2018 has been a busy year. It was the final year of my Bachelor's degree, the year of rewriting 3 of the most heavily used Minecraft mods, and a year as President of Code Network, a sizeable student-run programming society in South East Queensland.
Code Network
Code Network was a major highlight and overall massive part of my year. I'd been a member since 2015, and had a role in running it since 2017. Moving from Events Coordinator (and acting Vice President) in 2017 to my position as President in 2018 was a massive step in responsibility. I was now responsible and on the line, if anything went wrong.
My three goals for the year were as follows,
- Encourage collaboration between groups in the Brisbane tech scene, to strengthen the region as a whole.
- Improve gender diversity in the group, and make it a safer and more welcoming place for anyone. Regardless of who they are or their programming skill level.
- Cast aside some negative vibes the group had attracted over time, and grow it in every foreseeable way.
2018 Welcome Barbecue
To start the year off, we hosted a welcome barbecue with two other groups, UQCS (University of Queensland Computing Society), and WiT (Women in Technology). This event acted as a way to get a feel for the returning members in 2018, start a pattern of collaboration, and start the year off with a non-intimidating social event. Numerous people had told me that many of the first-year programmers were heavily put off by the group. They felt intimidated because they hadn't worked on as many cool projects as others, or didn't know as much.
We had a large turnout, with around 100 people attending. The event went well, with no significant issues.
Project Showcase and Semester 1 Weekly Meetups
One of the core parts of Code Network is the weekly meetups. During my time as Events Coordinator in 2017, I found that everyone was always asking for opportunities to share what they've made. Because of this, we decided that the first weekly meetup should be a Project Showcase. Where people can show off a project they've made, talk about a project they're currently making, or planning to make in the future. This event was so popular we had people asking us when the next one was happening almost as soon as it was over.
Semester 1 Networking Night
Our most significant event of the first semester was a networking night. We had just over 100 people attend, with a solid mix of students and companies. The night was fully catered and ended with a HackerRank-style programming competition between small groups made up of companies and students. This competition was so popular that it was brought back again for the second semester's networking night.
TechnologyOne Big Games Night
Every year a sizeable local tech company and longtime friend of the group, TechnologyOne, run a competitive social event for university students. They pit Code Network against UQCS, and this year we won. I still have the (quite literal) trophy scars, as the trophy was massive and acrylic 😂.
Project Showcase and Semester 2 Weekly Meetups
For the second semester, we had another project showcase night with a twist. Instead of just having people showing off projects, we also allowed general lightning talks. This allowed people who'd learnt about something new without a project could still show something off. This meant that everyone who was very into functional programming could preach it to everyone 😅. The change was profoundly welcomed, with many cool projects and talks on the night.
Regarding the general weekly meetups, in previous years they'd tapered off towards the end. This year they continued until the end, still retaining their quality and consistency.
Winter Hackathon 2018
The most significant event of the year for Code Network is the Winter Hackathon. For 2018, we planned on expanding in every way. To accommodate a larger attendance, we decided to run it out of the Queensland Government Startup Precinct and RiverCityLabs. We had a turnout of 170 people, up from 120 in 2017, a growth of 50 people (40%).
One other change we made was the inclusion of lightning talks, which were reportedly a massive help to people who weren't sure what to work on.
Semester 2 Networking Night
The final big event of the year, the second networking night, was a collaborative event with Women in Technology. This networking night ran very similarly to the first, however, with more collaboration. The collaboration allowed a more diverse group of companies to attend, as there were two networks to draw from.
AGM
The AGM was an excellent chance to debrief the year. There was generally positive feedback from everyone who attended. There were a lot of people who were very enthusiastic about the future. Due to my graduation, I couldn't re-run for a name position, and I chose not to run as a general committee member.
I am looking forward to seeing what the new team does throughout 2019, they have many good ideas and the experience to put it into action.
Code Network Recap
I had a great year running this group, with a great team alongside me. What we achieved throughout the year would definitely not be possible without them, and the effort they put into everything. I feel this has strengthened me as a person and made me understand and respect the Brisbane tech community. I've made great friends and met some truly amazing people through Code Network, and I'm keen to see what they do in the future.
Minecraft Community
In July of 2018, Minecraft 1.13 was released. For anyone who isn't familiar with the game, this was a significant update that heavily reworked how many of the game's core functions worked internally. While July is fairly late through the year, updating WorldEdit, WorldGuard, and CraftBook to this release started on the 3rd of January. I'm not going to go into the details of updating the plugins, I've already written too many blog posts about that.
Updating these projects was a massive task that I've easily dedicated thousands of unpaid hours throughout 2018. I've also made great strides towards unifying and updating the EngineHub branding. EngineHub being the organisation that develops these pieces of software. As they've been sorely neglected for the past few years, the community is relatively fragmented. The overall goal is to create a strong brand and cohesive experience in using the software.
Throughout 2018, massive progress has been made towards this goal. There are still significant parts that are lacking, such as many online aspects of EngineHub. Due to not yet having access to some of the web servers, I haven't been able to fix them. I'm confident this will be resolved in 2019 however.
Year Review
Overall, 2018 has been a fantastic year for me. I've done a lot, and met many amazing people. Hopefully, I can keep it up in 2019 😅.
About the Author
Hi, I'm Maddy Miller, a Senior Software Engineer at Clipchamp at Microsoft. In my spare time I love writing articles, and I also develop the Minecraft mods WorldEdit, WorldGuard, and CraftBook. My opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer in any capacity.