PPS HowTo

You want to know what it takes to organize the Orxonox PPS for a whole semester?

Well, you will have to be able to answer many questions from the PPS students. You should either know Blender by heart or know a lot of details about the code, the framework of Orxonox.

This HowTo is full of (insider) jokes and puns, so you shouldn't take it too seriously. Please don't be offended, if there is a comment about how lazy the PPS students are. We know that we exaggerate.

Preparation (a month before semester start)

• Define a general style for the content, otherwise the results will differ too much.
• Offer certain projects with very clear tasks and some with a lot of freedom.
• Already define a provisional date for the fondue/grill.
• Book the computer room and the room for the tutorial phase early.

Tutorial Phase (first three weeks)

• Don't make long presentations… the students won't listen anyway.
• You will NEVER have enough time to finish everything. No way.
• Students which lose their handouts won't get any points.
• Make sure, that the students know where to get information, so they don't always have to ask you.
• Always tell them, that when they get stuck, they should ask you and not just try lots of ways to find a way out. Sometimes you solve their problems with three clicks and they have been working on it for three hours.
• Everybody has to commit a piece of code or a first model in the early weeks to learn about the revision control system SVN.
• Inform students about the rough timetable. Tell them about the presentation, the pizza nights and the fondue/grill.

Coding/Modeling Phase

• Motivate/Force the students to commit more and more often!
• Students who don't know SVN after 2 months won't get any points.
• Send more mails to tell them what's going on behind the scenes, whats next and that they are already behind the schedule. (Be sure they read them. It helps when it's written in German.)
• Students are never finished… find more tasks if they want to go home early .
• Do never prepare something for the students during the lessons. Just work before and after the lessons.

End Phase (three weeks before presentation)

• Most importantly: Specify location of presentation EARLY! Write to a BIWI secretary to ask for a room. Write her a mail about 3 weeks before the presentation.
• Make the poster early. Start the design 3 weeks before the presentation.
• Print the poster at the Reprozentrale about 10 days before the presentation. Print approximately 15 posters in A3 or A2-size. Just write an email with the link to the poster on our server.
• Alternatively you can print at ETZSPEZ via VPP: Find more information under ​http://www.vpp.ethz.ch/ger/st/etzspez.html. Also: I figured out, that PDF does not seem to work, so send the job with PS. Also you will have to cut away white edges if you don't want them. Pricing can be found on the aforementioned website. Put Posters here:
  • ETZ: Foyer, Gloriabar, Computerrooms D61.1, D61.2, D96, (optional: TIK Institute)
  • ETA: F5 (Scherrer-Hörsaal)
  • ETL: Entrances
  • ETF: Lower Entrance, BIWI Institute, E1, C1
  • CAB: AMIV
• Write an ad for the Blitz. Remember that the last Blitz is published two weeks before semester end (two weeks before the presentation). The deadline for articles will be one week before (so three weeks before presentation). So be quick enough.
• Involve the students in general project tasks (printing the poster, making ads, organizing a room…)
• Be sure to plan in some evening and nights to work on Orxonox. You should also drag as many students to those evenings so they work more and you don't have to do all the work for them.
• On these evenings you should buy pizzas for everyone. There are several places in Zürich to order a pizza. We recommend Domino's Pizza at the Universitätsstrasse 11. Their number is 043 268 33 90. Buy ½ - 2/3 Dominator Pizzas for each Student (and yourself, of course). They offer 25% Take-Away-Reduction. Also some AMIV-members get 40% reduction. To unlock this achievement, you must either be on the AMIV-list at Domino's Pizza or call from the AMIV phone number or be very eloquent when arguing with the employee.
• Also do not buy too much beer. You and the students need to be fit to code. We rather suggest a coke as perfect beverage to wash down the pizza.

Presentation

• Make Power Point Slides if you want to show anything theoretically. The design should always be the same. Different designs during a presentation suck.
• You should probably have a presentation branch right two or one week(s) before the presentation, because then the hacks are implemented and we do not want them in our trunk, do we?
• The presentation itself should be a great show. Of course everything is going to be hacked, but relax as long as it looks good at the presentation.
• Go drink a beer with the students after the presentation. This is the perfect time to recruit new PPS assistants or to make them join the next semester's course.