Covid19 really did a number on the continuity of the program. The class of 23 left during Spring Break and did not return due to the pandemic. The class of 24 spent freshmen year completely remote so the community that year was functionally dead. The class of 25 was back in person, but due to failings of continuum (me, I did not do a good job of organizing anything and continuum was like 3 people at this point), many traditions and cultures were not adequately maintained. Functionally, there has been a hard reset to the STWing Culture.
STWing evolves as new students enter and old students leave. It evolves to suit the needs of the community, so this should not be taken as gospel. While one strength of the program is its adaptability, the legacy and network are also important.
With that context, the purpose of this site is to show what the program was like before the reset, and possibly serve as a reference/guide for some events for future years to consider. Hopefully this ensures some amount of continuity between the past and the future. Of course, I can only provide a snapshot of what STWing culture was for me (2018-2022), but there are also a couple historical tidbits from before even my time.
Intro and Brief History, the tldr (too long, did not read) version as I remember it:
The Science and Technology Wing of the University of Pennsylvania was created in 1989 as a living and learning community to see what happens when people of similar interests live and bond and socialize together.
It was the first part of Penn (besides for CS and admins) to get internet access
Got government funding for a student run/administered server (spark if i remember correctly). The force server recently migrated to the cloud.
STWing’s board, Continuum, is student-run. It was formed a few years after founding, and the first parliamentarian was Koosh (Kushol Gupta, one of the Penn Band conductors).
Around the formation of Continuum was also when the first set of Bylaws were formalized, which are the rules governing STWing. Adherence to the bylaws varies and I don’t even know whether the current version is floating around on GitHub, google drive, or somewhere else.
Around 2003, STWing made a big blimp. In fact, the maker-space/STWing’s room/storage next to the blue lounge is called the blimp room from its association with the construction of said blimp. (In the intervening time period, stuff happened and STWing no longer sole controls the blimp room. CHAS is why we can’t have nice things)
At some point, STWing tried to make an arcade machine.
During the summer of 2019, Air Conditioning was installed in Kings Court
Over the summer of 2022, the STWing Lounge was reassigned from 226 to the room in the B wing closest to the north elevator lounge (mirrored from the prior location as the room closest to the south elevator lounge)
Official-ish Events:
STWalloween: Halloween party, with snacks, costumes, and prizes. Planning should be relatively short time horizon, maybe ~2-3 weeks out
STWecret STWanta: Secret Santa gift exchange taking place early December (Pre-finals and pre-winter break). Planning should be medium time horizon, to accommodate for schedule availability and time to buy and ship gifts, ~1-1.5 months
STWing Banquet: Nice dinner at a nice restaurant and wearing nice clothes at the end of the school year, celebrates the graduating seniors and another successful and fun year, with videos/slideshow capturing the best shenanigans and moments from throughout the year. Planning should be longer time horizon, to secure budget/funding, find a nice place, settle on a non-exam date, and find a time that fits peoples schedules, ~2-4 months
Robotics Fair: TODO
Alumni Events during Homecoming and Alumni Weekend: TODO
Semi-Official-ish Events:
Rude Definitely-Not-Copyrighted Silverberg Competition: Rube Goldberg
Dinner Discussions: TODO
Research Colloquium: TODO
STWassassins: TODO
STWing Goes Outside: TODO
Marrakesh: TODO post covid era still viable?
Murder Mystery:
Informal Events:
Art/Paint: TODO
Media nights: Movies, TV, Anime, Video Games
Board Games:
Dominion:
VR Nights
Gardening Club:
Other Traditions:
Quote Wall: TODO
Alumni Newsletter
Continuum:
Parliamentarian/Piccard
Global Press
Local Press
Spaces Manager
Sysadmin
MISC to return to later
John parker fellowship