“Just by showing up, something good will happen” —Rushd Syed
The Coding and Social Lounge is a hub for events like the Alumni Hackathon
Computer science students at Rutgers University seeking to decompress, connect with friends, or just get some work done have long had their own hangout spot on campus: Two classroom-sized spaces inside the Hill Center on Busch Campus originally dubbed the “Collaborative Academic Versatile Environment,” or the CAVE.
“I would spend time there, sometimes until 3:00 a.m., just hanging out with my friends or doing homework,” says Jamie Liao, a 2018 computer science graduate and a senior program coordinator in the Department of Computer Science.
Jamie Liao led the effort to reinvent the student space now known as the Coding and Social Lounge.Rushd Syed, a senior majoring in computer science and philosophy, says that his involvement in groups like Hack-RU came from simply spending time in the CAVE.
“Being in the space gave me a lot of direction and taught me a lot of things that I might want to do,” says Syed, who has served as a co-president of the Undergraduate Student Alliance of Computer Scientists, or USACS.
Over the last two years, Liao has been working to reinvent and reimagine the space after a drop-off in use due to the pandemic. Last fall, the CAVE was officially renamed the Coding and Social Lounge (CSL). Along with the new name come other changes aimed at reestablishing the space as the hub of the computer science student community at Rutgers.
In the interview below Liao, who is working on her master’s degree at the Graduate School of Education, and Syed, who is student manager of the CSL, and who is assisting Liao with the project, discuss their vision for the space.
The interview was conducted by Deep Shah, an SAS senior majoring in computer science.
Q: The Coding and Social Lounge, formerly the CAVE, has been a cornerstone of the computer science community for some time. What about it made it such a hot spot for students?
SYED: As a student, sometimes you'll have a gap in your schedule, and it’s not enough time to go home and cook a nice meal or watch some Netflix. So, you can come to the CAVE, now the CSL, hang out, meet people, and learn a few things. Even if you decide to just be on your phone, you can do so in other people's presence.
Rushd Syed
LIAO: From the department side, there’s a recognition that it’s a way for students to come together and get to know each other. I've worked with (other) universities, and I think Rutgers is one of the only schools that has a space like this. It gives people a space to just chill with other students who share similar vibes.
Q: What were the reasons behind renaming the space as the Coding and Social Lounge?
LIAO: I think that first off, we want students to know there's more emphasis on building community.
The second is the neutrality of the name. A lot of students mentioned that the word “cave” alludes to, like, ‘man cave’ or something that's dark and scary. When I was first in this space, it was painted black and red, and that did not help! I want people to imagine a space that’s more inclusive, and also something a bit more intuitive for what you can do there, which is why we named it the Coding and Social Lounge.
SYED: That's a perfect way to describe it. As a student who's a really big advocate for the space, I'd be like, ‘hey, come to the CAVE. We're doing this. We're doing that. We’re doing karaoke.’
And people would say: ‘where is the cave? What even is that?’
Now when we say, “Coding and Social Lounge,” it becomes a lot easier to describe to people.
Q: What changes have you made to the space itself?
Students enjoying Secret Santa at the Coding and Social Lounge
SYED: We have a lot of new furniture in our main room, and we've switched up the layout so it's more conducive to hanging out. You'll see circle tables so you can sit with other people. We have one nice big table for group projects. There's a lot of open space in the middle if you want to walk around, talk to other people. We're also doing a lot to emphasize the social aspect. In the past, we’ve had movie nights, karaoke nights, board game nights, but now we're doing an official implementation of these things.
So, we had Lego Night, with maybe 40 people coming in, making new friends, getting into random groups to make some Legos, with competitions for the best stuff. We had crocheting night, hot cocoa night with card making, and origami snowflake making with a white elephant for the holidays.
LIAO: There’s a lot of setting up of these purposeful, intentional events for people to meet each other.
And I would say that's also this case with the physical environment. We wanted to make sure that there was not just one primary place to go in the room. In the old CAVE, there was this one giant table in the other room, which I wasn't a huge fan of, because if you weren't part of that table, you might have felt kind of an outcast. Now, every space is uniformly viable for everyone who comes into the space.
Q: Do you envision any new uses for the space?
SYED: We're planning to bring a more seamless system of academic support for students. Last year we implemented a full stack web app that creates a queue, and it's hosted onto our TV. So now instead of waiting to hear your name called, (and, consequently, not being able to have headphones in), you can just periodically look up at the TV to see where your position is.
Over the summer we did a mini hackathon with a lot of alumni. So, if you wanted to talk about how to make projects and get technical hands-on experience beyond just what you do in in your courses, this was really great, and we hope to do it again soon.
Q: Summing up, how do all the changes help the Coding & Social Lounge continue to foster a sense of community?
LIAO: It's understanding what the students want and then seeing what we can do to accommodate their needs. I’d like to see it become more systematic where we set up systems that allow students to do the things they want to do. We’re encouraging students to be proactive, and to give them the space, the time, and the chance to do the things that they care about and that they want to share with the community.
That's the new vibe we’re working toward. So, if I hear someone who's interested in doing machine learning or AI, I am going to be like, ‘what do you wish you could do with that? And do you want to teach people about that?’ 
The Coding and Social Lounge helps create a strong student community in computer science.
Throughout the years, a lot of people just came to the CAVE for tutoring. And I think that shifted the dynamic to where many people were there for the short term. Going forward I’d like to make these micro changes so that during certain time frames, the space is just there for the students who want to hang out, meet people, and bring that spirit of camaraderie and community.
SYED: Yes, I think becoming more explicitly a hub with more things going on. You might come during the day and now, you’ll see on our whiteboard that tonight is Lego night. Then you might get pulled into something else by virtue of being here. A lot of the programs on campus meet up in our space. The tutoring from the CSL have staff meetings here. I've grabbed people here to put them onto the HackRU team.
So just by showing up and being here, the idea is that something good will happen to you, and that ‘something’ will be either fun or technically inspiring or just pushing you in the right direction.