GDSCZine 2021-22

GDSC, VIT Bhopal

Published in

GDSCVITBhopal

Sent as a

Newsletter

16 min readJul 12, 2022

About GDSC

Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSCs) are university-based community groups for students interested in Google developer technologies. By joining a GDSC, students with a knack for technology enhance their knowledge in a peer-to-peer learning environment. GDSC VIT Bhopal seeks to connect students with the developer community in our university while encouraging them to solve local problems and augment their technical skills. We look forward to helping each other grow by building solutions to real-world problems and applications that can make an impact locally.
GDSC has been one of the most active and engaging clubs at VIT Bhopal with over 1500 members registered on our community website. We have 1350+ followers and an overwhelming response on our social media pages. As we have conducted various enriching and enlightening events throughout this tenure, we have crossed the 1200 subscriber mark on YouTube with around 475+ live views for our events, guaranteeing an interactive audience.
GDSC VIT Bhopal is an open community for digital developers, budding engineers, and hobbyists in our institution who are passionate about technology. It was launched in 2020 and since then, it has grown by leaps and bounds. GDSCZine is a publication by the core team, community members, and diligent developers at VIT Bhopal to share their insights on various technologies. It aims at exchanging ideas with like-minded students while featuring high-quality content about software development and technology management.
Our vision is to provide a platform for students, developers, and industry professionals to ideate and innovate by building meaningful applications that leave a significant impact. We strive to create a community where we can convert our knowledge into a real-time solution, help each student to develop their skill set in different fields of technology, and make use of their technical know-how to build something that helps local businesses around us as well as their community.

Flashback of the journey of GDSC 2021–22

During this tenure, GDSC conducted 26 event sessions, workshops, and a grand Tech Fest as a throwback to the community that included Networking in Metaverse, Game Nights, and GDSC VIT Bhopal’s annual hackathon, HackGDSC 2.0. Starting with the Info Session, the tenure commenced with the GDSC Lead introducing the core team for the year. With a magnificent viewership on the first event, the journey of GDSC VIT Bhopal took off for the second tenure. Many popular classic GDSC events like Android 12 Meetups, Cloud Study Jams, and 30 Days of Google Cloud drew a mass audience in the first leg. This period was also the source of expanding opensource awareness amongst the community with events like OpensourcEd in sync with Hacktober fest. GDSC brought back the 2nd Season of ML Talks with a major focus on zero to hero’s journey in Deep Learning. In the second leg of the tenure, GDSC introduced a new event series promoting Web and Web3 Development with Getting Started with Web Dev and a Guide to how 11 year old’s are getting rich via NFTs. The return of Android Study Jams complemented the Web Intensive sessions perfectly and helped many student developers create a strong foundation for Google Developer’s most awaited event of the year, Solution Challenge. The coming sessions primarily featured tips and tricks for Solution Challenge under the Solution Challenge Series. GDSC VIT Bhopal celebrated women in tech by conducting a Female exclusive Session, SheCodes, featuring a special guest, Ms. Arushi Jain, and a Coding Contest, Codess. The Solution Challenge Series was extended to merge with Flutter Fest where the student developers could learn how to build interactive apps in Flutter from scratch. With the tenure coming to an end, it was time for the largest event in the history of GDSC VIT Bhopal, SummerFest 2022. SummerFest 2022 saw a plethora of mini-events ranging from Networking in Metaverse to exhilarating Game Nights. The primary point of attraction for SummerFest was GDSC VIT Bhopal’s annual Hackathon, HackGDSC2022. Participants were encouraged to build projects around the theme: “Building a community towards sustainable development”. With a completely overwhelming amount of responses, the judges had to go through an extremely difficult task to choose the winners. Considering different factors like creativity, uniqueness, effectiveness, and purpose, the best projects of the respective tracks were declared winners in the Felicitation Session, which wrapped up the concluding event of GDSC VIT Bhopal.

Click here to read about all the events in detail.

WOMEN AND THE METAVERSE

Building a sphere that represents Female Power in Tech

Women who are working in the field of technology, generally have to build their area of the network very carefully, fight for a place at the table, and demand to be included in what is still quite a male-dominated sector.

Statistics depict that in 2020, women made up only 20% of Microsoft tech jobs, and 23% of tech jobs at Facebook, Google, and Apple. There are a lot of women in the immersive tech community, but the culture is still very masculine. Its development is very much driven by the gaming industry, which is notoriously male-centric, and this can harm the industry.

The tech industry has fewer visible women role models and mentors than it does men. This, plus persistent stereotypes about women and technology, often discourages girls from pursuing a career in the sector. It’s the small things — for example, a third of young female gamers report receiving gender-based abuse on online gaming platforms. On the hardware front, women are more susceptible to cybersickness than men when using VR headsets. Most VR equipment is designed for male users.

Click here to read the whole section

The Trendy World of Metaverse

Metaverse, A Marketing Buzzword? — by Sanay Singh Rajawat [Link]

The Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.

~ Andrew Brown

Elon Musk recently remarked that the Metaverse appears to be more of a marketing buzzword than a reality. After retweeting a video of David Letterman slamming the internet, Musk remarked.

The term ‘Metaverse’ is coined from the words: ‘Meta’ and ‘Verse.’ ‘Meta’ originated from Greek and is a prefix that signifies ‘Beyond.’ The term ‘Metaverse’ refers to a verse that has been made artificially. The internet can be considered a unique version of the Metaverse, it is limited just to our digital screens. However, when the term “Metaverse” is used, it refers to the universe in which you can immerse yourself totally in three dimensions like our physical world. This term gained momentum when Facebook changed their corporate name to Meta and stated that it wanted to enter the Metaverse space. This term was originally used in Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel “Snow Crash” published in 1992.

SMARTPHONES AS A PORTAL TO METAVERSE — by Harsh Raj [Link]

Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the internet was also once a dream and so were computers and smartphones.

For a long time, we’ve been living in the era of smartphones, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and other powerful devices with exceptional processing capabilities, but recently a new term has entered the picture, leading us to believe that in the coming days smartphones will be more than just communication devices, but rather a gateway to the infamous METAVERSE.

Have you ever thought that your smartphone could be the first portal to this enormous Metaverse?

GAMING: INTO THE METAVERSE by Apoorva [Link]

Gaming and the metaverse go hand in hand with each other. Gaming has always been a great candidate for virtual reality. A recent survey in XR Today noted that 59% of pollee believe that gaming will dominate VR, while 64% claimed the gaming industry to have the highest potential to benefit from virtual reality.

The vision of the metaverse involves individuals roaming freely in virtual worlds on different platforms and taking their virtual clothing, belongings, etc. along with them, known as a concept called interoperability. The metaverse game worlds also act as social experiences nowadays. For some, metaverse gaming is a story-driven adventure game such as World of Warcraft or the battle royale hit Fortnite. For others, it’s world-building games like Minecraft and Second Life. There is also another type of metaverse which uses blockchain technology, where users can buy virtual land and other digital assets using cryptocurrencies.

METAVERSE VS VIRTUAL REALITY — by Tanay Dwivedi [Link]

What is Virtual Reality? So, Virtual Reality, generally abbreviated as ”VR”, is a term that is used to refer to the technology that allows the user interactions with the Virtual/Digital worlds. With the help of Virtual Reality, various software developers and hardware creators build experiences for the interactors in the digital world which envelopes us in a virtual world.

Since there is so much similarity between Metaverse and Virtual Reality, I have come up with a few differences between them which will teach you the dissimilarity between them on the basis of Definition, Ownership, Limitations and Experience.

KNOW YOUR TECH STACK

How to become a Crypto Whale using Flash Loans? — by Akshit Gupta [Link]

Imagine if there was a mechanism by which you could borrow any amount of money without depositing any collateral and use that money in any way you want, and then return it with little to no interest. If you can not return it, you never got the money in the first place. Flash loans make all of this possible!!

It sounds very absurd when you first hear it, but it is possible with the help of smart contracts.

Flash loans are made possible by smart contracts. A flash loan consists of a single transaction. The user borrows a certain amount of money at the beginning of the transaction. One can use that money in any way an individual wants by communicating with other smart contracts. The transaction ends with returning the borrowed money with little to no fees.

The wonderful world of Game development — by Adithya N Biya [Link]

Gaming. What a word. Waved off by many, revered as an escape from others. There might not be another non-political topic in the world that will split a room as gaming does. Regardless, it can’t be denied that gaming brings in more revenue in the entertainment industry than both movies and music industries. So maybe, just maybe, it’s worth it?

Game development is a word that is pretty self-explanatory in itself. Game development started off way before we could even envision it. Games started in arcades and even these games which we consider trashy and out of place in today’s gaming scenario were considered a piece of divine magic when it came out; subsequently, the game developers were branded magicians (and rightly so).

Game development can be traced as eras throughout the ages by seeing which engine or which style or even which genre has been used for the development of the game. This makes for an interesting read.

Technologies that are going to change the Web — by Tanmay Kachroo [Link]

The Web is continuously evolving with the rise of OSS (Open-Source Software) and the publishing of new libraries on a daily basis. Let’s take a look at a few of the new technologies that are most probably going to have a major impact on the web, whether it be improving developer experience (DX) or complex featured web applications.

In this article we talk about

Web Assembly (WASM)
RUST
Go

Sentiment Analysis Keeps Bad thought Away — by Akanksha Verma [Link]

Sentiment analysis can help brands monitor how their customers feel about them. They can analyze communities, forums, and social media platforms to keep an eye on their brand reputation. Or they can conduct surveys to understand what issues customers are facing.

Companies track their brand, product names and competitor mentions to build up an understanding of brand image over time. This helps companies assess how a new product launch would impact overall brand sentiment.

It can also help to analyze the negative influencing elements on the internet so that we can block such user handles to protect one’s reputation and keep that space of the internet free from cyberbullying.

Role-Based Access Control in Nodejs — by Ananya Sharma [Link]

This article will help you set up RBAC i.e Role-Based Access Control in your node application. RBAC allows us to provide permission to users based on their roles. We are often required to provide different roles to users to improve the security of the application.

Thus, we will be discussing an application with 3 roles for the user — client, moderator and admin. The user with the admin role will have access to a special route which will allow him to change roles of other users as well as view profiles of all the users.

API 101: Backdoor to Backend — by Aman Sharma [Link]

In this digital age, we are surrounded by applications that we pretty much rely on to facilitate almost all our day to day needs. Is reading the news, getting yourself updated with the happenings around the world the first thing you like to do when you wake up? Well, there are a bunch of news applications like Google News and Inshorts for that. Running late and wanna grab a cab to work? You can quickly summon cab right at your doorstep with the Uber app! Hungry but don’t wanna cook? There are a bunch of food ordering apps for that as well. You can just whip out your phone and order your grocery right from the comfort of your home without having to carry those heavy grocery bags and roam around stores.

But why are we discussing this? The point is that today we have these very convenient apps that can do almost everything for us. But that’s from the user perspective. To a software developer, there’s more to that. The first question that arises is — How are these applications made? Read the full article to know more…

Beyond the Cloud by Shireen Jain [Link]

For someone who is slightly more tech-savvy than the average person, they would define the cloud as the delivery of various computing services on the Internet instead of the clouds we see in the sky. Metaphorically, it can also be servers, storage, databases, and software wirelessly drifting across the Internet.

Cloud computing is much more than a clever metaphor. It has risen as an emergent trend that has yielded millions of apps and devices, billions of terabytes of data, and enough caffeine to keep any college student awake. Social media is bombarding with photos and videos stored on the cloud compared to personal computers. Customers have instant access to their data from anywhere, on any device, however they want. Big brands and small startups are experimenting with new ideas for content delivery based on cloud storage. Enterprises are starting to erase internal storage and move everything to cloud storage.

Neuroscience and AI — by Anmol Garg [Link]

These are really exciting times, as breakthroughs are happening in neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence. The symbiotic relationship between neuroscience and AI is reciprocal. While essentially, the concept of designing AI models to have them mimic the human nervous system was possible mainly due to neuroscientific research, AI is now rapidly becoming an invaluable tool in neuroscience.

So, let us have a look at the incredible innovation opportunities that intend to constantly discover the depths and myriad capabilities of the human brain.

NextMind to control devices using your brain — by Kshitij Agrawal [Link]

Using your brain’s ability to increase the volume on the TV may be something lazy people fantasise about, and it may soon be possible. That is, according to NextMind, with the help of its $399 brain-to-computer interface (BCI) gear.

It is a device which is small and round that can be clipped on to the back of the head.

The technology’s principle is similar to that of electroencephalograms (EEG), which are now used primarily in hospital rooms. NextMind’s technology, like EEGs, monitors the electrical activity of the brain and “reads” the signals to figure out what information is being delivered to the body.

The technique converts brain activity into a digital command for suitable devices after capturing and translating it. If the user’s brain sends a signal to change the TV channel, for example, the wearable can do it without the need for a remote control or even moving their hand.

How web integrate to keeping hackers and cyber-thieves from accessing sensitive information — by Miryala V R K Kautilya [Link]

The Internet could be a risky place! With superb regularity, we concentrate to approximate websites turning unavailable due to denial of provider assaults, or showing modified (and frequently damaging) statistics on their homepages. in several high-profile cases, tens of thousands and thousands of passwords, e-mail addresses, and credit score card info had been leaked into the overall property right, exposing site customers to every non-public embarrassment and economic risk.

The motive of information processing system protection is to avoid wasting you these (or any) forms of security assaults. The greater formal definition of site protection is that the act/exercise of defending websites from unauthorized access, use, modification, destruction, or disruption.

Effective data processor protection entails layout attempts throughout the complete internet site: on your internet application, the configuration of the net server, your guidelines for growing and renewing passwords, and therefore the client-facet code.

AROMA OF JAVA — by Prateek Agarwal [Link]

System.out.println(“hello world”) most of you might be aware of what it is. If not then let me introduce you to the consort of all the programming languages, the one whose popularity keeps on increasing as time elapses, if you guessed Java then you are right.

Java is platform-independent, object-oriented, and an easy-to-learn programming language developed by team GREEN. They initiated it in 1991. The language initially called Oak was renamed Java as lawyers of the Sun’s marketing department discovered that there was already a computer company registered as Oak. According to legends Gosling and his team of programmers went to the nearby coffee shop and ended it by naming Java after the erotic coffee variety from Java, Indonesia. Thus form then java keeps on arousing the programmer inside an individual. It seems to be bona fide as the “0xCafeBabe” magic number in the class files was named after the Cafe which was frequently conversed by the Java team.

Before talking more about java lets us know some fun facts which will endorse curiosity to learn more

Journey of Android Study Jams Facilitator — by Dhruv Mehta [Link]

Hello readers! My name is Dhruv and I am the Android Lead at my college’s Google Developer Student Club (GDSC VIT Bhopal). So, because of that I got the opportunity, to get nominated, for being the Android Study Jams Facilitator for my campus. Therefore I am writing this article to share with all of you my key takeaways and learning which I garnered during this amazing journey of conducting different sessions, events and workshops for Android Study Jams.

Android Study Jams are the series of study groups, workshops or sessions organized and facilitated by a GDSC at a campus for their students to kick start their journey in learning Modern Android Application Development using Kotlin as the programming language. During the course of Android Study Jams, students and members of the GDSC community get an opportunity to learn on how to create beautiful and functional Android Apps. These valuable skills also enabled the campus students to build even more compelling projects for the Solution Challenge 2022.

The learning content was curated and provided by the team of google developers themselves. So this year the Track for Android Study Jams was Android Basics in Kotlin course. This course ‘Android Basics in Kotlin’ is a series of sessions, units, pathways and quizzes focused specifically on learning how to build Android apps without prior Android Experience.

Minimalism in UI Design — by Himanish Mandrekar [Link]

In today’s day and age we are surrounded by technology to the point that it has become completely omnipresent. We mindlessly scroll away hours of our time on social media and chat apps. According to a research done by us, it was found that on average:

Every 6 minutes or less, people check their email and chat.
Every day, they use 56+ apps and tools and switch between them around 300 times.
On average, people spend 4.5 hours on their phones.
They multitask for at least 40% of our waking hours.

By borrowing a few principles of Minimalism and incorporating it into our UI/UX design language, we can easily grab the attention of the users. Minimalism in UI sounds like a user-friendly trend. When used correctly, it allows users to view the interface’s main parts and makes the user experience intuitive and purposeful. Furthermore, minimalist interfaces tend to appear elegant and clean, making aesthetic satisfaction one of the elements of desirability in UX.

ROADMAPS For Getting Started with your Developer Journey

Data Science and ML Pathway

Android Development Path

Web Development Path

Resources and Opportunities to Look Out for

HTML, CSS, JS

ReactJs and NodeJs

Notes

Practice Web Dev

Learning ML/DL from scratch:

Deployment of Machine Learning/Deep Learning models

Thank you everyone for being a part of this journey with us. It is the support of our audience and community members that motivates our team to work hard and deliver to your expectations. A huge shoutout to the entire team of GDSC VIT Bhopal for putting their best foot forward at all times and making this tenure successful! We hope you enjoyed learning and growing with us. Stay tuned as the new team of GDSC VIT Bhopal continues the legacy with new and exciting ways to grow the community.

To connect with GDSC follow social accounts and never miss an update :
Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube
GitHub | Twitter | Discord Invite | Whatsapp Group
To get featured on GDSC’s Medium Page, send an email at: dscvitbhopal@gmail.com