Interview with VIS President Timur Erdag

VIS is Thriving and Prospering

26 April 2007

Timur Erdag, president of the CS student association VIS (Verein der Informatik Studierenden) talks about tasks, structure and future of VIS in an interview with Katja Abrahams. 26-year-old Timur from Engadin has been working for VIS since 2005 and will probably finish his studies in 2008.

Timur, how did you become VIS president?

By vocation! No, no, just kidding. But it is true that one should be highly motivated for this task and willing to sacrifice a considerable amount of of time. Furthermore, it is very helpful to have been an active member of VIS for some time, to know its structure and activities and to have good communication skills.

What does the structure of VIS look like?

VIS considers itself to be the classical student representation at the CS department and offers its members a variety of services. We currently have eleven management board members, and each of us is in charge of a different task, such as university policies, information, contact to IT companies or the VIS magazine "Visionen". During the opening hours of the VIS office, Monday to Friday, from 12:15 pm to 1:00 pm at least one of us is always present and also at most other times during the day someone is available to answer questions. Moreover, there are three VIS commissions, the "NachKomm", the Kontaktparty Commission and the Party and Culture Commission.

What is the role of the three VIS commissions?

The Kontaktparty Commission organizes the yearly job forum "Kontaktparty" with lots of enthusiasm and professionalism. This year there were so many companies interested in attending that the event was spread over two afternoons instead of one like in the past years. We even think that the numbers of participating companies will increase in the coming years.

The Party and Culture Commission organizes cultural and social events, such as the barbecue "Grillplausch am Katzensee", the cheese fondue evening FIGUGEGL and the party for 1^st semester students.

The NachKomm informs young people about the CS studies at ETH trying to get rid of prejudice and encouraging students to study computer science. During a "discovery day" called "Schnuppertag" at the CS department, high school students have the chance to attend classes together with current CS students, to have lunch with them and to ask questions about the curriculum and student life in general. Apart from that, there is a VIS mentor program aimed at CS freshmen who have questions concerning the curriculum. The NachKomm also participates in the ETH Info Days for Maturanden giving advice to high school students interested in studying computer science.

What other projects are there currently at VIS?

We realized that a lot of high school students do not really know what computer science is and have wrong ideas about the curriculum. To put computer science into perspective, VIS offers presentations about CS at Swiss high schools and we are actually the only student association to do so. At the same occasion, we would also like to show some of the exhibits which were showcased at "ETH on the road". Besides, we would like to organize a trip to the "Linux Days", taking place in Berlin from 1 June to 3 June. VIS could cover part of the costs and I am confident that we will be able to find enough students interested in going.

Is VIS attracting enough new blood?

In relation to the number of CS students VIS has the most members of all the student associations at ETH. The management jobs are all taken, however only about 30 to 40 students attend the assemblies. Considering that there currently are about 900 CS students at ETH, we hope to attract more VIS members to these meetings in the future. The NachKomm always welcomes creative and innovative people to promote CS among young people. And from time to time we need people to help out at all kinds of events. But all in all, VIS is thriving and prospering!

Further information:
Verein der Informatik Studierenden (VIS): www.vis.ethz.ch (in German)