Pixels Camp Edition
Because we heard there would be an hackathon
Pixels Camp. “Three days of non-stop tech, talks, and a programming challenge”. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
Well, we weren’t the only ones thinking that. I can’t tell you how many people were at Pixels Camp, but there were a lot. I mean a-l-o-t. Enough to fill a warehouse — is there a more inspirational environment than a giant blue garage? Yeah, I don’t think so. And because this is the biggest hackathon in Portugal, we knew there would be a lot stories to tell. So, we grabbed our camera, drove all the way to Lisbon and prepared to take developers out of their comfort zone. And believe it or not, from a physicist to the next Tolkien, we were successful.
We are both finishing our thesis in artificial intelligence and multimedia. Different thesis, same advisor. It’s pretty much about user experience. How to deal with users’ emotion and expectations. Our dream would be to use that research and create a “world.” A Final Fantasy kind of world. But it’s not easy. When we think we are almost there, close to the most awesome universe since Lord of the Rings, we realize it’s not cool anymore; it’s not modern anymore. To be honest, I don’t know if we’ll ever finish it.
But the thing is this: the most incredible and realistic experience for a user isn’t only important in video games. That’s just the most complex kind of user experience. A simple web app isn’t that different. Change a button or the letter type might make all the difference. So, no matter the outcome, our research won’t be in vain.
When I was in the first grade, my teacher brought a computer to class. You can imagine the reaction of a bunch of six-year-olds to a new and fancy toy. Everyone wanted to play with it. But for some reason — I don’t know why — I wasn’t like the other kids; I didn’t just want to play. I wanted to understand how it worked, how those images were moving and how they appeared at the back of the screen. So, I started to explore and by the age of 7, I was already an hardware expert.
Today, I’m in the fourth year of computer engineering. I’m almost finished. But I don’t know what I’m going to do after. Recently I’ve become very interested in artificial intelligence and CGI. Maybe I’ll specialize in those fields and move to England. It sounds nice. Or maybe not.
I’d started university when a professor told me about arduinos. I don’t know if you know what it is. It’s kind of a platform that allows you to sense and control physical devices. I thought it was so cool that I wanted to try it in my house. Well, in my room at least. I think my parents didn’t trust me much beyond that.
Basically, I automated my room. You can open the blinds using the Internet and turn on and off the lights. It’s pretty cool. I’ll finish university in a year and a half. After that, I hope to start my own smart house company. Maybe then my parents will let me transform the rest of the house.
The best project I’ve worked on was a learning app. Because it was the first project I did from ground 0 to finish. That’s the best part about being a developer; to see the results of your work. To look at a web app and know that it came from you.
I quit my job last Friday. I didn’t like the team that much. It wasn’t working for me. I’m a full-stack developer. I studied Physics, though. I was almost finishing my PhD when I realized the future were startups. So, I joined Makers Academy in London, a bootcamp for people who don’t know much about programming. I decided not to get my PhD and became a developer instead.
So, what’s the plan now? I don’t know. I’d like to launch my own startup company. Something connected to university tech labs. Maybe in Lisbon. Maybe in London.
I will deliver my thesis next month. It’s about user profiles in social networks. I like data and informatics, that’s why. If you’d have asked me four years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that’s where my studies would lead me. Like probably 99 per cent of computer science’ students, I chose informatics because I liked to play video games. But, like probably 99 per cent of computer science’ students, during the university years, I knew I wouldn’t be in the videogames industry.
It’s curious that everyone looks at the biomedical field and imagines doctors dressed in white coats, with a white masks, counting drops into a test tube. That couldn’t be more wrong. I mean, it could, but there’s much more behind biomedicine than counting drops.
I’ll give you an example. Do you have a grandfather or a grandmother? Okay, then imagine a mobile app that would send you an SMS whenever your grandfather/mother falls. This is biomedicine. If medicine and technology got married and had a kid, biomedicine would be their son. In my case, I do the research behind those apps. I analyze the body movement, like the movement of an arm, and translate it into algorithms. Mainly with Python.
So, it’s much cooler than you thought, right?
I’ve been a developer for five years. After all this time, the worse part continues to be having people ask me to create something without realizing the impossibility of what they are asking. I mean, I love a good challenge. To look at a problem and try to find a creative way to solve it: that’s awesome. But there are requests that are not that simple.
I’m not complaining, though. I love my job. I truly love building something and knowing that it might change someone’s life.
We came to Pixels Camp because it’s the biggest hackathon in the country — so far. Hopefully ours will overtake that title.
We all met in college and about a year ago we decided to organize a hackathon. Since then, every month we organize a new one. We realized there’s a lot college doesn’t teach you. You learn by experimenting, by talking to other developers. That’s our goal. To develop soft skills and provide an awesome creation environment. We always learn something new. So, it’s always a win.
I had two options: computer science or cinema. But cinema was too expensive and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life paying for a course. I think I did the right choice. I’ve been a web developer for seven years now. I have a salary at the end of the month and a great work environment. No way I would regret this.
I still like cinema, though. I don’t wake up every morning thinking I’d like to be Martin Scorsese, but I still like cinema. Maybe when I have more stability, I can give it try. I have a friend who studied it, and he’s doing okay. But for now, I’m very happy, why change?
Editor’s note: by the end of the day, Lara had no voice. Two days later, she’s still recovering.
We were once randomly selected to do a presentation. It must have gone pretty well, because we were invited to do a few more. We don’t deny it. It’s always scary. The nerves before arriving, thinking we’re going to be talking to total strangers for 12 hours, trying to convince them to listen to us…
And it’s developers we’re talking about, which makes our lives a little bit harder. They are usually one of two minds. Either they’ve never heard of OutSystems and when told it’s low-code, the reply is a spontaneous “not interested.” Or, they know OutSystems, but don’t like it. Because it’s too easy to use. It’s too quick to develop. It means less time immersed in code. In short, it’s not challenging enough. .
However, like any good geek, they usually love t-shirts. So, we give them t-shirts. They come to us hypnotized by the free clothes and once we have their attention, we do a quick demo. Some just reply “still not interested” and take the t-shirt home — though “less code” is written on it. But, sometimes, we manage to capture that intrigued look. That’s the cool part of it.
Like it or not, the truth is web and mobile apps are what companies are looking for. There are plenty of young people who are finishing college and don’t know the technologies out there that they might end up working on. We believe we are actually helping them coming out of the box.
So, yeah, it’s always scary but the feeling of overcoming a challenge is great.
