96th Monthly Technical Session
MTS, short for Monthly Technical Session, is held at HENNGE every month as a platform for everyone at the company to share their ideas and knowledge in a mini-conference-style internal session.
On 22 July 2022, we held the 96th MTS in a hybrid fashion. Half of the speakers presented on-site at the Shibuya Headquarters, while the rest were interns presenting remotely during their participation in the Global Internship Program (GIP).
Introduction of AI Avatar and Voice Cloning Technology
First up, Ayaka-san walked us through how the technology of AI avatars and voice cloning can be applied creatively at work.
Since Business Planning and Analysis Division is in charge of preparing the materials for the quarterly financial reports, they took this opportunity by leveraging the power of such technology with Synthesia Studio and Descript to create the following Q2 FY22 Earnings Results presentation:
“We would like investors to understand not only our financial results but also our growth potential. To do so, we need to seek opportunities to realize HENNGE’s value, “Take the First Bite” in our Investor Relation activities such as this one.”
Later in the Q&A session, Ogura-san mentioned that it was saving both him and Amano-san time and effort not having to block out their busy schedule to run through the script in person.
CPRD Talent Mapping Questionnaire (June 2022)
Next up, we had Iskandar go through the questionnaire results conducted within the Cloud Product Development Division (CPRD/engineering) for talent mapping in the future and also to learn more about the engineers.
The survey focuses on various aspects of engineer life in HENNGE, such as:
- How engineers rate their skills/expertise (languages/frameworks)
- What skills engineers are interested in picking up
- Project-related preferences
- Interests in activities outside of engineering (OSS, certifications, etc.)
Learning with Block-based Programming
Moving on, Jasmine talked about learning programming with Block-based Programming based on her prior tutoring experience.
“Block-based programming (BBP) languages are getting increasingly common these days as an entrypoint to programming for young learners. It allows users to “write” code by dragging and dropping graphical blocks.”
Out of the many BBP languages out there, we learnt that Scratch is one of the more popular ones and you can do a lot with it such as making games and animations.
While BBP serves as a good starting point for anyone who’s just getting started with programming, some parts of it do not translate directly into text-based programming and may encourage bad software programming practices if they want to get serious about it.
Switching to Declarative UI
Charles, who specialises in mobile app development then gave a talk about the switch of mobile-based programming languages moving towards Declarative-style UI.
For context, here’s a quick comparison between Declarative UI (modern-style UI) and Imperative UI (old-style UI):
Declarative UI
- UI is generated when needed.
- The layout is dynamic and combined with the data population.
- When data changes, UI is completely redrawn instead of updated.
Imperative UI
- Is a relatively static, persistent UI.
- The layout is generally separated from the data population.
- Changes are performed on the existing UI at runtime.
While there are upsides to using Declarative UI, such as:
- Faster/Easier to write
- Better cross-platform design
- Another way to force Model/UI separation
… it’s not perfect, some drawbacks include:
- Requires a full rewrite of UI
- Some widgets are not supported yet
- Some retraining of developers may be required
Charles then walked us through a couple of case studies on creating sample Android and iOS UI components, the problems we may encounter and the solutions to work around them.
Microsoft Power Platform: The Future of App-Building
After a short break, Hiroon talked about Microsoft Power Platform and how it is the future of app-building.
It is a low-code development platform that aims to reduce the need for IT in an organization with a powerful set of applications:
- Power BI: a business analytical tool that enables users to connect with several data sources, modify, shape and transform data according to the reporting needs
- Power Apps: an application development tool for building cross-platform applications using MS Power-FX, a low-code/general-purpose programming language.
- Power Automate: a process Automation tool that allows the automation of manual repetitive tasks.
- Power Virtual Agents: a tool that allows building intelligent virtual chatbots without having to write a single line of code.
With some of the use cases presented, Hiroon then elaborated on how it could be the future of app building by going through some of the benefits it could bring when utilised effectively.
NFT and the Rise of Generative Art
Next up was Chaw Chit presenting NFT and the Rise of Generative Art.
NFT, short for non-fungible token, is a record on a blockchain with unique metadata and IDs that differentiate them from one another to serve as a proof of ownership and authenticity of digital assets.
With the rise of NFTs comes the rise of generative arts, where arts are programmed using a computer that intentionally introduces randomness as part of its creation process.
With a little bit of coding, you can start creating your own NFTs by creatively generating arts as simple as mathematical artworks…
… or get funky by building your own NFT generative art collection:
Machine Learning with Golang
Moving forward, we had Camille give a presentation on machine learning with Golang.
Given that we have the option to choose a more popular and mature machine learning framework with Python such as Tensorflow and PyTorch, why should we be considering something else then?
It ultimately boils down to the following issues with Python: debugging issues and the lack of static typing.
With Golang, static typing is possible while its error handling mechanism is more intuitive and simpler compared to its counterparts, which should offer better maintainability when we want to deploy to production at scale.
Camille then presented her sample code in Golang for building a machine-learning data model with KNN algorithm and using it for image recognition.
Bushfire Evacuation System
Last but not least, we had Olivia present Bushfire Evacuation System for her final year project.
Australia is prone to bushfires due to its extreme climate in the summer and with the dominance of Eucalyptus trees around the country, their natural oil only further adds to the already perfect recipe for a wildfire.
The bushfire evacuation system aims to provide details on how people usually move around in regional locations, how hazardous flames spread, and how to improve the safety of the locals.
Adding onto an existing bushfire evacuation simulator, Olivia and her team produced a user dashboard that enables quick and efficient comparisons of multiple complex evacuation scenarios, aiming to be easily picked up and understood by users, especially volunteers who often may not have knowledge in firefighting.
Beer Bash 🍻
Following the tradition at HENNGE, we had Beer Bash on site while adhering to the COVID-19 protocols 🍣🍕🍻!
