Stretching my writing abilities into unknown territories, a position in Austin taught me a vernacular I had never imagined: coding/engineering/programming. My time working in communications/operations/social with Hello World Tech Studio expanded my writing into the technological and educational writing space. I took charge when we needed to synopsize speakers from every end of the engineering spectrum:
This morning we welcomed speaker Nathan Gitter, an Augmented Reality Software Engineer at Apple. Nathan utilized his time to demonstrate to students the range of app types one can build using Apple’s AR platform, from playing Soduku in an AR, Pokemon Go, and designing 3D graphics that interact with one’s environment. Nathan shared that with ARKit, his colleague developed a game that is strictly controlled by vision! Nathan hails from Milwaukee, where he discovered a vibrant passion for math and science at an early age. He attended Washington University, later moving to St. Louis to grow his app development skills. Nathan relocated to Austin, working for Swift Kick Mobile prior to heading to the Bay Area. Nathan discovered a game called Disco Dodge and felt impassioned to to emulate said game, eventually creating “Jolly Ball,” utilizing Java. He learned through feedback that users don’t typically play desktop games, and proceeded to create strictly mobile content.
Along with his already impressive resume, Nathan shared that he studied app development in Scotland, has interned at Microsoft, and has participated in ample Hackathons. Nathan continues to enjoy helping students program, and has spent approximately 15,200 hours working in Xcode/Swift. One of the games he published in the app store has garnered significant attention entitled RainBrow, which users play solely with the use of their eyebrows! The game is displayed on iPhones in retail stores nation-wide, and was impressively demonstrated at the World Wide Developer’s Conference. Nathan closed by sharing that he tried and failed to build dozens of ideas, yet over time he bettered his practices, as will students if they choose to persevere. Nathan advised students to focus and hone in on ideas that encapsulate their passion, and to create these ideas in order to grow their skills!
On day four of our speaker series, students had the pleasure of hearing from from Jenna Goldberg, an Augmented Reality Software Designer at IBM. Jenna conveyed a strong overall message for our students to, “embrace your own journey” and shared that, “the only way to find what you want to do is to try things that interest you and follow your curiosity.” Jenna shared the story of her path to IBM, which like many of our speakers, contained some welcomed bumps along the way. Jenna experienced an early interest in art and math, as well as solving challenges and finding answers. As a college student at the University of Texas at Austin, Jenna tried out a handful of majors, including Math, Computer Science, Business, and Digital Arts. Jenna was proud of her decision to switch majors several times, as it led her to learn a little bit of everything prior to finding her niche within immersive data and augmented reality.
Each year of college, Jenna applied for an internship position with IBM, but was met with rejection every time. After completing her education, bolstering her portfolio, and years of persistence, Jenna was offered an internship at IBM in the AR space, which later developed into a full-time role, bringing her to San Francisco! Jenna shared with students the importance of exploring data in an immersive, visual way. Jenna works with scatterplots on iPads and iPhones, and has worked with the HoloLens as well. Her research and the future of AR can be applied to almost any field, from the locational strength of a Wifi signal, to discovering an optimal way to draft professional baseball players. Jenna shared that her current team of four consists of two developers and two designers and requires continuous, ongoing collaboration. When students probed Jenna for advice, she responded with “Do what’s right for you,” and reiterated to, “embrace your journey!”
Hello World students had the opportunity this morning to tour Facebook’s headquarters campus for our field experience! Students began by enjoying a breakfast buffet prior to testing Oculus virtual reality simulators. Students experienced a variety of Oculus games and VR simulations such as Fruit Ninja, Job Simulator, and various puzzles! The Facebook and Oculus engineers then formed a panel and answered student’s questions such as why they chose to come to Facebook, what makes Facebook unique, what panelists lives were like throughout their middle and high school years, and what advice they may have for students. Facebook engineers shared their backgrounds and their path to their current roles at Facebook, and advised students to follow their dreams while leading a balanced life of academics and personal interests. The panelists described their experiences with programming languages and demonstrated a wide breadth of skills, including R, C++, Python, and C#. They made sure to assure Hello World students that they’re well ahead of the pack in terms of learning computer science, and are undoubtedly on the path to success! To conclude our visit, we toured parts of the sprawling campus. Students were able to see the many cafes, stop by the arcade and ice cream shops, as well as take photos in front of the iconic Facebook sign. Thumbs up for our Facebook field experience!