Developer Journey is a monthly series to spotlight diverse and global developers sharing relatable challenges, opportunities, and wins in their journey. Every month, we will spotlight developers around the world, the Google tools they leverage, and the kind of products they are building.
With Google I/O season in full swing, we’re sharing diverse perspectives of developers across Google’s developer communities who have been on the ground.
Meet AiJing, Jolina, and Maria – members of Google Developer Student Clubs, Google Developer Groups, and Women Techmakers – who share a passion for learning, creating, and connecting through Google technology as they share what they’re most excited for this year at I/O.
Madison, Wisconsin
GDSC Lead, Women Techmakers
GDSC University of Wisconsin-Madison
Software Engineer
To me, Google I/O is the paradise for embracing cutting-edge technologies. I have followed the keynotes online for two years, and it is so exciting that I will join in-person this year! I can’t wait to exchange thoughts with other amazing developers and listen to the game-changing AI topics.
I’m obsessed with live demos for new technologies. Daring to do a live demo shows Google developers’ strong confidence and pride in their work. It is also exciting to see what kinds of use cases are emphasized and what metrics are evaluated.
As a full-stack developer and cloud engineer, I have built progressive apps and distributed services with Chrome, Android Studio, BigQuery, Analytics, Firebase, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Cloud Platform. Other than those, I love exploring AI and ML features with Google Colab, Cloud TPU, and TensorFlow.
Chrome has been my favorite. To me, it is the best choice for web app development: great compatibility across OS platforms, feature-rich developer tools, and smooth mobile integration. ChromeDriver is a sweet bonus when accessing deployments and automating tests on a server.
I collaborated with my friends to build a web app aimed at helping people understand and analyze soccer games easier and faster with pre-trained ML models. This app includes accessing YouTube video sources, detecting targets with Yolo-v3 in TensorFlow, accelerating computation with Colab GPU, and storing results in Google Cloud.
Actively discuss with people and listen to their ideas, especially if you are a student or a beginner. Participating in GDSC and GDG events is a great source to connect with peers and senior developers near you and across the globe. I benefit so much simply by chatting about random tech topics with others. Good communication will open your mind and guide your direction. Meeting interesting people will also make your journey as a developer much more colorful and enjoyable!
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
GDSC Lead
Google Developer Student Club, University of Toronto St. George
It has been a dream for me since high school to attend Google I/O. In previous years, I would watch clips of the keynotes online and browse through creators’ YouTube vlogs to see all the incredible technologies at the hands-on stations. This May, I can’t believe I will be traveling to Mountain View and experiencing Google I/O 2023 for the first time live in person. For me, Google I/O is an opportunity to connect with passionate individuals in the developer community, including students, and experts from around the world. It is a full day of learning, inspiration, innovation, community, and growth. This year, I’m looking forward to hearing all the exciting keynotes in person, interacting with transformative technology, and making new connections.
My favorite part about Google I/O is the technical sessions after the keynotes, where I can learn about innovative products from experts and engage in product demonstrations. I love seeing developments in machine learning, so I will definitely visit the TensorFlow station. I’m also excited to explore other Google technology stations, including Google Cloud and Google Maps Platform, and learn as much as I can.
I have used Android to build mobile apps for my software design course and a tech entrepreneurship competition. I have also used Google Colab, a cloud-based Jupyter notebook environment, for my research and deep learning engineering internships.
I love using Google Colab because it’s an accessible and cost-free tool for students working on data science and machine learning projects. The environment requires no setup and offers expensive computing resources such as GPUs at no cost. It uses Python, my favorite language, and contains all the main Python libraries. The user interface features independent code segments you can run and test rather than running the entire script every time you edit code. There is also an option to add text segments between code to document various script components. Google Colab notebooks can be easily shared with anyone for collaboration and stored in Google Drive for convenient access.
For my software design course project, a few teammates and I built a cooking recipe organizer app using Android Studio that allows users to discover new recipes and build their own portfolio of recipes. Users can save interesting recipes that they found, give ratings and reviews, and also upload their own recipes to the database. I designed a recipe sorting and filtering system that allows users to sort their saved recipes alphabetically, by interest keywords or rating, and filter their recipes by genre.
Android Studio allowed me to preview the mobile app development using an emulator that functions across all types of Android devices. This feature helped me to understand the app from a user’s perspective and develop the UI/UX more efficiently. We also used Google Firebase for its cloud storage, non-relational feature, and high compatibility with Android.
When I began attending university, I had no experience in programming and had to start my computer science career from zero. I pursued computer science, however, because I was interested in learning about AI and building technology to solve global problems such as climate change.
I believe that when you are starting your career, it’s important to have a goal about what you want to achieve. There are so many possibilities in tech, and having a goal can help you make decisions and motivate you when you’re facing challenges. It’s also important to keep an open mind about different opportunities and explore multiple areas in tech to learn more about the field and discover your passions.
Another tip is to look for opportunities and resources to help you grow as a developer. Many opportunities and resources are available for beginners, including online courses, self-guided project tutorials, and beginner-friendly workshops.
Google has amazing developer communities, including student campus clubs (GDSC), professional developer groups (GDG), Google developer expert groups (GDE), and a women in tech community (WTM). You can also create your own opportunities by teaching a hands-on workshop to enhance your technical and soft skills, starting a local developer group to gain leadership and collaboration skills, or building projects to increase your knowledge and apply what you learn.
Learn a lot, discover new opportunities, gain new skills, connect with people in tech, and keep pursuing what you love about technology!
Malmö, Sweden
Google Developer Groups Organizer and Women Techmakers Ambassador
Senior front-end developer, Strategic 9 for IKEA
Google I/O is an opportunity to stay up to date in Google technologies and initiatives. We get to witness innovation, connect with other developers and generate energetic conversations about what we are passionate about.
Besides Bard, this year I have a special interest in the WebGPU API. Currently, I work as a senior front-end developer on a Knowledge Graph project. There, one of the most powerful tools for ontologists and data scientists to model and understand data are the canvases. I’m curious about how we can boost the performance when rendering these graphs on the web, using the new features of WebGPU. Google I/O will surely be an inspiration for my work.
It’s the perfect excuse to meet my colleagues and watch the event together, popcorn included! In the online realm, it’s always fun to follow the discussions on social media, and Google always finds a way to surprise us and keep us engaged in our learning process. I still remember the I/O Adventure platform of 2022. It was an outstanding virtual experience, interacting with people in the community booths. Later, I also followed the recorded talks. A gamified learning experience, top to bottom!
The devTools have been my everyday tools for the past 10 years. The ones that I have used the most are the Core Web Vital metrics, devTools for debugging (extra love for the ones to debug accessibility issues), and tools for testing CSS on the browser (i.e. the grid properties and the media queries emulation features).
Since last year, I’ve been testing the Instant Loading and Seamless APIs, and they have allowed me to deliver high-quality interfaces with intuitive navigation, as we are used to having in native mobile apps.
Accessibility guidelines and tools are my favorite. Lighthouse, the accessibility scanner, and Material Design. These tools help us ensure that all users, including those with disabilities, can access and use content and services published on the web. With these tools integrated, other users can start educating themselves on the power of accessibility. My interest in this space started when I noticed that my mother, who has low vision and motor impairments in her hands, couldn’t easily access her favorite music on her phone. The voice search feature on YouTube was revolutionary for her, and probably for many other elders.
Many questions popped into my mind: “Who is considered a user with a disability? How are the interfaces I create used? Am I creating unintentional barriers?”
As a web developer, tools that allow me to test, audit, understand and improve are a must.
I collaborated with my friends to build a web app aimed at helping people understand and analyze soccer games easier and faster with pre-trained ML models. This app includes accessing YouTube video sources, detecting targets with Yolo-v3 in TensorFlow, accelerating computation with Colab GPU, and storing results in Google Cloud.
Many developers who start their journey come from other areas of expertise or industries. Imagine a journalist, nurse, or primary school teacher who wants to start a developer journey. They may feel they need to throw away all the knowledge they have acquired.
On the contrary, I believe prior knowledge is key to standing out as a developer. Every person has a different combination of interests, talents, and skills. Master the basics, and shine with your own story.
From meeting talented developers to exciting keynotes, there’s so much to look forward to at Google I/O 2023. To optimize your experience, create or connect a developer profile, and start saving content to My I/O to build your personal agenda. Share your experience with us by using #GoogleIO across your social media so we can find you!
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