Google Udacity Scholarship Update - Good news!!!

I know I have been quiet the last couple months, but I have not stopped coding! I have been busy working on my Android grow with Google track. I finished just in time before the 12wk deadline and am so excited to have been selected to move on the the full Nanodegree track. I posted the link to my tweet below :)

Link to my twitter
Super excited to have been selected for phase 2 of the #GrowWithGoogle #GoogleUdacityScholars Android Developer Nanodegree track!!! What an awesome opportunity :) Thanks to @udacity @Google

Free Code Camp Bolingbrook

Today we had the second Free Code Camp Bolingbrook Meetup. Only a handful of people showed up but that was ok with us. We were still able to collaborate and learn from each other, share progress, and make plans for future meetings. 

A while back I had followed the process listed on FCC to add a study group by requesting it be added to the list. Several months had passed and our group had not been added yet, so I decided to attempt to submit my first pull request to add our group. To my surprise, I found a fellow camper had put in our pull request (along with a list of other locations) and it is currently pending to be added. Very exciting!!! So hopefully this will help us grow our group as well. 

The whole reason I keep trying to start a group in the suburbs is to help us learn from each other, attend some meetups or conferences together and maybe even try our luck at a hackathon. I had already accomplished several of these goals last year with the Beginner Java Group and hope to spread this same encouragement in the new Bolingbrook Free Code Camp group.

Google Developer Challenge Scholarship:Android Intermediate - Update

I just wanted to post an update since I have been spending a lot of my spare time working on this Android course for the Google Scholarship. We are at the halfway point of the scholarship and I am on lesson 6. There are 14 lessons total but several of these in the second half are shorter so I feel like I am doing ok on progress and on track to complete it before the April deadline.

I have noticed that the course itself moves very fast and the explanations of things are very short. I have found it super helpful to use the additional resources other students have posted in the slack and forums in addition to taking part in as many online meetings as I am able to join in on.

Check back in a month to see if I finished on time :)

Intro to Scala - All day event at 8th Light

This was an awesome all day event and introduction to Scala. I was pleasantly surprised how much of my Java knowledge was transferable to the Scala course we worked on. Not only was the course content based on manipulating images (see the last link below) which made it so much more fun, but 8th light also provided a large amount of mentors which made feedback so much easier to get. I was lucky enough to have my own mentor and just asked questions all day long about Scala, coding, and becoming a developer. My mentor Kyle was self-taught and so was our leader Aina! This was so inspiring!!! I definitely plan to attend any future 8th Light or Bridge Troll events and highly recommend them. I couldn't help but take a couple other pics on the walk over.

https://scalabridge.gitbooks.io/curriculum/content/
https://www.gitbook.com/book/scalabridge/curriculum/details

Curriculum: http://www.scalabridge.org/creative-scala-v2.html

Free Code Camp Bolingbrook

After unsuccessfully trying to get a Beginner Java Group going last year, I decided to give it a try again this year with Free Code Camp Bolingbrook. Free Code Camp has a ton of free resources, a full free curriculum, chat rooms and articles and so much support. I reached out to a couple other group leaders in the area and got some tips to get the group going. To start, the meetings will be once a month and I am just the organizer not a teacher. The first meeting was small but there was enough interest to get started. We went over the new and old curriculum of FCC, did introductions and had some project collaboration. 

Free Code Camp Study Group based in Bolingbrook, IL Share the link to our local group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreeCodeCampBolingbrook

Learn to code at: https://freecodecamp.com

Open Hack Naperville

This is a friendly open environment to work on whatever project you are interested in. There are a lot of developers here to get feedback from and free pizza! Today I worked on the Android Udacity Scholarship course but spent most of my time setting up on my new laptop. I had to enable virtualization and run Android Studio as admin to avoid the errors I was trying to get working. I hope to have more progress at the next meetup.

Windy City Dev Fest at Google

Google Developer Group held Windy City Dev Fest at Google. This is a one day conference self-described as "A 100% community organized developer conference with industry experts presenting on exciting topics!" There were many sessions geared towards Android or mobile developers. Below are the courses I attended:

Session 1: Moto Mods with Christian Flowers from the Moto Mods team
He explained the process of developing your own Moto Mod starting from your hardware idea, to the software and approval process.



Session 2: Cheat code, combo, or power up by Michelle Schulp
This talk was about the advantages of using existing code and choosing how to decide different level developer contributions.

Session 3: AR Core with Patrick Fuentes
This was a great session on augmented reality and how the technology behind it is fairly new. There was a super cool presentation on how anchors and plane finding work as well as some of the challenges such as lighting issues and reflective surfaces. Definitely an area of interest I'd like to spend some time on in the future.

Session 4: Demystifying Constraint Layout with James Williams
This session was all about the constraint layout used in developing android apps.

Session 5: Firebase Analytics for Android Live! with Stacy Devino
Stacy walked through an app she had setup for the group and was able to pull real-time analytics such as options users chose on a survey and what type of phone they were using.

Session 6: Build your own app for Google Home with Martin Omander
This was a nice presentation on how simple it is to build your own Google app for Google home.

For more information, see the conference page: https://windycity.devfest.io/home

Grow with Google Challenge Scholarship: Android Developer Intermediate

I applied for and was accepted to the Grow with Google Challenge Scholarship: Android Developer - Intermediate. This is a twelve week scholarship that can result in a free Nanodegree program if you are one of the top finalists. In order to move on the next round (based on the numbers it looks like 1 in 10 will proceed), I will need to complete the coursework as well as contribute to the slack channel and the forums.

Check back for updates on this in April and wish me luck!

Women Who Go (Chicago) Let's Learn About Go Types and Interfaces

I had met Carolyn Van Slyck at a previous meetup and decided to check out her Women Who Go meetup. This event was about Go Types and Interfaces. It was interesting to note how easily you can declare a variable in Go and that the language categorizes it for you. I loved that the meetup was a smaller group and much easier to ask questions. I did run into some Windows technical issues getting started and was not able to take many notes on this one.

Metis One Day at Bootcamp: Python & Data Modeling Training

David Ziganto/Senior Data Scientist at Metis led a free one day bootcamp intro to Python and Data Science. This was a great intro to Python and how it is used in sorting and preparing data for specific presentations or uses. We used Anaconda and Jupyter notebook to practice simple steps for sorting and displaying data in different ways. After lunch he moved on to advanced topics using SciKit Learn to model linear regression and data prediction. 

Nathan from Metis bootcamp explained how their bootcamp is for people already comfortable with coding. There is an interview process and several prerequisites for those interested in going into data science but it is a very rewarding field and they seemed very passionate about it.

I have included the link to the event which has more information for those interested in data science:

https://www.meetup.com/Metis-Chicago-Data-Science/events/244672898/