Partner with us
The Partnership@CS program is an unique opportunity for the UBC Computer Science Department to foster meaningful collaboration with industry partners, alumni, and community members. The program provides opportunities for interacting with our 2,700+ students, 20,000+ alumni, and 60+ faculty members through a variety of research, student enrichment, and diversity programs. Companies will be able to increase brand awareness and recruit talent by providing funding and mentorship to help build leadership, job search, and other soft skills among our students.
Becoming a partner will enable your company to set up collaborative opportunities with our faculty members and graduate students by working together on cutting edge research and providing solutions to real life challenges. We also provide a variety of programs to enable both alumni and community members to forge meaningful relationships with our strong and diverse student body. We hope Partnership@cs will provide a structured way for industry and our department to engage with each other and to build a cohesive, integrated and diverse local tech community.
Why engage?
Our industrial partners choose to engage with us for a diverse set of reasons, like:
- Directly recruit undergraduate and graduate students.
- Raise your organization's profile among alumni.
- Increase diversity in the workplace.
- Learn about ongoing and emerging faculty research projects.
- Have direct access to student leaders.
- Provide volunteer and mentorship opportunities for your employees.
Who is involved?
The partnership program provides opportunities for engaging a diverse set of tech communities associated with the department, including:
- Current undergraduate students
- Current graduate students
- Past alumni
- Industry professionals
- LGBTQ+ students
- Female students
- Student leaders
- Instructional faculty
- Educational leadership faculty
- Research faculty
Student engagement opportunities
The overall goal of the partnership program is to provide engagement opportunities between the computer science department and our industrial partners. To facilitate this, we host a diverse set of events. We have found events that provide value to multiple stakeholders or are interactive (e.g., interview practice sessions) are more successful than more one-sided or static opportunities (e.g., employer information sessions). Joining the partnership program increases the visibility of your organization within the department and enables us to allocate departmental resources for organizing your on-campus events. Membership is crucial for enabling us to support these engagement opportunities: all partnership program revenues are directly used for these educational engagement events. That said, there is a finite capacity for holding these events due to space, staff, and student schedules and we encourage all partners to be in touch as proactively as possible so we can coordinate engagement opportunities.
What do you want to do?
Recruit our students
Tech Industry Nights
Participating in our Tech Industry Night Series allow companies to reach out to an audience of ~2700 current students and upcoming new graduates. Recruit for your company’s co-op, internship and new grad opportunities.
SME Tech Talks
Local small to mid-size (SME) enterprises present to students about interesting/cutting edge technologies developed or used by them. Talk can also include information about roles available for co-op, intern, and new grads within the company.
Company Onsite Events
Hosting CS student-focused event at your company (e.g. company open house, panel, onsite hackathon or other technical challenge). CS department provides support for developing event topic, as well as marketing and organizational support.
BCS Hackathon sponsored by:
Improve workplace diversity
Career Development/Job Search Workshops
Companies present career development or job search topics content with a specific diversity focus to CS students – or actively interact with students in workshops facilitated by CS department staff. (More detailed description of this available below in the 'raising company profile' section).
Industry Panels
Opportunity for company employees to participate as panelists on workplace diversity-related topics related to their personal experiences and expertise (See 'Raising Company Profile' section for more details).
Affinity Groups
Provide support to specific underrepresented groups within the CS student body (e.g. female students, LGBTQ+ students). Could be specific event sponsorship, mentorship, or support for groups’ activities or events.
Affinity Groups are sponsored by:
Diversity in Computer Science Conference Support
Provide support to CS underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students to attend conferences.
Access student leaders
Networking Event with Student Leaders
In a smaller networking session, interact directly with CS students who've demonstrated leadership skills. Students will include student club executives, departmental committee student representatives and outreach coordinators.
ICPC Programming Team Sponsorship
Become a key sponsor of the UBC ICPC programming team at the ACM ICPC World Finals. The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is a two-tiered competition among teams of three students representing institutions of higher education. Teams first compete in regional contests held around the world from September to November each year. Top teams from each regional contest qualify for advancement to the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals, typically held the following May.
Be an employer of choice for our students
Computer Science Tri-Mentoring Program
This program connects CS students with experienced industry professionals and with fellow students, through a mix of individual mentorship and networking events. With a mentor’s help students work towards careers-related goals, meet new friends, gain different career perspectives, and become part of the larger Vancouver tech community. Program sponsors have a designated space at tri-mentoring networking events for displaying marketing materials and interacting with students or alumni interested in career options with the company. Sponsors are also invited to have their employees participate as industry mentors.
The UBC CS Tri-Mentoring Program is sponsored by:
Industry Panels
Opportunity for company employees to participate as industry panelists on Computer Science career development-related topics related to their personal experiences and expertise. Target audience is current CS students. Employees gain public speaking experience and the opportunity to interact with other professionals - while building CS students’ knowledge.
Career Development/Job Search Workshops
Companies present career development or job search topics content to CS students – or actively interact with students in workshops facilitated by CS department staff. Some potential topics include: resume writing, LinkedIn profiles and online presence, effective job search approaches, personal project development, networking for introverts, preparing for career fair attendance, professional etiquette and behavior, and technical interview skills practice.
Recognition via Social Media and CS Website
Your company is officially recognized as UBC CS industry affiliates partner on UBC Computer Science website, and in UBC CS social media posts related to sponsored events.
Imagine Day Open House Booth
Participate in CS department open house for students on the 1st day of term (Imagine Day). Open house exhibitors include company sponsors, CS faculty and staff, and CS student clubs. Enjoy a designated booth for displaying marketing materials and interacting with students interested in potential career options with your company. Opportunity to provide feedback and tips to students regarding resumes, interviews and your company’s application process.
Engage with alumni
CS Alumni/Industry Lecture Series
This series is designed for UBC CS alumni to network and share information with each other and to meet other professionals in the IT field. Each of our presenters is a UBC CS alumni working in the local industry. They will be talking about new programming techniques, up and coming industry trends, and lessons learned by successful industry experts.
CS Alumni Pub Night
Annual social and networking event for UBC CS alumni. Program sponsors have a designated space for displaying marketing materials and interacting with alumni interested in potential career options with the company.
Contact us
We are always excited to hear from you. Please send us an email at mng@cs.ubc.ca and we would be happy to talk to you about what type of partnership your organization is interested in!
Partner Sponsors
We are grateful for the support of our many existing industrial partners, and welcome your participation.
