Signing Off: DSC Lead 2020–2021

It’s May 2021, and this is the time when the Leadership of Google Developer Students Clubs(GDSC) is transferred from one individual to an individual. This year was the first time GDSC was established in VIT Bhopal University. Being the Community Lead of such a wonderful initiative by Google was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Let’s track this from the beginning, discussing how the seed was planted, how the journey began, the challenges I faced and how time flew so quickly leaving us with remarkable moments, memorable experiences and learning for life.

Throughout the article, I would be sharing my experience in a way so you can relate to them, and suggest to you some plan of action of how to deal if you get stuck in a similar situation.

How the Idea was Planted

In my second semester, I attended general university classes and tried to fit in with the new ambience. It was monotonous, tedious and very normal.

I participated in the Smart India Hackathon, along with my 3 friends. We were stuck with an issue while implementing Web Scraping in the Django framework. I, being an ambivert student, didn’t know many students or faculty, but still, I approached a few, but couldn’t get any help.

This experience made me realise the requirement of some platform we can ask our queries and get mentorship and guidance. We should try to understand students thought process and encourage their ideas instead of demoralizing them.

Next, I reached out to online forums and communities, spent hours resolving minor issues, experimenting with various computer science technologies and domains. This was the point where I came to know about Google Developer Students Club.

At the very first glance, I was filled with enthusiasm and a bit afraid at the same time. This was something I thought about so that I can make sure that the other students don’t face the same problem that I faced. It can enhance the developer community of the university and also provide a platform for students where they can freely discuss their doubts and problems.

Preparation for the Interview

Being my own biggest critic, the question kept buzzing in my mind, “Why Me? How am I eligible for the position of DSC Lead, since I was just a fresher!”. Somewhat the desire to bring a change in the university was the driving force for me to apply for this position.

I researched for days, analysing the type of questions asked, the way DSC works and the resources it can provide. I read the experiences of past DSC Lead, how they established the community, the kind of work they did and the impact they created.

The selection process consists of two rounds:

• Online Application.
• Interview by a Googler.

I filled the application form, with a 1 min recording where I expressed my idea and purpose of establishing the Google DSC Community at my university.

After a few weeks, I received an email with the subject, “Developer Student Clubs — Update on next steps”. Yes, I was selected for the interview. :Dumrolls:

The next milestone was the interview, I was nervous, my interviewer was Mr Pradipta. In the interview, I was asked two sets of questions:

• Understanding of DSC, purpose to establish a community and the problems students are currently facing.
• Technical Knowledge, past projects, and experience of Leadership.

The interview was fine, it was a great experience for me. After a month, I received an email with the subject, “Developer Student Clubs — Update on next steps”.

I am exhilarated to be a part of Google Developers Experts. With great power comes great responsibility to learn, build and grow together. I hope to make the most out of this opportunity bestowed upon me and play my part to make the world a better place!

How It started

This was the time to implement everything that I have planned till now. From the very first day, I knew I had just 1 year to do whatever I have planned. The next thing was to establish an official club in the university.

I sent the proposal to the HOD, telling about the selection as Google DSC Lead and willingness to establish a community for the same. It was approved in a week and I was assigned a faculty coordinator for the DSC club.

Our faculty Coordinator, Dr L Shakkeera was supportive and always encouraged me to move ahead with the ideas I have planned.

I created the following social handles and platforms:

• Linkedin Organisation Page
• GitHub Organisation Page
• Instagram/Twitter/Facebook handles.
• Medium Publication

After a few days sometimes, I scheduled a recruitment process to form the core team of DSC. It consists of resume shortlisting and an interview. Going through 100’s of applications, I shortlisted the best and most deserving ones and formed a team of 10 members (including myself).

How we planned: Initial Phase

In the very first induction session, I shared some perspicacity of DSC with my Core team, familiarising them with our working methodology, Vision and Purpose of DSC.

We started with our Induction and Information session, and we received a huge response from the college students. This was followed by educational sessions on different domains and technology like Google actions, Open-Source, Competitive Coding and Web Development.

Along the way, we were uniformly emphasizing the maintenance of our Medium Publication, GitHub Organisation and social handles.

Requirement for a team

After a few months, we felt the requirement of a team, a team that shared the same vision and had expertise in a specific domain with an urge to help other fellow student developers. We conducted a fully-fledged recruitment process, under the guidance of our faculty coordinator.

The recruitment process consists of resume shortlisting and two rounds of interview. A group of individuals from diverse domains were shortlisted.

The High Tide of DSC

As the team was formed, we followed a stringent schedule. Frequent meetings of each domain every week and the entire DSC team meeting once a month. We carried out our work at a high pace, as a result, tremendous growth was witnessed in the frequency of DSC Sessions and workshops, Projects, Publication and social engagement.

We conducted various other sessions: Android Study Jams, Solution Challenge workshops, DSC ML Talks, WTM She Leads, Cybersecurity, Blockchain and Shell Scripting.

For Project work, I divided the technical team into chunks to work and collaborate on some project which aims to solve local problems. I also assured that the projects are open-sourced to other students and also involve themselves. All our projects are listed on the Github Organisation of DSC VIT Bhopal.

At end same time, our Publication, handed by the content team, was influencing the crowd through articles and blogs on various interesting topics and technologies, providing them with the knowledge to expand their domain and know how wide and Computer Science is.

Collaborations

DSC WOW

DSC Week Of Wonders, aka DSC WOW. CodeOffDuty is a week-long event that includes four days of workshops/sessions and a 48-hour hackathon. This is much more than a few workshops and a hackathon to us developers and tech aficionados; it is a location where imagination meets tomorrow’s technology.

The Coding Culture

The Coding Culture is a project spearheaded by many DSC chapter leaders across India. Every month, this student-run open community hosts webinars and contests. The flow goes like this, a topic is selected for a month, whose resources are shared during month start, followed by a week-long webinar on the same topic.

DESIGN 2 SUSTAIN

Yet another Collab event of Developer Student Clubs announced “DESIGN 2 SUSTAIN” as a part of Solution Challenge 2021, a two-day event starting from Saturday, Mar 13, 6:00 PM, streamed on the official youtube channel.

The event inspiration is from the Design Sprint, which is a step closer to be the #1 solution challenge. It helps in identifying a problem from the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals define a user and find a solution for the same.

Concluding Mega Event

For our concluding event, we are here with a one of a kind Hackathon — HACKDSC 2021 on 1 and 2 May.

HackDSC 2021 is a 48-hour hackathon held by VIT Bhopal’s Developer Student Club (DSC), which invites students to put their talents in the technical realm to the test. It is based on the topic “Innovation”, and with the problem statement being “Targeting local problems and solving them through technology”

The projects were evaluated based on their application, relevance, design, and code structure, with approximately 750 individuals and 350 teams spread over 9 domains. More than 270 teams submitted completed projects, and the sheer amount of time and attention that the teams put into the projects is undeniable.

I extended my gratitude to all community members. HackDSC would not have been as successful as it is without your support throughout our journey

Conclusion

With such a wonderful journey, my tenure as DSC Lead came to an end. As I mentioned in the beginning, DSC is the best thing that ever happened to me. It has proffered me memories and learning for a lifetime. In the end, it’s all about the drastic improvements that are pondered on you, the relationships you develop with fellow students and the contribution and connection with the community.

Thereby I sign off leaving you all with the legacy and spirit of DSC. My best regards to all the community member and the upcoming batch of DSC. all the community member and the upcoming batch of DSC.