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!