CSE: A Student Club that Managed to Survive the Pandemic

Tell us about CSE?

CSE Team: CSE Club Scientifique de l’ESI is a student club at the Higher National School of Computer Science in the capital of Algeria (Algiers). It was created for students passionate about computers, high tech, robotics, design, and anything related to technology. CSE has managed to gain its place nationally and internationally by organizing major Tech events. After organizing the first hackathon and one of the largest hackathons in Algeria, the club is considered as one of the biggest and most active clubs in the country.  In other words, we can say that we are a group of creative nerds!

What about your vision?

CSE Team: So, CSE was created in 2008 with one goal: making the student life more dynamic and full of learning. That’s why we organize different types of events (conferences, workshops, hackathons…) under various themes.

To make it short, we are here to support students during their academic journey by putting new technologies to their benefit and allowing them to exchange their knowledge and experiences as well as help them better themselves in the professional world with good skills.

Did the coronavirus affect your work?

CSE Team: Well, yes, we found ourselves faced with the fact that all the work we used to do in real life had to be done remotely!

It was a little bit hard, but we tried to manage things; for example, when it comes to teamwork, we tried to use apps like Slack for communication & Google meet for meetings.

Rather than having real events, we shifted to online events! The coronavirus didn’t stop us from doing our work because our vision was clear, and we refused to let anything stop us from achieving that!

So we had to make some changes that helped us do our work during the pandemic.

Did you have tough choices, and what are the lessons learned?

CSE Team: Another yes for this question!

We had to cancel many important events, which led to losing even sponsors. Still, we organized online events instead and tried to look for other sponsors.

Before the coronavirus, we used to focus more on our logistics and event teams! But now, things have changed, so we had to focus more on our marketing team and tried to provide more valuable content to our community on social media platforms.

Your final thoughts?

CSE Team: We are here to help build critical thinking, personal development, academic, and emotional fulfillment, and acquire qualities through continuing education and perseverance in the student’s studies – all elements that promote success. Being a CSE member will also promote our intercultural exchanges.

In addition, we provide our members with a solid and distinct learning experience. They are called upon to take up many challenges such as the use of new communication and development tools, managing meetings, writing articles, helping new members integrate, etc.

The skills acquired by members within our club prepare them for an extensive range of careers: event planning, human resources management, strategic action, marketing strategies, all this across the different departments. Although essential, these work-integrated learning opportunities are unfortunately only offered as part of certain study programs; therefore, membership in the CSE will greatly benefit you in your student journey.

Your website?

 https://cse.club/