My Google Code-in 2019 Experience
What is Google Code-in?
For me, Google Code-in is an exceptional platform to bring together a wide range of like-minded young tech enthusiasts from all around the world, to learn and develop solutions for the ever-increasing problems faced by everyone.
How it all started
It started with me, looking forward to my seniors who became the Grand Prize Winners of previously held GCIs. There was a very positive and motivated vibe among the members of the tech club of our school i.e. Tech Syndicate.
The Mifos Initiative 🚀
I have seen a lot of students struggle while choosing the organization which they think can best fit with their skill-set. Luckily for me, I did not have to waste much time in choosing the ‘right’ organization. As soon as GCI started, I was crystal clear about the organization I would contribute to! I researched The Mifos Initiative and honestly, the whole idea behind the organization really pulled me towards it.
My Journey with Mifos
The Mifos Initiative is a US Based non-profit open-source organization.
It leads the global open source community by providing digital financial services to a world of 3 billion people in the hope that everyone becomes financially included.
There are several such organizations but what makes Mifos so special is its mission to speed the elimination of poverty, providing a free and open-source platform and build its community.
Coming from India, I have seen many people being financially excluded and therefore I could understand and relate to the issues which Mifos has been working relentlessly on.
Tasks that I have Worked on
I mostly worked on Android Redesign, Android Bug Fixes, Research, and Designs tasks. Before GCI, I did not consider myself to be able to code and research efficiently however this whole journey has changed my perspective about my own capabilities. The best part about Mifos is that it values the work of the student and gives him/her due recognition. In the case of code tasks, we all know there is no better feeling than getting our Pull Requests merged, right?
19 of my PRs got merged (bruh moment for me lol) and I am nothing but lucky to have got such amazing project maintainers who reviewed and merged it.
Android
Some of my merged PRs:
Some of my open PRs(that I hope get merged soon) are:
And here are some of my favourite type of PRs (The legendary redesign of Mifos Mobile CN):
(Working on Redesign would not have been as fun if my friend Laxya and I did not go on a review rampage on each others PRs 😉)
Design
I had completely redesigned the Mifos Mobile CN App and guess what? My designs got approved by the head office and are currently being implemented! I told you, Mifos never lets any student’s hard work go in vain ;)
You can check the Prototype Video of my design below:
Some other designs that I made are:
A logo for Mifos Pay app
Graphic and prototype video of my mockups of partner-directory:
Mifos and GCI partnership graphic:
A T-Shirt that I designed for Mifos:
Mockup design and prototype video for Web App Store:
I would like to tell you that all my graphics/illustrations resembled the color patterns of The Mifos Initiative because I made them in hope that they actually get used. I would love to see my graphics being used for Mifos!
Nevertheless, my contributions to Mifos are not restricted to GCI only. I have created quite a few Issues on various repositories of Mifos and have also sent some PRs regarding the same. Some of my issues were also taken up as GCI tasks and I am extremely happy that not just me, even other participants got the opportunity to work on those Issues!
Getting to Know the Community
I would like to thank all the mentors for their perfect mentoring & their dedication to this program. A huge shoutout to:
- Chirag: thanks for dedicating your time to help a newbie like me learn such crazy new stuff! you are the real pr0g0d.
- Edward Cable: I genuinely appreciate you spending your valuable time and reviewing our tasks so that we can learn. I have never seen such a down-to-earth CEO :)
- Luphieanza: thanks for being extremely humble and reviewing the tasks even at 3 in the morning!
A big thank you to @abhijitramesh @govinddixit, @saumyasingh, Jaideep Prasad, Moksh Mahajan, @elirehema, and all the other mentors for taking out the time to review my tasks. Unlike any other organization, mentors of The Mifos Initiative were active regardless of their busy schedules and helped us by pointing out mistakes in our work and giving us the direction to gain perfection.
In this span of around 6–7 weeks, I made some amazing friends! The best part about it is that I have made friends from other organizations as well:
- Laxya, Ribhav, Oorjit, Chiranjiv, and Mihir: tech syndicate forever ❤
- Specially Mihir: Thanks for teaching me recyclerView buddy!
- Pun Waiwitlikhit: awesome guy! would love to meet you someday ;)
- Oussema: love how prompt you are on the Gitter channel!
- Sagar Khatri Bhaiya: the word Bhaiya(brother) itself justifies the effect he has on me ;)
- Ansh Deo Singh: thanks for the infinite number of rantings and random conversations to keep me up at night ;)
All of them kept motivating me (directly or indirectly) to stretch my limits and not lose hope. The Mifos Community was definitely very helpful. Not only the mentors, but fellow participants also helped each other!
Last but definitely not least, I want to thank my sister for being her usual annoying self while I tried to peacefully complete my tasks. And my parents who have always made sure I did not work empty stomach (and studied properly lol).
Conclusion
GCI has introduced me to various new technologies. A major one being Kotlin. It has also helped me enhance my ability to communicate effectively and efficiently with people. The program has also developed my existing skills such as Android App Development and App/Web/Graphic Designing. The research tasks were surprisingly very interesting for me as I learned about the fintech companies in various parts of the world!
GCI has also given me an essential lesson that I will carry forward for the rest of my life i.e.
You can understand and fix any problem with the right state of mind and necessary amount of time.
Well, the “problem” might also be bugs and errors ;)
UPDATE: I am the Grand Prize Winner!
I have been selected as the Google Code-in Grand Prize Winner. Can’t wait to meet other winners and my mentor in Google HQ, San Francisco ❤️
Edit: the trip got canceled because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, so yeah, rip2me.
