We’re building a Django webapp. Check it out at nypurps.com! Every week, 6:00-7:30pm, in Courant 102. Free for students!

RSVP at techatnyuworkshop-day1-eorg.eventbrite.com

Overhead lights softly accented the otherwise dark auditorium, with electronic music pumping cascades over the seats. Wires crowded the podium and close to a hundred heads littered the room. Scenes from Hackers, Tron, and other nerdom classics played on the projector screen while a laser shot a green TECH@NYU DEMODAYS onto the wall.

A haze of energy definitely hung in the air.

Outside, the line of twenty refused to relent. It was a Saturday night and we were about to begin.

Tech@NYU’s goal is to foster a culture of creation among NYC students. We strive to be a sandbox for students: a place for students to experiment, to learn, to get recognized, and to get to know each other. We consider technology a tool for this and enjoy using and sharing it.

The mission of DemoDays is to celebrate creation. From shell scripts, to logo designs, to web apps, it’s all welcome. The event has two rules: no slides, and no recruiting. Both are anathema to our mission.

After a brief introduction, we began the demos.

The assault of gizmos, designs, and applications one after another was mind-bending: a first person shooter game, a galvanic vestibular stimulator (remote control humans!), and circuits embedded into fabric; spray-on bandages; an app for women approached by creepy guys from which they can comfortably interact with/torment the creeper online; a program to mash audio effects from various sound samples with ease and in real-time; a tablet-like interface for reading content on the web; a modern remake of Myst; news applications; more.

Next up was a structured mingle for fifteen minutes.

We handed out playing cards, grouped ourselves by number, and got to know each other. A melting pot, it looked like. Founders mingled with music business students, investors mingled with computer science majors.

After finishing up demos, visualization expert, NY Times Data Artist in Residence and ITP professor Jer Thorp took over the podium. His passion for creation made the air vibrate. He showed us the power of creation, of programming and design and the intersection of the two, through stories of early Apple, of his childhood, of society, and through his inspiring visualizations. We briefly live-coded in Processing, a Java library for creating visualizations and digital art. He took us places. My voice was shaking with excitement afterward.

In the audience sat students from around the city. It was great to have our friends from Parsons head down and demo. We look forward to growing tighter with them in the future (look out for DesignDays, hosted at Parsons), and including other schools as well. While calling NYU home, Tech@NYU aims to unite the New York City student population and inspire a movement of innovation to ensure and sustain the technology sector for years to come.

We have talent. We have finances. We have creativity. We have connections. We need a culture of exchange, openness, and experimentation. Student-clubs are transient. We don’t pay our members, and we can’t dangle health benefits, equity and fat bonuses on a string in front of them. Culture is the most important thing we have at Tech@NYU. Without it we would blend into the background of “entrepreneurship club” and stagnate. And with a defined, bold student culture, the tech sector in New York City will flourish.

For us and for everyone, DemoDays is one step in that direction.

The next DemoDay will be on December 17th, 5-7pm in Courant 109. It is a student-only event. Find more information at techatnyu.org/demodays. If you would like to demo, email demo@techatnyu.org.

Zach Sheppard hacks with us using the new Push API that he built. Oh, and Scala rules.

Wednesday, 10/5, 6:00-8:00pm – The “How to Get a Job at a Startup” panel discussed the job market in today’s tech scene and what entrepreneurs should look for in prospective hires. Panelists came from a variety of backgrounds and from companies of different sizes:

• Adam Liebman, VP of Sales at SinglePlatform
• Brett Martin, CEO and Co-founder of Sonar
• Christina Cacioppo, analyst at Union Square Ventures
• Jennifer Hyman, Co-founder of Rent the Runway

The panelists’ advice, however, was universally applicable. Here are the top takeaways from “How to Get a Job at a Startup”:

-       If possible, be an engaged user of the company’s product.

-       Be ready to share your own ideas about how the product can be made better.

-       What you studied in school isn’t very important.

-       An established online presence help, but you should always be you. See the penultimate paragraph of this USV post.

-       Pick two or three (and not ten) startups you feel passionate about—apply only to those, and personalize each message. Founders/recruiters can smell BS from a mile away, and the startup community is smaller than you think.

-       Referrals can be key. Most early hires come from trusted sources. Start networking.

-       Always have questions ready for an interview.

-       Company culture is critical. Make sure your values coincide with those of your colleagues.

Finally, it should be noted that each company represented on the panel is HIRING. So, what are you waiting for?

Tuesday, 10/4, 6:30-8:30pm – The “Women in Startups” Panel was quite the success. Located in Vanderbilt Hall, it featured four well-respected women in NYC tech:

- Jenny Fleiss, Co-founder & President of Rent the Runway
- Gauri Manglik, Co-founder & CEO of SpotOn
- Alexis Goldstein, Founder & CEO of aut facium
- Marissa Evans, Founder of Go Try It On

The four panelists spoke to the packed house about everything from their past careers/educations to how they entered the tech scene to trends they’re excited about within their respective spaces to advice they have for female students and entrepreneurs. The panel was lively and engaging, and the audience left with incredibly useful insight.

Monday, 10/3, 6:00-8:00pm – The kickoff was great! We booked the prestigious Paulson Auditorium in the Stern Business School. Four student-run companies pitched to three venture capitalists (Larry Lenihan, FirstMark Capital; John Egan, Goodwin Procter; Kirill Sheynkman, Greycroft Partners). The air was flush with energy, and the push and pull was tangible. Everyone walked away, their minds bubbling.

The students and their companies who demoed, in order:
Jon Chan, Friidum
Ankit Shah, Alternote
Misha Ponizil, Amplifyre
Hursh Agrawal, Roundtable

Hursh and Jared teach, “What is the Internet?” along with an intro to Node.js, and how Javascript can change the world.

On September 6th, hundreds of NYU students crammed into Coles Recreation Center to check out the student clubs NYU offers. The line extended around the corner, even up to 10 minutes before closing – and in the rain! Tech@NYU was particularly swarmed. We got over 200+ signups for the Digest. If you haven’t signed up, you can do so here. Over 4,000 people have subscribed already.

In our fourth workshop Eric teaches CSS selectors and CSS scope.

In the third installment of our HTML & CSS workshop series, e-board member & Tech-Up founder Eric Hong talks about inline styling of HTML elements and also linking to stylesheets to separately write styles in CSS.