A warm welcome to the Systems Community of the Developer Club! In this community, we do a lot of work related to Servers, On Prem Administration, Cloud Computing and Administration of said systems, Embedded Systems Development, DevOps and much more.
We also support a lot of our Club Operation Infrastructure such as the Club Server, Mac Mini's, securing the endpoints using proper Networking practices, etc. It may seem overwhelming at first, but as you get started you’ll quickly learn new things and even share that knowledge with others.
Hey Everyone! Myself Sresthaa you can also just call me Shaga. I am a Master's Student in the Computer Science Program expected to graduate in Spring, 2026. I completed my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science in 2021 and have worked as an Assistant Systems Engineer for two years. If you have any questions regarding to On-Prem Management, debugging issues or setting up servers or embedded systems, Ill be happy to answer such questions.
Hi, I’m Wyatt Young. I’m a senior here at Western Michigan University studying Computer Science and currently serve as an officer of the Systems Department. I’m AWS Cloud Practitioner certified and have hands-on experience working with AWS infrastructure at a global company. If you have any AWS-related questions, I’ll be happy to help, and if I don’t know the answer right away, I’ll make sure to find it for you! I enjoy learning about the cloud and how it can benefit organizations of all kinds through scalable, reliable infrastructure.
As a member of the Systems Community, there is no expectation that everyone should know everything about everything Systems. We all learn at our own pace and have our own strengths. All that is expected of every member joining is to be proactive in learning said technologies, ask questions and try to understand why something works the way it is.
To ease into the community, we have setup several Tech Tracks each with a set of challenges for you to do in order to get you acquinted with the tech. The Tech Tracks as of writing are as follows:
This track will introduce you to how servers are configured, deployed, and managed. You’ll learn about networking fundamentals such as DHCP, the IP stack, and the OSI model, as well as how to set up and maintain infrastructure. Virtualization and containerization tools like Hypervisors, KVM, and Docker will also be covered, giving you a strong foundation in on-prem system management.
- Administer and maintain your own server setups (home lab, hosting server, automation, etc.)
- Understand the OSI model and answer common interview questions on it
- Design disaster recovery plans and manage production environments
- Apply best security practices for infrastructure and endpoints
- Gain hands-on experience with virtualization tools such as Docker, Kubernetes, KVM, and Hypervisors
In this track, you’ll explore how applications and services are deployed in the cloud. Topics include virtual machines, container orchestration, scaling infrastructure, and managing cloud resources. You’ll also get hands-on experience with automation tools, cloud-native services, and the best practices needed to administer cloud environments efficiently.
- Learn how cloud infrastructure is provisioned, managed, and scaled
- Work with major cloud platforms and their services (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.)
- Deploy and manage applications in containerized and serverless environments
- Understand automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts using tools like Terraform and Ansible
- Gain confidence in monitoring, logging, and securing cloud workloads
This track focuses on the world of microcontrollers, IoT devices, and real-time systems. You’ll work with platforms like Arduino, STM32, and ESP32, and dive into low-level programming in C, C++, and Rust. Topics include hardware interfaces, real-time operating systems, and embedded software design.
- Program microcontrollers using C, C++, and Rust
- Interface with sensors, actuators, and communication protocols (SPI, I2C, UART)
- Understand and apply concepts of real-time operating systems (RTOS)
- Build and deploy IoT projects with platforms like ESP32 and Arduino
- Learn the fundamentals of hardware/software integration and debugging
In this track, you’ll learn the essentials of Linux, from command-line navigation to shell scripting and package management. Building on that, you’ll explore DevOps practices such as continuous integration, automation, and monitoring, along with tools like Git, Ansible, and Kubernetes. The focus is on understanding how systems are built, deployed, and maintained in real-world environments.
- Gain confidence using Linux for daily workflows and system administration
- Write shell scripts to automate tasks and manage configurations
- Understand package management, system services, and user management
- Learn DevOps fundamentals such as CI/CD, configuration management, and observability
- Get hands-on with tools like Git, Ansible, Docker, and Kubernetes for modern systems management
- Pre Provisioned and On-Demand Linux Workstation VMs with a choice of Ubuntu or Fedora flavor by default and any distro upon specific request.
- Three Mac mini instances with virtual VNC access.
- Virtual OpenMP Cluster Lab