Are you interested in iPhone apps that help you register for classes or can alert the hearing impaired of sirens? How about writing a program to sift through thousands of Car and Driver articles and extract trends in vehicle brands, makes, and models? If any of these topics, like mobile programming or finding teams to help you turn your great idea into a reality, sound appealing to you, then ACM is the group for you!

ACM, the Association of Computing Machinery, is a national organization, but what I really love is our USC branch. In the beginning of my freshman year, I didn’t know a whole lot about on campus organizations and I was a little slow to start taking advantage of all the opportunities that were thrown my way. However, in the later half of my freshman year, I decided to try and get more involved – and, boy, am I glad I did! The idea behind ACM is to bring individuals with computer and programming related talents and ideas together to help these computer professionals network and turn their ideas into realities. We’re always having workshops and big events like our recent hackathon: HackSC (which you can read a little more about here!) You can check out some pictures of ACM events below!

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What I really love about ACM the most is how it brings so many talented computer professionals together. It’s really easy to come up with great ideas and get inspired to work on a project, but it isn’t easy to find the people who can help you learn the necessary skills and improve your idea as you work. ACM is the perfect place to make those connections and build your small idea into a successful business venture. Everyone in the organization has their own skills and experiences and brings a different view to the table, which I think is fantastic. I’m certainly looking forward to more hackathons and projects to come!

Until next time!

~Patrick

Patrick-2016

Patrick-2016

Computer Science/Business Administration, Class of 2016, Learn more on his profile here!