Networking with peers finding industrial connections at CUSEC 2023

Background

December 2022, I had the rare fortune to win a lottery hosted by the CS dept. at UofT for a grant of 400 CAD to go to CUSEC, the Candian University Software Engineering Conference at Montreal this year. This post would hopefully summarize and reflect on my experience at the conference.

Arrival at Montreal

I took VIA rail from Toronto’s Union station to Montreal’s Central station. The ride took about 5 hours and only on the ride back did I realize that there were poser outlets between the economy seats. Montreal was colder than expected, almost 5 celcius lower than Toronto at -10 celsius. I walked for 30 minutes to the hotel prepared for the conference.

The Conference

The conference was held at Hotel Bonaventure. On my way to check in I encountered fellow conference goer, Paul from Carlton University. Paul was on his way back from printing his resume and was similarly lost. Together we found the way back and after I registered, we chatted as we waited for the conference to begin. Paul was a second year CS student from Carlton who wished to find industrial experience with this conference. Alas, I did not get the permission to post pictures and my friend here. Here is the name card I got after the registration.

The conference itself is stacked with talks and workshops. My most memorable one is the new grad panel where I had the opportunity to ask new grad researchers and professionals about my career path forward. Specifically I managed to connect with one of the new masters researcher at a computer vision lab here at UofT. I also have to thank Eddie Hinkle’s talk on more the idea behind the profession and I was able to get my questions on becoming a software architect cleared after the talk in a conversation with him. I also attended the diversity panels as well as talks on the meaning of diversity and neuro-diversity and learned from a autist manager’s experience in the pandemics. Overall I was able to learn a lot from the conference and I am grateful for the opportunity to attend.

I also made friends in the breaks between and after the talk sessions. I was able to meet students from other universities sometimes far from Toronto. As I recall there were students from McMaster, McGill, Carlton and even Price Edwards Island. I found them to be admirable companions and enjoyed games and chats with them. I left Montreal for home after a memorable board game session with my new friends, with new and valuable insights on my career path.