A Grown Adult's Disneyland | Newsletter T1W3

Mon 19 Oct Newsletter

There aren't many great things about being a second year, CS260 ❌, the U1 Bus ❌, CS276 ❌ (okay I lied about that last one its actually pretty fun ✅).

Once the light drains from your eyes after your first term at Warwick theres no amount of Pop, Skool Dayz or Euphoria you can do to bring it back.

I used to think that, then I was initiated into The Cult of Costco.

You see, the first challenge is making it into Costco, as only a select few hold the keys to enter (obtaining your own card as a student is a highly gatekept secret), but once you're escorted past the Guardians of the Wholesale™: oh. my. god.

The first thing that hits you is the sheer scale of the place. Shelves towering 20 feet into the air, stacked with enough stock to sustain a small nation through a nuclear winter.

And the variety is absurd. One minute you're browsing 75-inch TVs, the next you're looking at clothes, and before you know it you're face to face with a tube of minced beef roughly the size of your forearm. Why does anyone need that much beef? I don't know. Did I briefly consider buying it? Absolutely.

Then there's the bakery. Mountains of muffins, cookies and pastries, enough baked goods to kill a diabetic stone dead. Everything is sold in quantities that suggest you're either feeding a family of twelve or preparing to open your own Greggs.

But the real miracle is the alcohol aisle.

I'm convinced the people setting the prices here have never actually purchased alcohol before. The booze is so ridiculously cheap it makes a Smack vodka Red Bull look like a luxury purchase. After spending the last year paying Warwick prices for drinks, it felt like discovering some sort of financial loophole.

And the fun doesn't stop once you've checked out.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the humble £1.50 Costco hot dog.

"What is it made of?" Don't know.

"How many calories?" Don't care.

"Can I have onions with that?" F*CK YES YOU CAN. AT NO EXTRA COST.

A hot dog for £1.50. In this economy. I genuinely don't understand how they're making any money. At this point I'm convinced Costco is operating as some sort of charitable organisation, I'm suspicious, whats the catch? 🤔

But just when you think you've experienced everything this magical place has to offer, you're about to leave the car park when a number catches your eye.

166 PENCE PER LITRE.

SORRYYYY??????

What do you mean petrol is a whole 10p cheaper than the Coventry average? How on earth does that work? You're telling me that after selling me a suspiciously cheap hot dog, enough alcohol to put a small village in hospital and a lifetime supply of baked goods, you're ALSO offering to fill my car up at a discount???

I think I finally understand why people join cults.

Anyway, for the first time since starting second year, I think a little bit of light has returned to my eyes. It might just be the reflection of Costco's fluorescent warehouse lighting, but I'll take what I can get.

If anyone has a Costco membership, please get in touch. I'm getting hotdog withdrawals and I need my fix...

💜 Welfare Notice

UWCS has two Welfare Officers: Kevin (Discord: yummycatfood) and Erica (Discord: heldesar). They can also be reached via their email inbox at welfare@uwcs.co.uk.

You can speak to them at any time via Discord, email, and in person, for advice, signposting, and support. This can be for navigating the uni's support services, disclosing inappropriate or concerning behaviour at one of our events, and much more.

Any discussions you have with them will be treated sensitively. They will not share details more widely without your permission, except where they believe there is a serious risk of harm, a safeguarding concern, or another situation where they are required to escalate.

🍻 Pub Dinner 🍻

🕖 Mon 19th Oct 7pm - 9pm 📍 Dirty Duck

#grrmondays

Congratulations! We've survived another full week on campus, and better yet, we've survived another week just generally.

Join us this week at the dirty duck to eat, drink, eat more, then drink more!!

🔬 Research Spotlight: Gabriele Pergola 🔬

🕓 Tue 20th Oct 4pm - 5pm 📍 CS1.01

its not the size of the weight its how you use it ;)

Is Bigger Always Better? The Surprising (and dangerous?) Science Behind Large Language Models

How does a model trained to predict the next word become capable of translating languages, writing code, and tackling unfamiliar tasks? And can we keep making AI better simply by making it bigger? This talk explores the ideas behind the rise of large language models, from scaling laws (model size, data, and computing power) to learning from just a few examples in a prompt. We will investigate why some abilities seem to appear suddenly and perhaps dangerously unpredictably, whether these breakthroughs are as mysterious as they look, and how bigger models or more data can sometimes make performance worse. Along the way, we will encounter models that seemingly memorise before learning to generalise, and discuss what these surprising behaviours reveal about machine learning.

👩‍🔬 Go to the Ada Lovelace Event! 👩‍💻

🕑 Wed 21st Oct 2pm - 5pm 📍 MS.01

A brilliant chance to celebrate and learn about women's achievements in stem!

Come to the Ada Lovelace Day event hosted by one of your very own gender inclusivity officers! (and people from maths and stats soc) We will be hosting four external speakers to talk about their work as female scientists, with refreshments in between and a panel afterwards!

The event is open to everyone, so bring your friends :)))

☕️ Comp Cafe ☕️

🕔 Wed 21st Oct 5pm - 9pm 📍 CS0.06

i wonder if my beloved CS118 robot will make a suprise appearance...

Computing Cafe is a weekly space for catching up on studies and assignments with other students.

Did I mention there'll be free snacks? Why leave revision to the last minute when you can revise with ~ free snacks?~

📺 TV CIRCLE 📺

🕖 Wed 21st Oct 7pm - 10pm 📍 Players Coventry

what is this, a crossover episode?

🚨 EMERGENCY!! IT'S A CIRCLE 🚨

Are you ready?? For the first circle for UWCS this year?? Which was NEVER pushed back by 2 weeks, you're just seeing things???

Get yourself down to PLAYERS (in Coventry) this Wednesday at 7pm for THE circle to start the year...

And dress up as your favourite (or least-favourite if you're pessimistic) TV show character... or there'll be repercussions...

BE THERE

To get there for 7pm, we'd recommend taking the 18:34 12X from campus, to get there at just before 7!!! If you're not coming from campus, and you're coming from the centre of Coventry, I'm so sorry for everything.

💜 Welfare Notice

This is a non-sober event!! But we will have multiple sober exec present at the circle: (to be confirmed). There is also no pressure to drink any alcohol, you can drink whatever you want on the night, but whatever you do, please eat beforehand and don't predrink anything at all... Enjoy!!

📈 IMC Trading - Tech Race 🏃

🕔 Thu 22nd Oct 5pm - 7pm 📍 L5

did someone say quantitative pizza eating???

Our sponsor, IMC Trading, are coming to campus!

They're hosting an evening of challenges, networking, and of course, FREE PIZZA 🍕!

Tech Race by IMC – A new game combining Computer Science fundamentals and fast thinking. Your goal is simple: be the first one to solve 20 rapid and diverse problems and win amazing prizes. Track your progress in real time with a live leaderboard and race your way to the top! No pre-work nor installation needed - everything will be run on our in-house developed platform.

Make sure to bring your laptop!

🏃 Run Club 🏃

🕔 Fri 23rd Oct 5pm - 6pm 📍 Outside DCS

where are all my cardiomaxxers at????

Weekly Friday runs, open to all members and friends of UWCS. An average week might look like a 5k around campus on a pre-planned route, but be ready for impromptu shenanigans as we are always looking for new ways to surprise and delight our attendees. FOR ALL ABILITY LEVELS. Whether this is your first or five hundredth time running please show up, we're really nice! Strava - UWCS Run Club

🕹️ Friday Night Gaming 👾

🕖 Fri 23rd Oct 7pm - Sat 24th Oct 3am 📍 CS0.03

flying cars, flying joycons, whats next?

The Friday Night™ fun continues outside of Welcome Week in unquestionably the best way to round off the week, nooooooo bias found here 👀.

Your Gaming Coordinators for this exec cycle are: Luna (lunazeta_), Santiago (colombian.), and Maddie (fridge06). Mafi (sinisterglace) is also your Gaming Co-ordinator until Term 1, Week 5 - come up to us if you need help logging in, finding something, or even just to yap (we dont bite :D). We'll often be identifiable by our exec hoodies :3

It wouldn't be Friday Night Gaming™ without the Gaming™🎮, and we have a BIG selection of things for you to choose from, and no its not just above average! its big I swear!😔😔

There are loads of options for consoles: Xbox (with Rockband), Wii, Nintendo Switch 1s (yes thats plurarl) AND a Nintendo Switch 2, PS4 and more. All of these have a HUGE variety of games.

More into Steam? We have that too, just ask us for our DCS account login, or login to Steam on your own account! Not only that, but you can get full access to the department computers and enjoy a wide selection of free games (wow!)

AND WE'RE STILLLLL NOT DONEEEE. We have a VR headset, go get immersed in your favourite 🏎️🏎️ car go vroom games™ or others! Beat Saber in particular a popular choice, but we have PLENTY of options available! Not to mention we have a RACING RIG!! Go spin that wheel and press those pedals, and fiddle with your gears. Get on those in game roads and REV that engine until youre on a motorway in a 3 wheel car at 120mph.

AND THATS STILLLLLLL NOT IT YETTTT. For those of you that prefer a little less video in your game, we have some board games in our cupboards for you to get along with.

thats it... for now 👀

We hope to see you there :3

Important: FNG is a sober event, please don't bring alcohol in, or you will be asked to leave. Also Important: Tidy up after yourself before leaving, the department does a great kindness in letting us run this event, it'd be nice if we could stay on their good side!🙏

🐈 Wildcards Cat Cafe 🐈‍⬛

🕛 Sat 24th Oct 12pm - 2pm 📍 A Slice of Purrfection, Solihull

meow meow meow meow meow

We're going to have a Cat Cafe trip for Wildcards on the 24th of October, 12-2pm to A Slice of Purrfection in Solihull! It's free to attend, but any food/drinks are not included. We'll be taking the 87 from University Interchange at 10:40am, or you can join us there :) (Transport costs are not included!!)

Look out on Discord for more announcements - especially the form to fill in to attend

PINT HUNT 3.0

🕖 Sat 24th Oct 7pm - 10pm 📍 Leamington Spa Bandstand

who dares lay claim to my crown?

Get ready for the third pint hunt in UWCS history...

Details to be confirmed, but stay tuned!!

I also just realised the title of the newsletter sounds a bit like im referring to a certain island, an unfortunate oversight. oh well, I've left it too late now... -- Odin