Google India Challenge Scholarship, The Journey Begins
“I do think it’s important to follow your dreams and do something which you are excited by. If you follow your heart and do what you like, you will always do much better. It doesn’t matter what your educational qualification is.”- Sundar Pichai
Hi All !!
This is Rohit here, I'm an engineering graduate from Bengaluru and i would like to share my experience about the scholarship initiative by Google & Udacity. First of all, I would like to thank Google — Udacity for a well-structured course(Android Basics), hats off to both Google-Udacity for the great efforts being put in, in launching this mind-blowing scholarship initiative. I would also thank the instructors/ mentors of the Android basics program (Kunal Chawla, Katherine Kuan, Lyla Fujiwara) for making this course an interesting one. Also would thank Akshit Jain and all others at Udacity for coordinating on slack & forums. A big thanks to all of you for a well-guided & structured course.
I learned a lot from this course(Android Basics) and I would like to share them right here. Like I said Both Google -Udacity have put in their best efforts, I’m sure all of us have reciprocated the same kind of efforts, interest’s by learning a lot through this wonderful initiative by Google-Udacity Scholarship. Coming to the knowledge acquired through this course,these three months have been a great milestone for all of us ,posting on discussion forums and helping people who are stuck in a particular line of code,showcasing our projects on slack and forum’s and getting their comments or feedback , I feel for a developer this plays a vital role in their career and mostly being active on slack as much as I can. Udacity has structured the course so beautifully.I have learnt how to build a better UI for android phones based on material design guidelines in terms of text size ,padding,margin,layout weights in case of linear layout and so on and how java is responsible in the back-end for user interaction with android phones ,it’s truly mind blowing how a piece of code can do a lot than just user interaction , I also learnt how to design buttons and how to make it functional through java and also learnt about the different views and view groups and how each one of these views get positioned in different viewgroups.
These are some cool apps that i developed during my course!! :)
Projects worked on ,while taking up one of Udacity’s free courses
How to create an object in java,class,methods,functional arguments and rest of object-oriented programming concepts in Java, and also learnt how to use the debugger,stack trace and fix any bugs that we might encounter in our app, which is a helpful tool, in case if we start building app’s in future . I also learned how to use the android emulator and also how to run it on our phones via USB Debugging. Most of all as developer’s, as a community we ought to help ourselves in case we face issues in our app that we might not have encountered, but somebody else has and how sites like stack-overflow and Google becomes a solution to those problems.As for team management and communication, slack would be the perfect app for it and also learned how to use git hub and how to share some code snippets on GitHub gists and how to make necessary changes or updating or sending a pull request, if working on a project in a team.
When I started to code during 11th grade, I faced a lot of hurdles with programming & algorithms and eventually lost interest, but I didn’t give up I decided to improve my skills further, while I was googling, I came across a site called Udacity. This is where my journey began, entry into the world of computer science.I was amazed to see all courses on this site and the way they teach these courses is simply remarkable. Initially, programming especially in Java and learning all those different mind-boggling algorithms wasn’t that easy, they were like thorns on my foot. This scholarship initiative(android basics track) has upskilled me not only in Java, but Android too. I learned java the easy way through practical examples from this course. Now this doesn’t mean Java is easy, Java is an ocean, but the course made it easier.And I also learned how to write a pseudocode and how to plan it the right way, before making an app. Happy to be part of slack, most of them are very enthusiastic and passionate and competitive learner’s, truly happy to be part of such an interactive community. Basically, I was an introvert,so this sort of kept me engaged and did my best in participating in various activities conducted on slack.
Certificate on Android Development
I feel the kind of opportunity being provided to us wouldn’t be provided on other sites. Overall experience and the way the course has been structured for people who are new to android or any other course is mind-blowing.I see Udacity as an ocean, as learners all we have to do is, just dive into it. They ensure quality is being emphasized in whatever course they teach.Udacity creates a portal for all those out there who are passionate enough to learn something new every day.I feel Udacity is an online school, although it doesn’t feel like school wherein we have grumpy old professor’s to boss you around, rather user-friendly,wherein one can learn new things right from technical to non-technical at ones convenience with convenient deadlines.Udacity courses just grab you and makes you want to learn something new every day.I feel you don’t have to sit with boring old text book’s right under your nose whereas here in Udacity you got some of the best experts from the tech and non-tech industry, who not only love’s to teach, but also guide people in the right direction in their respective fields. At end of this course, one not only equip themselves with right basic’s, but one also gets geared up for any industry. Whereas textbooks are limited, it can’t make you industry ready. Today the school’s and colleges generally are just theory oriented, and less importance is given to practical’s. By the time one graduates from college one doesn’t feel like they are well equipped or geared up for the industry.Whereas in Udacity we don’t just learn, we implement them practically, which is the correct way to learn anything. This goes without saying “Best thing to learn anything, is to learn by doing it and not just learning it”.
I would like to divert a bit from here ,and would like to share my experience and thoughts on how to deal with one of the most common issues that you may encounter, when you enter any company such as an Imposter Syndrome.Imposter syndrome .Yup believe it,i happen to be one of them,who felt like the worlds ahead of me in terms of technology especially in the field of computer science and the questions i shot at myself were am i ready for all this? ,now that i’m an engineer am i industry ready ?,is my knowledge sufficient? or am i just lagging behind? turn’s out that i’am not the only one facing this issue .How i dealt with this issue is being more passionate and being more inquisitive and being more open to learning things which other people know of and to never ever give up no matter what the odds may be, that is my motto after all .Every second in your life is a learning process .Watch motivational videos whenever you are feeling low or abit off , when ever your get this feeling ,listen to song’s or watch tech related video’s or any videos which could boost your motivation or might as well watch your favourite anime or favourite movie/serial :P like Quantico or Game of Thrones ,so that it can get you back on track .Remember every second of your life is a learning process.Problem is most of us keep thinking about whats ahead of us rather than focusing on whats front in of you meaning focus on the goal at hand which would help you reach the main goal ,do not fret if your unable to do something which you wanted to do or try.Learn & practice .Keep learning .Be a learner throughout your life.Imposter syndrome is something that we need to overcome with sheer will power and determination,and we are not alone everyone goes through this phase of life .Be proud of your achievement’s ,be it small or big .Be proud of it.Pat yourself on the back for making it this far.
Ever since I was a kid, I was fond of computers and wanted to know how they operate. My parents were very supportive and put me into IT kids back then in 2nd grade (where i learnt what a computer is, also learnt about printers & basics of computer ). Since 5th grade I used to fiddle with the old computers brought from my dad’s own office . I was very inquisitive and keen on knowing what was happening behind the scenes. I also observed few hardware engineers, who fixed up my computer during those days, would question & bug them as well. During 5th grade i installed Windows XP on my own, without the support of an engineer . Also Computer games were of big inspiration to me which drew me more into this field. I don’t know about others, but I assemble computer peripherals on my own I don’t require a hardware engineer to do this, by the way, I learned it through trial and error method.I developed a passion for coding during 11th grade. I was fascinated by games & how developers were able to replicate real world in simulation through lots and lots and lots of code. When I got my first android mobile, I was awestruck by the technology used and I’m sure Android would be top notch and on par with the Apple’s Iphone someday. Then when I started to explore more over the internet I came across sites like Udacity, which inspired me to push myself beyond those textbooks.I started to take up various udacity’s free courses and would continue to do so.
The scholarship initiative by Google-Udacity is a great opportunity for all those who are passionate about coding and wanting to equip themselves with latest technologies and those who want to be geared up for the industry. Like I said Google — Udacity Scholarship program is a well Structured course, hats off to both Google-Udacity for the great efforts being put in, in launching this mind-blowing scholarship initiative. What drew me into this scholarship is not just the word Google, but you got Google itself training you. Udacity has some great tech experts working at Google, who have shared their vast industry knowledge to people like us, truly gifted for having an opportunity like this. The Second reason why I wanted to take up this scholarship is that i wanted to earn a nanodegree from Google-Udacity all by myself without burdening anyone financially, as i’am a student. My only wish was to earn a nanodegree for Android Basics through this scholarship initiative.I did succeed by earning a full 6 month nanodegree for Android basics by successfully completing the Google India Challenge Scholarship.Couldn’t have achieved this without the support and mentorship given by Google & Udacity .Secondly My passion ,sheer determination also played key role in this achievement.My passion for the subject is what drove me here .
Udacian for Life !!
