If you’ve ever scrolled on Instagram and stumbled upon a computer science meme or a reel playing on stereotypes of CS majors, there’s a good chance Pitt’s Computer Science Club and its leader, Nij Patel, had something to do with it.
In between going viral, Patel, a senior computer science major and president of the Computer Science Club, directs his passion for the field toward giving fellow students professional guidance on internships and personal advice throughout college.
CSC hasn’t always been churning out memes. When he became president of CSC in fall 2024, Patel wanted to “change everything” by improving the club’s community aspect, balancing fun and professionalism.
As a club member, Patel noticed students would attend club meetings and “would treat it like a lecture.” Determined to grow the club and make it more entertaining, Patel became president and started enacting his vision.
“We had 400 followers before I became president, and then over the summer, Jeremy Luu would post a different reel, some meme, every week,” Patel said. “They wouldn’t get popular at all — they would get 20 likes — so I told Jeremy ‘You can keep going, it’s not hurting anybody.’ Then after that, he posted one and it got 2 million views.”
In less than a year, CSC’s Instagram skyrocketed to 12,000 followers. Its reels garner thousands of views, with its most popular one currently at 66 million views. Patel did not anticipate the impact these reels and memes would have in attracting attention to the club, not just at Pitt but nationwide.
“I was on my internship in Virginia and a bunch of these kids, a bunch of people I was interning with [told me to] look at this reel,” Patel said. “I told them ‘That’s the club I’m the president of.’ They’re honestly super silly, but a lot of people see them.”
The club has grown alongside its social media. In the past, CSC would have an average of 20-30 students attending club meetings. But under Patel’s presidency, attendance has more than doubled.
Jennifer Welton, a Pitt alumna and the director of career development, has worked with many student organizations over her 25 years at Pitt but emphasized that CSC has surprised her. She said its efforts with community engagement exceeded expectations for a student-led group.
“I’m beyond impressed with what they can accomplish … Whatever ideas they have, no matter how big or how challenging, they seem to accomplish under Nij’s leadership and in almost all cases exceed their goals each time,” Welton said.
One of the most notable ways Patel has demonstrated his leadership is through his involvement in organizing the SteelHacks hackathon. This computing challenge requires participants to create a project in a fixed amount of time and is hosted annually by the School of Computing and Information. This past year, CSC secured Google as a sponsor for the Hackathon, helping attract more competitors to the event.
“[CSC] honestly took ownership of the hackathon itself, and they did such an incredible job,” Welton said. “They significantly increased the number of participants and they brought people in from all around the region.”
Patel has also made it a mission to reconnect with alumni, including Ming Wang, who was president of CSC when Patel was a first-year. CSC hosted Wang for a fireside chat on Feb. 20. Wang talked to students in the club about his achievements post-graduation.
“Since I became president, I reconnected with a lot of alumni … It’s a real full circle moment,” Patel said. “[Wang] was the one that inspired me to go to Pitt and do CSC, then he gave me the advice and mentored me along the way.”
The club has consistently encouraged mentor-mentee relationships between club officers and members of the club to give students academic or personal guidance. Patel has continued the mentoring tradition. Denys Tsinyk, a first-year computer science student, is one of five mentees under Patel’s wing.
“I got really lucky with Nij, and I can’t overstate how much he’s helped me and made me feel like I have a community here,” Tsinyk said. “He’s so busy as a president — it’s insane that he can still dedicate that time.”
Over the years, CSC has embraced the philosophy of “pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a Pitt student,” a motto the club coined. Members learn networking skills as they work to land internships and great opportunities.
“I used to be jealous of different students from Stanford or Carnegie Mellon because they are top CS schools,” Shreyash Ranjan, a sophomore computer science major and the club’s events coordinator, said. “They’re able to bring in different speakers and have different career opportunities versus Pitt — it’s obviously a great school, it’s just that we don’t necessarily get those opportunities.”
In 2024, Pitt ranked as the 56th best computer science school in the United States. Despite Pitt not being a top computing school, students like Tsinyk and Ranjan find inspiration within Pitt’s community and Patel’s determination to strive for excellence.
“[Nij is] very driven in whatever he’s doing. He’s always pushing, and he doesn’t like to settle or anything, and that’s what I find really inspiring for me,” Ranjan said.
Meanwhile, Patel’s biggest inspirations are his parents, both of whom immigrated to the U.S from India in 1988. Even with little money and few connections, they still managed to support Patel.
“[My parents] worked hard for everything they have, and I was grateful to grow up with such supportive and hardworking parents,” Patel said. “From a young age, they taught me not only the importance of hard work, but giving back to the community.”
Patel credits his father, who works in tech, for jumpstarting his computer science passion. With his father’s encouragement, Patel attended his first information programming class he took at the beginning of high school.
“I never thought about what I want[ed] to major in after that,” Patel said. “This makes sense … it’s fun, and so I took all the programs and courses in high school.”
Patel’s dedication to community impact is not just a reflection of his upbringing — it is a mindset that has shaped his leadership at Pitt. Although Patel received job offers from a couple of Fortune 500 companies, he’s set to join a startup in San Francisco, Fragile, as a software engineer after graduation.
“I want to be able to have an impact with a small team to make things bigger, grow things,” Patel said. “It’s going to be a bit risky joining a small company, but I’m ready for a mission and I think I’m cut out for it.”
Welton said that his commitment to growth and mentorship will resonate with the Pitt community for years to come.
“It’s rare to find a leader that actually has all of those positive qualities. And one of the things I find really impressive about him is his desire to consistently improve himself,” Welton said. “He’s not one of those students that are just out there going, I know best … He’s truly a leader, ensuring that what he and the team has built will continue for many years upon graduation.”