Clubs & Organizations

ACM@UCI, the UC Irvine Chapter of the Association of Computer Machinery (ACM), is dedicated to advancing computing as a science and a profession. They work toward accommodating the needs of students as an investment for brilliant minds in academia and successful men and women in business. ACM’s active competition participants train rigorously to compete in nationally renowned competitions, including IEEExtreme, HackerRank and ICPC. The club also evaluates and supports student project proposals.

AI@UCI is to introduce students to the latest tools and concepts in AI. By providing real word examples and application based workshops, students can use these skills to navigate their own journey into the dynamic world of AI in addition to gaining in demand skills outside of the classroom.

Blockchain at UCI is an ecosystem for blockchain education, development, and networking at UC Irvine and surrounding areas. We organize workshops, educational seminars, hackathons, and networking events to facilitate the growth of blockchain awareness, technical understanding, and thorough training.

Commit the Change is a community service organization dedicated to working with nonprofit organizations to develop tech for social good. Students who join as members are matched with nonprofits as designers or developers and spend the entire school year creating a software application that will reduce operating costs or improve a given workflow for their nonprofit once completed. While doing so, they follow industry best practices such as version control, code reviews, and iterative design which are taught by project leads in order to prepare them for work in internships and other roles related to software development and design.

Cyber@UCI was created from a desire to have more cybersecurity exposure and learning at UCI. Despite being a rapidly growing, and extremely important field, cybersecurity is often only relegated to a couple upper division classes. That just isn’t right! At its core, being ‘good’ at cybersecurity necessitates being plugged into the security community, and keeping up to date with all the latest developments. Cyber @ UCI offers such a place, bringing people from all levels of experience together with one common interest: cybersecurity.

Data@UCI aims to nurture a community of Anteaters exploring their place in an increasingly data-driven world. Through workshops, professional panels, and speaker events, we provide resources and a network for students to grow their analytical skills and gain a deeper appreciation for data — helping them to succeed in college and in their careers. We are a student-run organization ultimately dedicated to the UCI and larger Orange County communities.

Design at UCI is a community for designers of all skill levels and backgrounds. Here, we provide the resources and space for students to innovate, create, and ultimately grow as designers. Through community, education, and collaboration, we strive to spark and foster creativity in our members and throughout the UCI community. Our primary focus is within the digital design disciplines: user-experience/user-interface (UX/UI) design, product design, and visual design.

Hack at UCI is a student-run organization established to provide students with a platform to learn, grow, and develop technology of the future. Established in 2013, our mission is to promote, educate, and enhance the community around us by giving students the platform to learn and create technology. Our organization hosts hackathons, technical workshops, career panels, and other events that bring in over 1000+ attendees in total each year. For hackathons, we organize Orange County’s biggest annual hackathon, HackUCI, with 500+ students, 1600+ applicants, and 90+ projects submitted as well as ZotHacks, a beginner level hackathon with 50+ students at UCI.

The official student government for the Donald Bren School of ICS, the ICS Student Council (ICSSC) seeks to improve student life of the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences academically, socially, and professionally, as well as create and deepen bonds between students, faculty, administration, companies, and alumni of the ICS School as well as similar groups. We believe that through a strong community, we will enhance the quality of student life and ensure great jobs for students of all majors and minors within the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science by:

• Understanding, disseminating, and contributing to departmental decisions including curriculum, research, and hiring decisions
• Creating a network of alumni which will provide students with opportunities to grow while in school, and opportunities after graduation to leverage that growth
• Provide one another with tools and opportunities to become the most competitive technical experts in the world
• Developing nontechnical skills such as leadership, team building, and advocacy outside of the classroom that will ultimately determine success in the rest of our careers
• Informing students about the immense opportunities that are available on the UC Irvine campus, in the neighboring community, and throughout the world
• Creating partnerships between the academics of our campus and the related industries

Some of our events and activities include WebJam, where students work together in teams to develop a website throughout the week and present it to faculty; Brain Games, a team competition that hosts a variety of fun contests and opportunities to meet new people; Humans of ICS, a series of interviews that allows students to get to know more about the people in ICS; and the popular ICS Week, a festival featuring a variety of ICS club events and booths. We also host info sessions with companies, socials for students to unwind and have fun, and workshops to develop a multitude of skills within ICS students.

VGDC supports student game developers in developing portfolios, enhancing skills, and connecting to industry professionals. VGDC provides a variety of events and programs to engage with student game developers from UCI and beyond, including:

• Quarterly student-pitched game projects
• Learning workshops for art, audio, game design, production, programming, UI/UX, and writing
• Industry speakers, including Game Developer’s Week
• Game jams
• Socials

WICS is a social and professional nonprofit organization at UCI established to encourage women to pursue a college degree and a successful career in the computer science field. WICS does all of the following and more:

• provides support for women and other minorities through various activities, such as mentorship, socials, study sessions, company tours, professional workshops, and hackathons.
  
• hosts company networking opportunities in multiple events, including Mock Technical Interviews, a day-long event that provides students with a formal and growth-oriented interview environment, and WICS Games, a fun-filled night of puzzle-solving and networking.
  
• organizes a sponsored trip to the Grace Hopper Celebration in partnership with the Office of Access and Inclusion at UCI.
  
• outreaches to middle and high school students through several events, such as NetWICS, a day-long conference for high school girls, and IrisHacks, a small-scale hackathon hosted in collaboration with PCWOC.
  
• hosts VenusHacks, UCI’s women-centric hackathon, in collaboration with Hack at UCI.
  

WICS is open to people of all genders and we’d love to see you at our meetings!

Each club/organization is unique and provides a different way for students and members to engage within the organization, and with the broader campus and community! To learn more about an organization and its members, we highly recommend you visit its website (links can be found above) to find out if there are meetings or events you can attend as a prospective member. You may also consider reaching out directly to its officers or board members.

Student organizations can request ICS Affiliation through the ICS Student Affairs Office.  Affiliation allows organizations access to various resources that non-affiliated organizations will not have access to, including access to ICS rooms and spaces, permission to use the ICS name/logo, and opportunities to request funding from ICS.  In addition, the ICS Student Affairs Office can support ICS affiliated organizations in many ways, including facilitating communication between organizations and the ICS community via the ICS E-Bulletin, event promotion, and email lists.

To request ICS Affiliation, organizations should contact Neha Rawal, Director of Undergraduate Student Affairs. The Affiliation Request should include the following information:

1. Club name, website, and mission statement.
2. Are there any fees to join the organization?
3. Please describe your club structure for decision-making.
4. How are you different from other ICS affiliated clubs?
5. What support do you need from ICS? (Funding, etc. )
6. Do you have a budget outline or a needs assessment that you can provide us?
7. Are you registered with ASUCI?
8. Who is your faculty advisor?
9. How do you process your reimbursements?
10. What is your club’s vision for the next 2-5 years?
11. Please provide a complete list of club officers.

Please visit the UCI Office of Campus Organizations  for imore information on how to register a new campus organization.

Yes. In general, all registered campus organizations, including ICS-Affiliated Organizations, must comply with the rules, regulations, and policies set forth by UCI Office of Campus Organizations. Their webpage offers information on campus policies regarding fundraising, marketing, publicity, programming, and general operations.