Computer Society of India
AKGEC Student Chapter
The Journey
CSI AKGEC was where I first learned what building for real people feels like — not just assignments, but systems juniors rely on and seniors trust you to ship.
The selection was tough. I joined as a probationer under seniors who pushed us hard: learn Node.js, pick up tickets, show up for internal builds, and earn your place on the team. That period taught me more about accountability than any classroom did.
Every internal project — registrations, dashboards, small tools for society events — added a layer. By the time internships came around, I already knew what it meant to debug under pressure and hand something off that wouldn't break the next morning.
Render 3.0 (2025)
Render 3.0 was the biggest thing I helped run as a Senior Coordinator — a four-day frontend workshop inside college for 200+ students, from absolute basics to React.
My work wasn't only on stage. It was payment integrations, student data, coordinating juniors, fixing last-minute issues, and making sure Day 1 actually felt welcoming instead of overwhelming.
I led the JavaScript and React modules. The best moments weren't the polished slides — they were when someone who'd never opened DevTools left with a small app they built themselves.
Moments from the workshop
The chapter
Our core team — the people behind registrations, workshops, and the late-night fixes nobody sees. CSI felt less like a society and more like a small startup inside college.
Before the crowd walked in
Render 3.0 ran in the seminar hall. We tested mics, seating, projectors, and extension cords more times than I'd like to admit. A full hall looks calm in photos; the hour before doors open never is.
Setting up for Day 1
Whiteboards, slides, starter repos, and backup plans. We wanted students walking in to feel like the team had already thought through what could go wrong — because we had.
Opening the JS track
First session nerves are real even when you've rehearsed. I started with how the web actually works — requests, DOM, events — before touching frameworks. Strong basics saved us on Day 3.
Slowing down when it mattered
Some concepts need a second pass. I'd pause, draw it out, and ask someone to explain it back. Those five-minute detours were usually where the room finally clicked.
Live coding, mistakes included
I demoed live instead of only showing finished code. Typos happened. That's the point — students saw debugging as normal, not something to hide when you're 'done' learning.
HTML & CSS with Param
Param handled the early days — structure, layout, responsive basics. Students needed confidence with static pages before we asked them to think in components.
Abhineet holding down his module
Abhineet ran his sessions with the same energy he brings to everything in CSI. Coordinators split ownership so no single person burned out across four long days.
Abhinav on stage
Abhinav kept the room engaged — jokes when tension rose, clarity when things got technical. Good workshops need someone who reads the room, not just the slide deck.
Juniors in the aisles
We told juniors: if even one student is stuck and raising their hand, that's your priority. They walked rows, checked laptops, and unblocked people one error message at a time.
The junior team
They weren't 'helpers' — they were half the operation. Registrations, attendance, setup, cleanup, and the quiet work that let seniors stay focused on teaching.
When the hall got loud
The best sessions weren't silent. Questions, small wins, someone finally getting a button to work — the noise meant people were trying instead of just watching.
Between sessions
Short breaks were for water, chargers, and honest check-ins: Is the pace okay? What's breaking? We adjusted day-to-day instead of pretending the schedule was sacred.
Off-script moments
Not everything worth remembering was on the agenda — side conversations, seniors teasing juniors, someone finally fixing a bug they'd chased for an hour.
Coordinators in sync
Running Render meant constant handoffs — who's on mic, who's on registrations, who handles the fire drill. Pairs made that manageable.
Senior trio
Three years in CSI changes you. These were the people I debriefed with after long days — what worked, what we'd do differently next year, who we needed to thank.
After a long day
Exhausted but satisfied. Render 3.0 wasn't flawless, but we shipped something real — four days, hundreds of students, and a junior team that leveled up along the way.
The wider team
Workshops look like a few people on stage; they're actually a room full of people making it work. I'm grateful for every one of them.
Small wins
A deployed page, a working fetch call, a student staying back to ask one more question — those moments are why I kept showing up for CSI after classes ended.