Tech Camp: how Google Developers communities in Georgia inspired younger generations to get into tech
When you think about what you have lacked in the past for development, you try to help others walk the path to success more easily.
I heard about the technology field when I was a university student. Even today, I think that if I had known about this magical world of limitless possibilities (we all know them by the name of technology) during my school days, I would have been a successful programmer today.
Perhaps this is why I came up with the idea to introduce the field of technology to school students and help them take their first steps.
I have shared the idea with the Google Developers communities in Georgia. We hosted a meeting where very experienced GDG Tbilisi organizers gave us tips and shared their experiences in organizing a big project. In conclusion, we agreed to carry out a technological camp for local high school students.
Two days before the New Year, we decided that 2021 should have started with a big event. Therefore, we began planning a very impactful project for the local community called ‘Tech Camp’.
Together with Mariam (DSC Georgia American University Lead), Iliko (DSC Georgia American University core team member), Giorgi (DSC Tbilisi State University Lead), and Bakar (DSC San Diego State University Lead), we planned the first phase of the camp. It was preparation for camp:
- We chose the session topics. Our goal was to provide high school students with basic information about specific fields like web development, AI/ML, game development, etc. Moreover, give them the directions to start a career in one of these fields.
- We have chosen dates for camp and made a timetable.
- We started looking for speakers. Mariam, Giorgi, and I agreed on finding the best speakers for sessions and negotiated with them.
- We have created an application form.
- We have created logos and other designs.
We should have done all these things in 20 days, because we wanted to publish the information on January 20. We created a “To-do list” and set deadlines for ourselves. We were very excited because we were holding such a big event for the first time, however, Ninutsa (Google Developer Group Tbilisi Founder and Organizer) was always by our side and we consulted on every detail.
Applications were accepted from January 20 to February 10. We wanted to be particularly active throughout this period, so from time to time, we introduced our speakers to the public.
We aimed to receive at least 30 applications for the camp. However, the number of received applications exceeded our expectations and 500 young motivated learners from Georgia applied for the camp. We decided to give 300 students a chance to attend the speaker session. In the coding sessions, where we taught algorithms and the basics of C ++, we increased the number up to 50.
Giorgi, Mariam, and I spent most of our time organizing the Tech Camp, although we did not need any other resources except the online platform for meetings which Bakari helped us with. That is why we did not start looking for sponsors. Also, we didn’t have an experience of finding sponsors and we didn’t take a risk. One evening Ninutsa wrote to me that the “Kangaroo” (International Mathematical Olympiad) wanted to become friends with us. We had “Kangaroo Hours” during the camp when we wrote fun math problems in our group, so we had little “math competitions”.
Then again with the help of Ninutsa our main partner Smart Academy appeared, who made an amazing gift to our participants. All participants received 50% discount vouchers and the top 3 received 100% discount vouchers for their courses.
We were very nervous at the beginning of the camp. We wanted everything to be perfect. We had different icebreakers before sessions, in which even speakers participated many times. Hence, we started sessions with fun.
participated many times. Hence, we started sessions with fun.
February 15: On the very first day of the camp, with Silknet Digital Products Manager Tea Turashvili, we talked about digital professions in general.
The second session was dedicated to Hardware and Software, which was led by our GDG Kutaisi co-organizers, Professors Temo Sakhelashvili, and Giorgi Chachua. Traditionally their session was very informative and fun as well.
February 17: On the second day of the session, GDG Tbilisi Organizer and TBC Bank Android Chapter Lead Tato Kutalia talked to the participants about how to take the first steps in the field of technology and how to become a good developer.
At the next session, the Front-end Team lead of Singular Otto Lolua introduced web programming to the participants.
February 19: On the third day of the camp we hosted 3 sessions. Giorgi Iashvili, CEO of the Georgian Information Security Association, spoke about what cybersecurity is, what are the examples of the biggest cyberattacks in the world, and how we can protect ourselves from hackers.
Game Developer Giorgi Dzavashvili introduced the participants to the basics of game development and taught them how to become game developers. Then Guja Lomsadze, DSC Business and Technology University Lead, talked to the participants about the basics of data engineering.
February 20: In the first coding session, Iliko, Mariam, Giorgi and I split the big group into small ones and held the first coding session, which lasted more than 3 hours instead of 2 hours in all subgroups due to the high activity of the students.
February 22: At the first session, the Bank of Georgia UI / UX Design Chapter Lead introduced the UI / UX design field to the camp participants. In the second session, already well-known speakers Temo and Gio returned to us with interesting presentations on Embedded Systems.
February 24: Engineer of Talent Cloud, Sandro Dolidze talked about cloud technologies that are interesting for everyone and explained how our favorite platform, YouTube, works. At the last session of the day, David Danelia, Test Automation Chapter Lead of TBC, talked about test automation.
February 25: Natia Doliashvili, a data scientist in the Bank of Georgia, talked about artificial intelligence and machine learning. In the second session, Ninutsa shared tips on career development in the field of technology.
February 27: The last day of camp was especially difficult for us. The goal was to complete the project created by our 2 months of hard work as well as it had been going on for two weeks. After the second coding session, we started the last speaker session day as well. The first guest was Nana Dikhaminjia, Vice-Rector of Ilia State University, who spoke about the importance of technology. Then DSC Ilia State University Lead Negar Wahid shared his experiences with the participants about what it means to be a freelancer and how to become a freelancer.
The end of the day was the most emotional. Our main friend Smart Academy had to publicly announce the winners: the three most active participants we have selected.
Before the Smart Academy representative — Mako named them, participants wrote their versions and guessed all winners’ names. We realized that this meant we chose the most active participants who were worthy winners.
Although it was difficult to work at the camp and Mariam, Giorgi, and I worked at the camp almost 24/7 for 2 months, the hardest part was choosing the participants. It is quite hard to reject someone when you realize how much your project can change someone’s life for the better.
It is true that we made an exception and initially allowed up to 300 students to attend the speaker sessions, but 2 weeks later we were left with 30 super active participants. These were the 30 participants who were so involved in the process and asked so many questions that all sessions lasted a long time as planned.
I do not know what success means for other people, but for me, the project and my efforts will be successful if there is at least 1 person who I would help somehow, even with sharing information.
Today we have many participants from camp who found themselves in the field of technology and decided to connect their future to it. This is a project of which we will be proud for a long time.
To watch the session’s recordings, please visit our playlist on YouTube.
