Bootcamp Hero 🦸🏾‍♂️
When we first launched the remote developer bootcamp, our hope was to help students and other web developers to learn the fundamentals of blockchain and build real world apps using our API gateway. We never expected a complete beginner to not only pick up web development skills but also leverage blockchain into a winning project at EthGlobal’s HackMoney. To know more about his experience, I sat down with Aditya Vijaykumar who built Atlas Library System to win Sia Network’s 500,000 SC bounty (~$700)!
Q1. Tell us a bit about yourself?
Answer: I am Aditya Vijaykumar, a first year CSE undergraduate from Bangalore, India. I am a Graphic and UI Designer and run a design studio called Mellow Creative Labs.
I have always been interested in tech, particularly software development and my earliest memory of it goes all the way back to 7th grade when I was trying to comprehend Herbert Schildt’s JAVA reference book so that I could get into Android Development. While that didn’t really click, the passion always kept growing.
Q2. How and when did you find out about BlockVigil’s bootcamp?
Answer: A senior from my college came across the information and shared it with me in late March. I had been keen on understanding blockchain better and instantly decided to sign up for it.
Q3. What preparation did you do for the bootcamp? Did you know much about blockchain?
Answer: I recall watching a couple of YouTube videos just to be clear with the very fundamental concepts of Blockchain. A part of the preparation included setting aside a required number of hours every week to attend all the sessions and work on the tasks, but nothing else in particular.
I had knowledge of the very basics of Blockchain such as the peer to peer model, immutable public ledger and consensus protocol.
Q4. How were the sessions?
Answer: The entire Bootcamp was very well structured and each session’s objective was outlined beforehand. All the sessions began and ended with clarifying any possible doubts and there was a clear flow in what was being explained. Anything that was comparatively more complicated was explained more than once and almost every session started and ended on time. Each session’s task was fairly easy to cope up with and extremely relevant to understand the possible ways to implement what was being taught. On the whole, I personally found them to be efficient and highly effective.
Q5. What about the post bootcamp Hackathon?
Answer: Participating in an event hosted by EthGlobal was a huge added bonus. I had previously never worked on backend or DeFi development before and to be able to complete and submit a working project was a huge feat for me. I am certain I wouldn’t have been able to complete it if not for the guidance and mentorship from Swaroop and Anomit.
During the judging session, receiving feedback from some of the best blockchain developers had already pumped me up and thereafter getting recognized by winning the Sia Skynet bounty left me dumbstruck. It took me several hours to even come to terms with it and it has genuinely motivated me to keep working harder. I personally felt it was a really high level DeFi hackathon and the exposure to it has definitely inspired me in numerous ways.
Q6. How was your overall experience?
Answer: It was a brilliant experience and an extremely productive 8 weeks for me. I was intimidated by the world of blockchain just a couple of months ago, and now to be able to develop Dapps and explain the concepts to others is something I am really happy about. This also helped me become a part of quite a few great developer communities. I have made great strides in understanding not just the development aspect but also other aspects including the real applications of Blockchain in the world of DeFi and the right way to communicate to resolve any blockers or bugs as well.
Q7. What do you see yourself doing with the acquired knowledge and experience?
Answer: First order of business would be to completely finish up and polish the project which I worked on for the Hackathon. Thereafter it is going to be all about experimenting, learning a whole lot more and exploring what the real world applications of it will be. Definitely going to be participating in a lot more hackathons as well and perhaps even help a couple of my friends to get into the world of blockchain development. The Bootcamp acted as a fantastic headstart into the world of blockchain for me.
This recognition is a testament to our vision of bridging the gap for millions of developers like Aditya. We have doubled down on the commitment and are now mid way into the second Cohort of the bootcamp. Can’t wait to see what Aditya and others BUIDL through our platform.
We are constantly pushing updates to our developer platform and you can follow micro announcements on Twitter. During Hackmoney, we built something ourselves but more on that later.
