Thursday 26 March 2015

Google Summer of Code Training At The University of Nigeria, Nsukka



As part of our duties as Google Student Ambassadors of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, we have had two major GSoC targeted event in our University campus. 
The first event was themed GSoC extends Android. The purpose of this event was to create massive awareness about Google Summer of code; but on that first event we concentrated on the Android Students Club members. 
Our objective was to take away the myth that many Africans in General and University of Nigeria students in particular had about GSoC. They saw GSoC program as a highly
competitive program and not meant for them when compared to other participants from other regions of the world. They also believe that the GSoC application is challenging and very difficult to get in.
We started by distributing The Google developers offline tool kit to all the students present at this event. Then we went further to introduce them to Android programming and made sure that everyone present ran a "Hello world program on Android".
After this, we went into Google Summer of Code proper by introducing the students to google-melange website and streamed hangout videos made by GSoC program manager, Carol Smith.
Android Student club Members
The second event was tagged Gitclass. GitClass was a hands on training where we taught student programmers how to use the version control system, Github. The essence of this is to enhance collaborative coding and to bridge the gap that is brought about by distance when two or more programmers are working on a project. This was also an opportunity to introduce the students to the world of OpenSource. We saw this as a necessity since GSoC students work from home and the projects they work on are open source.
After these two events, we were able to reach out to about 100 passionate students and introduced them to GSoKites Virtual Classroom a virtual community created by our program manager where aspiring GSoC students come together and learn from the past experience of ex-GSoC students