DEV Community: Allena A.

Our Approach to For Students, By Students Learning

Allena A. — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 06:10:41 +0000

At Bit Project, we're passionate about making STEM education accessible to all students, especially those underserved. How do we do that? By creating opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to be teachers and mentors. That's why we built Bit Heroes, a tech bootcamp in partnership with Microsoft Azure for high school students to get to get real, hands-on coding experience and mentorship. Through Bit Heroes, we wanted to give high school students interested in STEM a taste of what it’s like working on real coding projects in the industry, prepping them to think about their future careers.

Bit Heroes was held this past summer for the first time ever: our first BitCamp! We reached out to multiple high schools across the country, and over 100 students applied to the program after learning about it from teachers, administration, and parents. Applicants were students interested in pursuing computer science once they get to college, or are curious about learning STEM during their free time in the summer. After passing a round of preliminary interviews, students who were selected joined Bit Project as developer advocates, committing to our five-to-eight week program.

At the beginning of summer, an overview of the program was given to the students, and they created an open-source project using Azure Functions. This serverless computer service allowed our developer advocates to build small bits of code for their projects — called “functions” — without worrying about managing backend application infrastructure. Once our developer advocates finished this project, they gave a presentation on their projects in a webinar and published a tutorial with guidance from Microsoft Developer Advocates.

Because of our partnership with Microsoft, the Bit Heroes Participants had multiple opportunities to work with industry professionals like Senior Cloud Advocate Chloe Condon, and Development Specialist Umayr Sufi. Condon and Sufi were amazing resources for our Bit Heroes program. They assisted students with brainstorming sessions in the early stages of the program when students were formulating their plans for their project. After the developer advocates had a plan, Condon and Sufi provided constructive feedback and general guidance on how the students could improve their technical communication skills for their presentations, webinars, etc.

Additionally, Bit Heroes was 100% remote this summer, so developer advocates got to practice using industry tools like Zoom and Slack. Bit Project mentors held weekly meetings and work session meetings on Zoom for all the developer advocates to come together and discuss their projects. In these meetings, students were able to learn more about Java, React, and serverless functions in general. Students also met routinely with supervisors one-on-one for more personalized support. If students were facing an obstacle while working with their project, they could reach out to their supervisors on Slack at any time for extra help. Supervisors could also use Slack to remind students of project deadlines and check in with them when needed. "Overall I would say Bit Heroes was very, very organized, but at the same time, it's friendly. It's not hierarchical," said Jesse Lee, a developer advocate of our summer 2020 cohort.

Many of our developer advocates now look back and are proud to see how far they have come; at the beginning of the program, most of these students did not have much technical experience, but they've proven this summer that they are fast, eager learners. By the end of summer, the participants in our Bit Heroes program had completed a variety of amazing projects:

For example, Natalie Hung made a song recommendation engine using Azure Cognitive Services, which suggests songs based on the mood it detects when the user takes a picture.

Meghna Pillai created a scheduling bot where a user could input details about an upcoming event or appointment. She used a trigger timer in Azure Functions, which would send a text message reminder to registered users one hour beforehand.
Beau Hayes-Pollard built a wireless heart rate monitor that translates health data over a network using Azure IoT Hub, which gave him the chance to work with hardware in addition to coding. Check out his tutorial here!

Jesse Lee designed a Google Chrome extension that analyzes the content of articles online by using Azure Functions. When used, the extension produces a graph summarizing the level of reading difficulty and political ideology of the article. (If you want to learn more about our cohort's projects, check out Chloe Condon's article!)

By the end of the summer, our developer advocates said that the tech bootcamp improved their knowledge of software. With mentorship from Bit Project members and Microsoft professionals, students strengthened their coding abilities by learning more about Javascript, React, and C++. The program also gave them the opportunity to learn more about serverless code, APIs, and documentation — all from the comfort of their homes! Meghna Pillai, one of the Bit Heroes students, said, "Bit Heroes pushed me to learn as much new info as I could in a short span of time. It was an experience I wouldn't get anywhere else." The technical knowledge that they learned this summer will make our developer advocates better prepared for their college educations and careers.

Additionally, our developer advocates said they felt they had become better communicators through this program. Giving a presentation and writing a tutorial exercised their verbal and written communication skills, which is just as important as learning how to code. Being able to confidently speak to an audience or write clear, concise instructions is crucial for future engineers who need to communicate with a wide array of individuals (not just those who are more technically inclined). Developer advocates also got to practice interpersonal communication with each other and mentors, all of which will benefit them once they work in more professional environments later on.

Overall, we are thrilled to have had such a successful program this year. We loved watching our developer advocates thrive throughout the summer. Bit Project looks forward to hosting more BitCamps in the future, and we hope to inspire even more students to become software engineers and develop technical skills through open source education.

Recruiting and On-boarding in a Student-Run Non-Profit Organization

Allena A. — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 18:05:08 +0000

Bit Project was founded by a group of students at UC Davis in the summer of 2019 with the goal of making STEM education more accessible to K-12 students and helping prepare undergraduate and graduate students to enter the tech industry through open source projects. Today, Bit Project has grown immensely and includes students from all over the world who are passionate about supporting our mission.

Thanks to our dedicated People Department, we are able to recruit the best of the best and onboard new members seamlessly. As a result, we have built a global non-profit organization run entirely by students who share the mission of helping other students learn.

Recruiting and onboarding at Bit Project in the past

Becca Tran, a management consultant at Bit Project, shared that bringing new members into Bit Project was a bit different in the earlier days of the organization. Tran applied after hearing about the organization from a professor and was interviewed for her role in person.

At the time, Bit Project was still recruiting only on campus at UC Davis. Because of this, the organization was limited to seasonal recruiting, usually at the beginning of the academic quarter when other on-campus clubs were recruiting for new members too.

But how has our recruitment and onboarding process changed since March 2020?

Adapting to unforeseen circumstances

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools and universities to transition to online learning, Bit Project made the decision to go remote as well. However, going remote presented a new and exciting opportunity for the organization. Rather than continue to recruit and onboard members from just one campus, Bit Project decided to start recruiting from multiple campuses across the country.

Now, the organization was resolved to dedicate more time and resources to recruiting students from a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives. This also meant recruiting was now an ongoing process, as Bit Project members continuously looked for hardworking, passionate students to join.

Tran believes that recruiting from more campuses would be beneficial for everyone within the organization. “It was a good opportunity to expand Bit Project and diversify our candidates with different experiences and backgrounds,” she said. Today’s recruiting process for remote positions allows us to offer more students this unique opportunity to strengthen technical and professional skills to prepare them to enter the tech industry.

What is it like being a 100% student-run non-profit organization?

Bit Project is managed only by undergraduate and graduate students, and how we recruit and onboard students has evolved overtime. We are students — not seasoned professionals — so we learn as we go and adjust as we grow.

Even if we might lack in our own professional experience, this does not impede recruiting and onboarding at our organization. Bit Project is committed to learning new strategies for finding and onboarding members into our organization to improve our procedures. Also, we are very fortunate to have a professional mentor, Lily Gassner, who is Head of HR — Communications & Media Solutions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Gassner gives us advice on the best practices used in the tech industry today for recruiting, onboarding, and development programs. Most importantly, Gassner's guidance helps us learn to think holistically about how our People Department's actions further our goals as an organization.

"These days when I am working with some of the team at Bit Project, I just see the quality continue to improve, and whenever I share feedback, it’s taken. People are willing to learn and willing to improve. With that, I really do believe there is a good future for the organization," Gassner said. Even though we are student-run, we are still able to make Bit Project's recruitment and onboarding as efficient and effective as possible.

Besides, being an organization made up of students has many perks. Since everyone here is a student, we have a welcoming, friendly community — no need to fear any sort of intimidating hierarchical organization here! Joining Bit Project allows students of all ages to network with others and learn from those who are more experienced. Our decision to go remote is also an amazing opportunity for students to get the chance to understand what’s acceptable when working within a digital environment — an experience that will greatly benefit them down the road.

Recruiting and onboarding at Bit Project now

Today, we have an entirely new recruitment process. Our amazing team of recruiters are on the lookout for talented students who we feel would be a great fit for our organization. Before receiving an offer to join, students will be invited to go through three rounds of interviews, so we can assess the skills and experiences they can bring to Bit Project. This process helps us find more qualified candidates: students who are invested in helping make a big social impact at Bit Project and who want to be part of our collaborative environment.

After students have successfully passed their interviews and are ready to officially join our organization, they will go through Bit Project's onboarding process on Eduflow. In the past, we used to have a one-size-fits-all onboarding course for all members. But after reviewing responses from our new team members, we realized that our method could use improvement to reach and recruit a more diverse talent base.

By using feedback to understand where we could improve, we decided to move towards a digital training playground. Members of our People Department have revamped our Eduflow courses for our onboarding process. Now, our onboarding courses are more concise, and they include feedback forms at the end of each course to ensure we are creating open channels of communication from all members. Most importantly, Bit Project's onboarding procedures will now be tailored specifically to onboarding individuals depending on their background. For example, if someone has great technical skills but is not comfortable with public speaking, our training will allow them to practice those skills in addition to improving other skills they already have. For others who lack the technical skills, we are dedicated to helping them learn too.

Because we are student organization, we are well aware that some incoming members might not have a lot of previous experience. We know students are looking to grow as professionals in their role at Bit Project which is why we want to guarantee they will get practice using basic programs popular in the tech industry, like Asana, Slack, GitHub, etc. during onboarding. This process is designed to be supportive, helping our members succeed not only in our organization, but in their careers later on.

Looking forward to the future

By strengthening our recruiting and onboarding processes, Bit Project looks forward to increasing the diversity of our organization and bringing in students of all backgrounds from all over the globe. To ensure we are extending these opportunities to historically underrepresented students in the tech industry, we are dedicated to reaching out to and recruiting students of color who are interested in joining and supporting our mission.

By inviting students from these communities to join our organization, we hope to give them the chance to strengthen these important technical and professional skills while also bringing their unique perspectives and voices into the conversation around making STEM education accessible.

Altogether, how Bit Project recruits and onboards new members has evolved since its founding. Fortunately, the changes we have made have helped us further our mission and better support our students as we continue to learn about the best strategies for recruitment and onboarding procedures.

Regardless of your age, race, ethnicity, class, gender identity or expression, sexual identity, ability, size, nationality, culture, faith, or neurotype, we invite you to join Bit Project. If you're interested in our mission and work, don’t hesitate to apply here! We are always looking for passionate students to join our team.

Finding Useful Coding Resources When You've Hit a Wall

Allena A. — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 19:13:19 +0000

Knowing how to code is invaluable knowledge, no matter what level of mastery you're at. If you want to expand and strengthen your programming skills, awesome! But whether you've just started learning how to program or you've been doing this for years, you've likely run into some obstacles during your coding journey.

That's why we've compiled a list of tips on finding useful coding resources and some of our personal favorites. If you feel like you've hit a wall with your code, we hope you'll find something that helps you out below!

The Power of Googling

Search engines are your best friends, and this is the number one way to find resources online because the internet is always there for you, no matter what time of day.

If you can't find what you're looking for right away, it can feel pretty frustrating. But it's important to not give up!

Julia Ma, one of Bit Project's developers, said, "One mistake I see a lot of beginners make is that they don’t Google. When it comes to a problem that is coding-related — syntax, error, code compiling — always Google before you ask somebody because that’s how you learn the best."

Sometimes you have to get specific with your search to get faster, better results. For example, you can get creative with what types of resources you look for: walkthroughs, documentation, blog posts about coding, etc. Or you can copy and paste the code you're having issues with directly into Google.

No matter how you do it, Googling is a vital skill that will guide you towards countless of helpful coding resources.

Stack Overflow

Besides Google, Stack Overflow was one the most popular resources cited by Bit Project's technical team. They all cited this resource as one they turn to in times of need.

Stack Overflow provides you with a large, detailed library of questions that have been answered by professionals and other seasoned programmers. Everything you find on the site is meant for you to learn from, so don't hesitate to use it.

"Stack Overflow is probably a software engineer's best friend," said Bryan Wong, director of engineering at Bit Project. "Any question you have, someone else is likely to have the exact same question as you. So if I’m really stuck on a problem, Stack Overflow is the way to go."

Geeks for Geeks

Another frequently mentioned resource was GeeksforGeeks. This site, like Stack Overflow, also provides you with lots of detailed explanations on code. But while Stack Overflow is great for looking up answers for specific questions, GeeksforGeeks helps you strengthen your understanding of the concept behind the code.

Many members of Bit Project — like Atul Jayaram, a QA manager — pointed to this site as a great resource if you're struggling to conceptualize programming languages. Specifically, they said GeeksforGeeks was a great place to quickly learn about C++ and Python, although there are lots of other tutorials offered by the organization that focus on a range of topics like algorithms, data structures, and numerous other languages.

So if you're looking to build a stronger understanding of why code works — not just how it works — GeeksforGeeks can be your go-to.

W3Schools

W3Schools is a great place to bookmark if your projects focus on web development.

As you can see in the above photo, there's lots of web development languages you can learn: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, ... the list goes on.

This site only offers written tutorials, but it's a good reference point when you're coding. With W3Schools, you can actually open examples in their online editor and try playing around with it to better understand how the code works.

Youtube

Earlier, this article said that search engines like Google are your best friends, but that's not 100% accurate. In reality, Google AND Youtube are your best friends. You can look for video tutorials and walkthroughs of all levels where an expert can show you how to code and give you an explanation.

For instance, some Bit Project members like to look up tutorials on specific coding projects; then they code along with the tutorial and add their own unique features to the project as they go. But others, like developer Kathy Liu, prefer to use Youtube tutorials about the theory of programming, because they help her understand the concept of code so she can more easily apply what she's learned to future projects.

No matter your preferred learning style, you should be able to easily find helpful Youtube videos that suit your needs and goals as a programmer. If you're not looking for general video lessons, make sure to type what languages or what coding techniques you're looking for in the search bar. Like Google, if you get specific with your searches, you'll hopefully be able to find what you want faster.

Resources with Open-Source Code

Finding resources where you can check out open-source code will also greatly benefit you if you're looking for help. One resource you can use is GitHub, an open source code repository. Because GitHub is the largest open source community in the whole world, there's lots of projects available for you to reference to improve your own work (or even possibly contribute to!).

What's nice about GitHub is that you don't need to be an expert to use it. You can learn a lot just by going through other programmers' code, building off of what's there, or following projects that you find particularly interesting to see how they evolve over time.

Personally, we here at Bit Project incorporate GitHub into our work-flow because it allows us to collaborate and share ideas with each other, and we love using open-source software to help educate students about important STEM topics.

Online Coding Lessons and Assessments

If you are looking for more structured learning, there are plenty of sites dedicated to teaching coders.

On the one hand, a great place to start if you're a novice programmer is freeCodeCamp. This nonprofit organization teaches users code through easy-to-manage lessons. They also have Youtube videos and can connect you to a community of others who are just as excited about coding as you are.

On the other hand, there are also sites for you if you're more advanced and want rigorous assessments to help you practice your skills (perhaps even to prepare you for technical interviews for jobs!). For coders with more experience, we would suggest sites like HackerRank or LeetCode. These are great resources that can teach how to approach problems with common practices used in the industry.

A Positive Mindset to Coding

Now that you know some helpful resources, you can learn as little or as much code as you want. All you have to do is utilize the hundreds of free websites, videos, and documentations that are published on the internet.

However, with so much information out there, it's understandable that you as a programmer might feel a bit overwhelmed. Perhaps you might even feel like there's so much to learn that you'll never be as good as others.

When you've hit that sort of wall — a mental obstacle, not just a technical bug hindering your code — it can be difficult to find a way to overcome it.

Luckily, Kyle Begovich, Bit Project's Director of Developer Relations, shared this great bit of advice you should keep in mind: "The imposter syndrome is a mistake people who want to code make. You come to the conclusion that you don’t belong here, or you don’t have any original ideas. But if you have figured out that this idea is done and that idea is done, you can start to figure out what could be that next step. And that's where the learning takes place."

So try to keep up a positive mindset throughout your coding journey. It can be difficult, but dedicating yourself to learning something you're passionate about is worthwhile!

After all, with all these available resources, the possibilities for coding projects are endless. Use what you learn to start your own project in your free time — perhaps a website, or even an app. Then, you can share what you create with others to show off how much you've learned and to help your fellow aspiring programmers.