Posted on January 21, 2014 by orbital

Orbital is the School of Computing’s self-driven programming summer experience.  It is designed to give first-year students the opportunity to 1) self-learn and 2) build something useful.  Officially, it is a 4 modular credit (MC) module – CP2106: Independent Software Development Project – that is taken over the summer and graded on a Completed Satisfactorily/Completed Unsatisfactorily (CS/CU) basis.

Unlike the School’s traditional modules which emphasize academic learning, this module leverages the growing opportunity that computing students at all levels have in building useful applications.  This skill does not normally come by formal training, but rather requires time, experience, trial-and-error to hone.  Information foraging for technical details on the Web can be difficult, but we feel that through a combination of self- and peer-help, students will be able to put together useful systems and generate confidence in being able to go beyond the basics, and seek solutions on their own.  In fact, computing is the only discipline whose output can scale dramatically; a single person’s work can affect millions of lives, everyday.

Our School does not teach programming prowess as formal coursework, as it is not academic in nature.  Orbital is one mode where young energetic students can fill this gap by their own initiative.  Read more about the Orbital programme’s structure in pages tagged with ‘orbital‘.

Posted on August 29, 2019 by orbital

Congratulations to all of the 241 teams for completing the programme!  You’re the big winners in forming your own projects and navigating through all the summer hazards to finish your projects.  No doubt that you had wanted to call it quits at some point and wanted to have someone to help guide you a bit more closely.  But you persevered, insisted that you would stay the course, and won the battle against yourself.  You realised the only barrier to your progress was yourself and the fuel was your self-ignited passion.  You return from your summer journey changed, more confident of your own abilities and clear about how you can find your path forward in any technical scenario.

Splashdown featured a number of ways that you can take your work in Orbital forward, which both SoC (through our Entrepreneurship office and Centre for Future-ready Graduates), and the University (NUS Enterprise, especially NUS Overseas Colleges) have paved for you. In addition, you might also want to follow up with Circles.Life, DSO and Google, all of which have shared about the various opportunities they offer. Do weigh these opportunities and assess whether they are appropriate for you.

And now for the formal awards:

  • For Vostok: Congratulations to
    • Ho Jun Cong Keith and Dzulhilmi Bin Dzulkifli of Binary (Honorable Mention);
  • For Project Gemini: Congratulations to
    • Joanne Lim Ruo Qi and Joel Poh Mingzhong of ONE-STOP INVENTORY (Best Project);
    • Austin Santoso and Ryo Chandra Putra Armanda of BlitzEErt (Honorable Mention);
    • Lee Yue Tong and Lee Wai Fong of Double-Lee (Honorable Mention);
    • Yap Dian Hao and Kelly Lim of Starmist Studio  (Honorable Mention);
  • For Apollo 11: Congratulations to
    • Chester Sim and Andy Lam Kwok Wee of Clique (Judge’s Choice);
    • Weng Kexin and Raghav Bhardwaj of Nostromo (Judge’s Choice);
    • Kee Kah Lok and Yeo Chong Ern, Marcus of Thousand One (Best Project);
    • Jay Lew Jie Sheng and Tan Dexuan Max of JayMax (Honorable Mention);
    • Choo Qi Le Aaron and Li Zi Ying of PixiesPixel (Honorable Mention);
    • Fabian Chia Hup Peng and Ong Eden of  Tamagotgym (Honorable Mention);
  • and for Best Advisers: Joyce Yeo Shuhui, Kerryn Eer

Although you are the stars of Orbital (yes, you are!), there’s a whole host of SoC 50+ advisers, 20+ industrial and alumni mentors, staff, building facilities, A/V, alumni, senior students and student groups and the tireless admin staff from the Undergraduate Office and Corporate Relations that make this happen.  This programme does not happen anywhere else in the whole currently, so be proud that you are here in NUS SoC.  Go SoC!

Last but not least, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our 50+ advisers, 25+ industrial and alumni mentors, staff, alumni, senior students and student groups and the tireless admin staff from the Undergraduate Office, Technical Services and Corporate Relations that make this happen. This programme does not happen anywhere else in the whole currently, so be proud that you are here in NUS SoC. Go SoC!

Posted on July 31, 2019 by orbital

We’ll have a final, three-hour evening session, where all of you are required to participate (this is the very last milestone), in the form of a final Splashdown showcase!

SCHEDULE (Draft)
18:00-18:55 Poster Session 1
18:55-19:05 Changeover
19:05-20:00 Poster Session 2
20:00-21:25 Invited Talks and Award Ceremony
21:25-21:30 Group Photo-taking

 

Splashdown is structured as two back-to-back poster sessions with a final oral session and awards section; see the schedule below.  Orbital teams will be assigned to one of two sessions to present their work.  During each of the two poster sessions, each team will be presenting their work via a A1 sized poster that you will have to prepare and print (but we will pre-pay for you at SoC Technical Services).

Splashdown will also feature peer voting for best projects.  During the poster sessions, take note of which other teams you think did the best projects and vote for their project electronically using your smart phone or tablet. We’ll tally your votes and announce the winner at the end of Splashdown at the awards ceremony.  Guests (first years, and seniors) are also welcomed to attend and will need to register for the event to be given voting privileges; see the Splashdown page soon, when that information is updated.  Google has kindly sponsored some prizes for the very best projects, as voted by all of you and our observers.

Details for Splashdown (such as the final schedule and team allocations) are still ongoing, but you can check on the latest details on the Splashdown page on the Orbital site..

For those who cannot attend due to conflicts, you must let the module coordinator Jin (zhaojin@comp.nus.edu.sg) know ahead of time via email.  Attendance will be taken during the poster sessions.  Post-event application for leniency will not be permitted.

Posted on May 10, 2019 by orbital

Hope your exams have gone well!   It’s time to start to look forward to Liftoff, the mandatory 2 day workshop on 13 and 14 May.  Join your 450+ other Orbitees on our unified summer quest to learn something new and interesting for yourselves.

The venue for our workshop will be at I3, down past SoC and Biz.  We’ll be in primarily in the I3 Auditorium and NUS Enterprise’s fully loaded Hangar, and some other activities in the STMI Executive Training Room and LT 19.

If you’re not sure how to get there, please check out the following maps, or better yet, give a shout out on Slack.

  • Map for I3 (The building is marked as SoC @ I Cube on the map.)
  • Floor plan for I3 level 1 (The Auditorium is on the left side of the map, while the Hangar is the unmarked white space on the right side.)
  • Floor plan for I3 level 3 (The STMI Training Room is on the left side on the map, #03-44.)
  • Map and Floor plan for LT19 (The LT is right next to the SoC/BIZ canteen.)

The schedule has been updated on the Orbital calendar (available on the website and through Google’s public calendar service) and the dedicated webpage for Liftoff, so check it out.  We’ll post some more details about it soon, as well as some of the prerequisite things you may / will need to do before attending on Monday.

Posted on January 21, 2019 by orbital

[Summary: To take part in Orbital 2019, you will need register for it on 13 March, and stay in Singapore for the Lift-off workshop on 13-14 May.]

Orbital is an optional, self-driven, hands-on, summer project course for year 1 students.

The mission of the course is to give you the opportunity to get some practical experience on software development while granting you modular credits (along with other perks such as testimonials and prizes).

You will be working on a software project of your choice in teams of 2.

There are no formal lectures, and only one mandatory 2-day Lift-off workshop that you must attend at the beginning of the summer (13-14 May). You will also need to submit progress report online on a monthly basis. Otherwise, it’s independent learning and software development, under the guidance of our teaching team.

The registration for Orbital 2019 will be open on 13 March. There will also be an information session on the same day. Please watch out for our email / Facebook announcements about these.

For more information about the programme, please check out the following links:

Promotional Video: https://bit.ly/orbital19v
Official Website: https://orbital.comp.nus.edu.sg
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/nus.orbital/

Posted on December 4, 2018 by orbital

[Summary: Go to https://doodle.com/poll/fqvw3aadxtsxcy6p to pick your slot if you want to interview for 2019 Orbital staff (advisers/tutors/developers) this month. The venue for the interview is COM2-02-10.]

Congratulations again to all of the Orbital 2018 graduates. It’s now your turn to go beyond Earth orbit and be a part of the team to help the next 2019 Orbital cohort accomplish their project goals.

We are currently starting our recruitment drive for advisers, tutors and developers:

– Advisers act as peer assessors and cheerleaders for teams taking Orbital — you all had the experience of being under their wing this past summer. Here’s your chance to shine and contribute back to your juniors.

– Tutors act as the primary instructor for a mission control session or a Liftoff session. This means you are in control of teaching a particular subject for 1~3 hours. If you wanted to level up on public speaking and technical tutorials, this is your opportunity. You don’t have to be an expert to teach — anyone can do it if they’re committed, and you can always answer the tough questions offline.

– Developers are in charge of developing and maintaining Skylab (i.e., the official portal for Orbital). Since you have been using Skylab throughout the programme, you should have quite some ideas about what can be improved in the system. This will be a good chance for you to implement those ideas for the benefit of future Orbital students. Experience in ruby on rails and nginx is preferred but not required. You can always pick up the necessary skills as you work on the system.

– Advisers act as peer assessors and cheerleaders for teams taking Orbital — you all had the experience of being under their wing this past summer. Here’s your chance to shine and contribute back to your juniors.

We are going to be holding interviews primarily at the beginning of the vacation and the new semester. If you wish to be interviewed for any of these positions, please visit the Doodle form (https://doodle.com/poll/fqvw3aadxtsxcy6p) and sign up for an interview slot.

If you are interested but unable to make it for the slots given in the Doodle form, please contact me directly via email (zhaojin@nus.edu.sg) to arrange for an interview. Do take note that more interview slots will be available in mid-January. Please watch out for our second recruitment call early next year.

Look forward to hearing from you!

– Jin (Orbital Coordinator)

 

FAQ

– I’m going on NOC, can I participate?

– I’m planning to take a full-time internship, can I participate?

– I’m not going to be around SG this coming summer, can I participate?

The answer to these three questions is all the same: Yes, please apply. However, please also read the position-specific information given below:

For advisers: You may know that some advisers were not local during your cohort as well. The job can be done entirely remotely from NUS. That said, applicants who are local and who do physically participate in the activities will generally bond better with their teams (unsurprisingly).

For tutors: You will have to be in Singapore for the sessions that you are assigned to teach. The lift-off sessions will be on 13/14 May while the mission control sessions are scheduled on 18/21/25/28 May and 1 June. Usually we allow you to choose the sessions that work for your schedule and we can discuss about this later.

For developers: You can work anywhere anytime for this position. However, once some development tasks are assigned to you, you should work on those tasks actively and update your progress regularly.

– How much money can I expect to earn as a staff member?

The monetary remuneration is small, but the bragging rights and the additional job you can list on your CV/resume will hopefully make it worthwhile (aside from the intrinsic goodness of helping your fellow SoCian!).

Posted on September 6, 2018 by orbital

Photo credits from: Zig Ziglar @ Flickr

Congratulations to all of the 203 teams for completing the programme!  You’re the big winners in forming your own projects and navigating through all the summer hazards to finish your projects.  No doubt that you had wanted to call it quits at some point and wanted to have someone to help guide you a bit more closely.  But you persevered, insisted that you would stay the course, and won the battle against yourself.  You realised the only barrier to your progress was yourself and the fuel was your self-ignited passion.  You return from your summer journey changed, more confident of your own abilities and clear about how you can find your path forward in any technical scenario.

Splashdown featured a number of ways that you can take your work in Orbital forward, which both SoC (through our Entrepreneurship office and Centre for Future-ready Graduates), and the University (NUS Enterprise, especially NUS Overseas Colleges) have paved for you. In addition, you might also want to follow up with SGInnovate and Google, both of which have shared about the various opportunities they offer. Do weigh these opportunities and assess whether they are appropriate for you.

And now for the formal awards:

    • For Vostok: Congratulations to
      • Pamela Teo Jia Yu and Shi Kai Ning of Cookie Crumbs (Best Project);
    • For Project Gemini: Congratulations to
      • Andrew Tan Jin Shen and Ang Jie Liang of Sync (Best Project);
      • Ling Zhi Yu and Tan Zhe Hao of shigex2 (Honorable Mention);
      • Evan Tay and Lim Xuan Hao of Adverse (Honorable Mention);
      • Jeremy Choo Wun Ka and Lim Heng Guang of Lift On (attach video link) (Honorable Mention);
      • Chong Sia Tiffany and Julius Putra Tanu Setiaji of Turbocharged Potato (Honorable Mention);
    • For Apollo 11: Congratulations to
      • Lin Si Jie and Ranald Lam Yun Shao of gg=G (Judge’s Choice);
      • Lee Tze Ting and Tay Hui Chun of PayMe (Judge’s Choice);
      • Gan Chin Yao and Lim Wai Lun of 1500 (Best Project);
      • Giam Ju Xian and Tham Si Mun of 1509 (Honorable Mention);
      • Tay Kang Ming and Zhuang Yuan of KZMY (Honorable Mention);
    • and for Best Advisors: Terence Chok Ke Wen and Calvin Tantio

Although you are the stars of Orbital (yes, you are!), there’s a whole host of SoC 40+ advisers, 30+ industrial and alumni mentors, staff, building facilities, A/V, alumni, senior students and student groups and the tireless admin staff from the Undergraduate Office and Corporate Relations that make this happen.  This programme does not happen anywhere else in the whole currently, so be proud that you are here in NUS SoC.  Go SoC!

Posted on May 11, 2018 by orbital

Hope your exams have gone well!   It’s time to start to look forward to Liftoff, the mandatory 2 day workshop on 14 and 15 May.  Join your 450+ other Orbitees on our unified summer quest to learn something new and interesting for yourselves.

The venue for our workshop will be at I3, down past SoC and Biz.  We’ll be in primarily in the I3 Auditorium and NUS Enterprise’s fully loaded Hangar, and some other activities in the STMI Executive Training Room and LT 19.

If you’re not sure how to get there, please check out the following maps, or better yet, give a shout out on Slack.

  • Map for I3 (The building is marked as SoC @ I Cube on the map.)
  • Floor plan for I3 level 1 (The Auditorium is on the left side of the map, while the Hangar is the unmarked white space on the right side.)
  • Floor plan for I3 level 3 (The STMI Training Room is on the left side on the map, #03-44.)
  • Map and Floor plan for LT19 (The LT is right next to the SoC/BIZ canteen.)

The schedule has been updated on the Orbital calendar (available on the website and through Google’s public calendar service) and the dedicated webpage for Liftoff, so check it out.  We’ll post some more details about it soon, as well as some of the prerequisite things you may / will need to do before attending on Monday.