software, the most important thing is to focus on simplicity, because simple systems are easier to manage and expand." — Linus Torvalds

Hello, fellow tech enthusiasts! What a great turnout this session!

Prior to this week's session, the Social Media Team began to establish the West Hatch Computer Science Society's LinkedIn. This included setting up the LinkedIn profile, as well as informing the network about the current activities of the society. We encourage you to connect with our members and follow our company to find out the latest information, and to find out how you can get involved!

The Website Development Team made some further changes to the website, including creating a new repository and URL changes. However, the team faced some technical issues from the aftermath of the URL, on many different platforms, but this was then resolved.

During today's session, the Design Team focused on creating escape room aesthetics, using PixilArt, designing rooms like the IRS Headquarters and an F1 racetrack; this will be incorporated when the game is fully functioning. Rianna experimented with the F1 racetrack, showcasing a Ferrari Formula 1 Vehicle, with popular driver, Charles Leclerc. Hannah and Emily formed a prototype of the IRS Headquarters, based on the previous mood board, portraying the boss in the head office. The team hopes to continue to design more of the escape rooms, for example, the New York Bar and the Painting Room.

In addition, the Development Team went through the core concepts and subroutines that they will be using throughout the course of development, focusing on how the game could fit on a range of screen sizes. Additionally, members communicated with the Computer Science Department, attempting to get permission for the installation of modern software development tools, such as Visual Studio Code, and the installation of the Pygame dependency, which the text-based escape room relies heavily on.

At the end of the session, all members went through the NPC structure, explaining some of the concepts about object-oriented programming. As well as this, the society had a verbal discussion, regarding the NPC conversation, as a practical exercise to help us understand how the NPC system will work.

Thank you for reading West Hatch Computer Science Society's blog. Whether you're currently a member or someone new looking to get involved, we are excited to welcome new members and new ideas.

See you next Monday!

Hannah, Emily and Rianna

November 18th, 2024 - By Hannah Javed

"Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to step away from the screen and glide into the moment." - Unknown

Whilst computer programming, algorithms, and digital innovation are frequently linked to computer science, the best opportunities for learning can occasionally occur beyond devices and textbooks. This was undoubtedly the matter during the Computer Science Society's recent educational trip, an ice-skating experience that combined joy and teamwork with an understanding of computer science.

Indeed, you've read this precisely! The opportunity for this special educational experience was ice skating, where we learnt that computer science ideas are not limited to the online environment but may be used in unanticipated places. Let's start by discussing the trip's key points and how ice skating provided fresh insights into cooperation and innovation.

The trip encouraged collaboration, communication, and teamwork, all vital in computer science and ice skating, particularly when working in groups to develop complex systems or write code. Our team obtained important lessons about communication (operating effectively and supporting one another to overcome barriers) and synchronisation (reducing errors) from the cooperative nature of ice skating.

Furthermore, the experience reaffirmed the concept that education should not be limited to school environments. Though you might least expect it, often the best learning emerges!

For the Computer Science Society, this beneficial ice-skating trip was an amazing event that gave us new understandings into the ways that computer science affects daily life and taught us important lessons. Whether on the ice or in school, let's keep thinking, inspiring, creating, and gliding forward into the future!

Thank you for reading West Hatch Computer Science Society's blog. Whether you're currently a member or someone new looking to get involved, we are excited to welcome new members and new ideas.

See you next Monday!

Hannah

November 11th, 2024 - By Hannah Javed, Emily Phan and Rianna Chirea

"It's not a matter of whether we can or can't, but rather what we can do once we believe it's possible." - Alan Turing

Happy Monday Readers!

We hope you had a productive half-term break and are ready for another exciting week! Here's your weekly roundup of updates within the Computer Science Society.

Each team had a specific goal for this week. The design team (Emily, Rianna, Hannah and Maxwell) worked on completing the game's Loading Screen. Members started the session by making a mood board, establishing the aesthetic for the game. We decided to use PixilArt to design the front page, focused on the music video of Whenever, Wherever. Inspirations included mountains for the background, a coin alluding to tax evasion, and the ocean to represent the adventurous aspects of the game. The development team (Samuel, Sophia, Natalia, and Elena) fixed bugs in the game window and then they began experimenting with Pygame, including setting up its dependency.

In the future, we hope to complete the design of the Loading Screen, as well as providing functionality to the icons on the screen.

Thank you for reading West Hatch Computer Science Society's blog. Whether you're currently a member or someone new looking to get involved, we are excited to welcome new members and new ideas.

See you next Monday!

Hannah, Emily and Rianna

November 4th, 2024 - By Hannah Javed

"The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before." - Bill Gates

Welcome to the blog of the Computer Science Society! Building an environment around computer science is crucial in the ever-changing technological scene of today; the Computer Science Society is an essential platform for students to think, create and inspire. Check out this week's virtual meeting in more detail!

First, the group discussed whether to develop a single room for the game (e.g. New York Bar, IRS Headquarters, etc), or to develop a more detailed storyline for the game. After considering the duration of the development process and outlining the design of each format, the group decided to focus on one whole room first, which illustrates the backstory for user before the game starts. The backstory starts in IRS Headquarters and then the user is transported to the New York Bar, after interactions with other NPCs.

The members of the society therefore split up into 2 groups: the design team wrote the script for the introduction of the game, whilst the development team started the code for the game.

Members of the design team (Emily, Rianna and Saif) wrote the NPC dialogue for the beginning of the game and outlined key directions for the programmers and voice actors. The dialogue begins with Shakira telling the user that they must meet several characters at the IRS headquarters, in order to find the key to the 59th portal to start the mission. After many encounters, the user is transported to the New York Bar called MacLaurens, where they discover more information about the tax evader and something unexpected occurs!

Members of the development team (Samuel, Harsha, Natalia, Tayyab, Maxwell, Cadan, and Elena) came up with a draft for the data structure, that will be used for NPC conversations with the user. In addition, they created the new GitHub repository for the game, as well as making a blank Tkinter window with a blank slate ready for development.

Thank you for reading West Hatch Computer Science Society's blog. Whether you're currently a member or someone new looking to get involved, we are excited to welcome new members and new ideas.

See you next Monday!

Hannah

October 29th, 2024 - By Hannah Javed and Rianna Chirea

“Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn." - Steve Jobs

Happy Half-Term Readers!

This week's session was a Virtual Meeting, where members learnt how to use GitHub (cloud based system where users may collaborate with peers to develop software and retain code); this software was also used to build the West Hatch Computer Science Society Website and we have found it a useful online software for our society because it has allowed us to make necessary changes via, especially regarding user interface design, throughout the process.

Later in the session, the members of the society were taught the basics of using Tkinter, for example, how to make text display on a user interface, and how to create a button that outputs text on the user interface. We plan to organise further sessions about Tkinter, due to its crucial role within the project.

Furthermore, different members were allocated roles in different departments, which can be seen below:

Development Team:
• Harsha Kharat
• Elena Dragan
• Maxwell Battles
• Natalia Michalec
• Saif Uddin
• Ayaan Shah
• Sophia Louth
• Tayyab Mubashar
• Cadan Hocking
• Samuel Douek
• Ulus Ertac

Learning to Code & Development Team:
• Rianna Chirea
• Hannah Javed

Design Team:
• Emily Phan
• Rianna Chirea
• Hannah Javed
• Saif Uddin
• Ulus Ertac
• Maxwell Battles

Testing Team:
• Tayyab Mubashar
• Samuel Douek
• Saif Uddin
• Harsha Kharat
• Cadan Hocking

Social Media Team:
• Harsha Kharat
• Emily Phan
• Hannah Javed
• Rianna Chirea

Website Development Team:
• Samuel Douek
• Maxwell Battles

Finally, we are proud to announce that the West Hatch Computer Science Society has transitioned into a company page on LinkedIn. We encourage you to connect with our members and follow our company, to find out the latest information and to find out how you can get involved!

Thank you for reading West Hatch Computer Science Society's blog. Whether you're currently a member or someone new looking to get involved, we are excited to welcome new members and new ideas.

See you next Monday!

Hannah and Rianna

October 21st, 2024 - By Hannah Javed, Emily Phan and Rianna Chirea

“Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.” – Donald Knuth

Welcome back Readers! Another Monday, another meeting.

This week’s meeting focused on finalising the concept of the game and discussing and shortlisting different escape room ideas. The storyline for the text-based escape room revolves around a character called Sharika. The gamers will have to travel through different universes, which will be presented as carriages in a train. Each carriage will compromise of a different theme, for example F1 and a haunted house, and the gamer will have to find clues to travel from one carriage to another, to find and arrest the tax evader, who is also traveling on the same train. During the final level of the game, the gamer discovers that the tax evader was Sharika, who acted as a conductor and worked to sabotage the gamer by misleading them with clues.

The aim of the session was to decide on the different escape room ideas. Therefore, we brainstormed escape room proposals, for example, underwater theme, kitchen theme and a gallery setting. After condensing the ideas, the group decided to prioritise an idea, that was voted most popular, this being the gamer entering a New York City bar, where 3 members of staff provide the gamer with 3 clues (1 truth and 2 lies), and the gamer must figure out which member of staff is telling the truth. However, before the truth is revealed, each member of staff dies one by one, without the truth being revealed. The gamer then finds a key in their drink with a note attached; this explains how a predecessor also tried to imprison the tax evader and left a key for the gamer, to allow them to travel to the next carriage.

Later in the session, we briefly discussed the themes for the following carriages:

• Second Carriage – haunted house theme
• Third Carriage – F1 Ferrari themed room
• Fourth Carriage – gallery theme
• Fifth Carriage – kitchen theme

Connecting Minds, Crafting Codes. By Hannah Javed and Emily Phan - October 14, 2024

Welcome Readers! We’re excited to kick off this school year with the first Computer Science Society Meeting! The West Hatch Computer Science Society aims to create a collaborative environment, providing learning opportunities for pupils and a chance to showcase knowledge and skills within Computer Science.

This week, we made a brainstorm of project ideas, including an online time capsule, a budget management app and a fully functioning doll house; the group shortlisted the project ideas discussed and voted for the most popular idea. After narrowing the ideas down to 2 projects, the group compromised by incorporating both key aspects of the projects to form a single idea.

The most popular project was creating a text-based escape room, using Tkinter, proposed by Saif. As part of the compromise, we decided to integrate the theme of Shakira, which was inspired by the Shakira AI themed assistant, that came second during voting. Maxwell, a member of the society, shared the idea of the escape room being based on a detective attempting to catch a criminal, where the user can navigate through different rooms, using a simple user interface. After discussing the storyline, we concluded on the idea of the user being a multi-dimensional tax collector, who is attempting to imprison Shakira, who has committed tax evasion. The name “Wherever, Whenever” , was suggested by Rianna, which highlights the key idea that the user is able to travel through different dimensions, to complete tasks and catch the criminal.

During our next session, which will be conducted via Zoom, we plan to confirm the over- arching storyline, as well as follow-up on the repeated format for all escape room scenarios. A further session will be carried out next week, to start preparation for this exciting project.

Thank you for reading West Hatch Computer Science Society’s blog. Whether you’re currently a member or someone new looking to get involved, we are excited to welcome new members and new ideas.

See you next week!

Hannah and Emily