The Google Developer Groups (GDG) Minna has held its annual Developers Festival.
The event which took place on Saturday, the 3rd of December 2022 at Rasheedat Restaurant had over 500+ attendees, 5 organizers and 13 Volunteers.
The event started at exactly 10:00 am.
You can watch the video highlight here
Nnamdi Okoro - Lead Organizer of GDG Cloud Minna gave the welcome note.
Nnamdi gave a brief introduction on what Google Developer Groups (GDG) entails and the purpose of the gathering which was to celebrate everyone in the tech ecosystem in Minna and added that the event was not for software developers alone.
He urged participants to have a personal objective before the end of the event.
Be the connection to other people's creations. Be open-minded.- He noted.
For participants who are interested in joining the community, he urged participants to join the community. You cannot cheat the process.
First Session
The first keynote speaker was Dr. Ibrahim Abdullahi - the HOD of the Computer Science Department, and the Director of information communication technology Ibrahim Badamasi Babaginda (IBB) University Lapai titled “The current trends in ICT: the journey never stops.”
The Director explained that the industrial revolution and modern technologies are elements of progressive times that maintain the human ability to high demand for digital operability to service. Dr. Abdullahi stated that the industries could not grow without the inclusion of ICT and added that ICT was creating a new bridge to reach outreach as it has created a network across education, business, etc.
ICT creates possibilities for reaching the unreached.-He stated
Options in ICT
AI& Machine learning:- it is projected to expand by 190 billion dollars by 2025 with global spending in 2021 at 57 billion dollars. The best option to fit in career-wise include:-AI engineers, AI architects, and Machine Learning engineers.
Quantum Engineering:- it is projected to surpass 2.5 billion dollars by 2029 in revenue in the global quantum computing market. Some career options include;- Fraud detection expert, Banking expert, etc.
Robotics and process automation:- he revealed that the Minna team particularly students of FUT Minna, IBBU Lapai, and Federal Polytechnic Bida collaborated for the first exhibition of the first robot Ome ife in Africa launched on the 2nd of December by the Vice President, Professor Yomi Osibanjo and Professor Albinu Abiodun Musa, the vice-chancellor of Summit University was a keynote speaker at the event.
Edge computing: it is an extension of computing. it is projected to grow by 6.2 billion dollars by 2022. Career options deve-ops engineer, cloud architect.
Augmented/virtual reality:- predict the real growth. He noted that the year was a big one in innovation.
Cyber Security: there are over 200 million jobs in the next 10 years.
IOT: there are a lot of opportunities in the field.
5G technology:- more investment in the sector was needed.
New Jobs for the next 20 years in the ICT sectors:- he listed Data scientists, bloggers, social media strategists, drones, and unarmed, lightweight economics, among others.
It is important to note that certifications were still important. Harnessing skills more than degrees.
On how the African continent can grow with ICT, Dr. Abdullahi revealed that it was easier to get a mobile phone than drinkable water in some parts of Africa.
**How to address the problem **
Smart AI
Skill set
Getting expert
Collaboration and partnership to harvest the new ICT Trends
Change the narrative
Share ideas
Formulation
Reward/Applause
More contacts
Grow together, appreciate efforts, innovate, innovate.
He appreciated the efforts of the organizers.
The second keynote speaker was Mr. Abdulkadir Suleiman - Founder & CEO of JD Labs spoke on technical debt and Undone Work.
Mr. Suleiman began by explaining that there was a difference between a product manager and a project manager given instances of their different responsibilities.
Suleiman stated that it is vital to recruiting people who have knowledge in different fields of tech.
Tech is broad. Knowledge is Key.
**Challenge of undone work **
Talent Gap
Technical Gap
Not recruiting quality
Cybersecurity issue
Technical debt The economic decision in funding start-ups is key. *Are you busy improving?
The 3rd keynote speaker was the CEO of Timart Mohammad Zhitsu Ndako
Ndako spoke on his journey and transition into tech. He noted that understanding fundamental are crucial.
“Keep trying to achieve what you want.
There is no straight path. - he said
Value what you do. Don't be overwhelmed by what you do.
Speakers Session
The first speaker Memunat Manzuma Alias Hajiya PHP spoke on Google Workspace.
Technology has the power to make everyone's life easier and better.- she stated.
Google workspace is a set of applications or products developed by Google to make our lives easier. It is a cloud-based app. Its purpose is to create an environment that encourages productivity and collaboration. What is only required is a Gmail account. There are different applications on google workspace.
**Google workspace solution **
For individual
For business
For academic
For Health
For developers
For Researchers
For children, etc.
She announced that she was organizing a one-week intensive workshop for Google workspace training.
The next speaker was Abdulmalik.
He talked about architecture It is the structure in which a code is written. Building software is easy. Maintaining software is hard
"Architecture can save you time."- Abdulmalik stated.
On Enabling constraints in Programming, he listed Object Oriented Programming (OOP) Functional Programming
**Three constraints that allow sustainable software structures **
Separation of concerns
Code reusability:-
Enforcing your boundaries Decoupled > Dry
Your Architecture can save you weeks or months of development time. Take your time to design it.- He noted.
The next talk was on Volunteering a vital organ in personal development by Okenz Goodnews
There are ways of building oneself. One can build themselves through personal projects, and working with companies.
However, volunteering is when a person or a group of people give their time, and skills to benefit others for free. Earn people first, afterwards, sits back and earn money.
Learning never ends. There is always room for improvement
Benefits of volunteering
You gain confidence
Meet people: volunteering can help learn other people's approaches to problem-solving and make new friends
Part of community: in tech, being part of a community is important
Learning new things
Taking on challenges
Have money
**Opportunities to volunteer **
Group projects
Code debugging
Planning Committee
Teaching
Opensource He ended with a question: > What will you like to volunteer to do?
Second Session :- Panel Session
The next session that followed was the panel session titled the Power panel by Women Techmakers Minna. It featured Ms. Gloria Ene omale, Ms. Halimat Tauheed, and **Ms. Aishat Awal ** who spoke about their life and work experience coordinated by Memunat Manzuma (WTM Lead GDG Minna) and Catherine Baha (WTM Lead GDG Cloud Minna).
Ms. Halima
spoke on interest in getting skills. “Interest is paramount in learning skills. Learn proficient skills.”.- She said Stand on making an impact—share opportunities with friends.
On how technology helped in her career, Ms. Gloria
revealed that opportunities of tech like the use of social media platforms like Linkedin to meet and connect with people, and the use of technology for meetings as it saves time.
On bridging the gap, Haijaya Aishat
spoke about the need to encourage more awareness, creating opportunities that are willing to sponsor girls. For married women interested in tech, Ms. Aishat called for more support for partners, especially in the north.
Ms. Omale stated that there was a need to unlearn certain conditioned indoctrination.
The mentality matters. Unlearn mindset.- She stated
Support groups and mentorship should be encouraged.
Ms. Halima implored the end of early child marriage.
Ms. Omale called for more grants from the government for women SMEs, to legalize & monetize House chores.
Proper supervision is needed. Women should be encouraged to equip themselves to benefit from the loan.
Collaborating with the government investing in tech
Third Session
The next Talk was on Performance:- the Underrated Requirement by Hassan Sani
What is Application Performance Sani defined application performance as how fast your application renders and how effectively it responds to the user’s interactions, adding that it includes:-
Fast load time
Providing usable activities
Better User Interactions
Good component interactions
Smooth animations
Application feedbacks
One critical thing about performance is if your website has a bad performance, 88% of people will not return back.- he stated. When it is okay, no one notices, but when it is terrible. Everyone hates you for it.
Sani noted that Performance can vary for the user’s device and the internet connection speed.
Factors that affect performance
Application Size
Interactive response
API calls
Media Assets
Interactive response
**Why do we care about performance? **
Web Accessibility
Improves User Experience
Improve conversion rates
Not all about speed
Loading page: is usable
**Getting Started **
When you're building a modern web experience, it's important to measure, optimize, and monitor if you're to get fast and stay fast. Is it happening? Did the navigation start successfully? Has the server responded? Is it useful? Has enough content been rendered so that users can engage with it? Is it usable? Can users interact with the page, or is it busy? Is it delightful? Are the interactions smooth and natural, free of lag and jank?
**Myth on performance improvement **
JavaScript Framework
Large enterprise apps
Time and resources consuming
The next talk was cybersecurity from the world view of Google infrastructure design & operation by Lateef Hamzat.
Hamza stated that security is at the forefront of concern for enterprises and governments around the globe. He revealed that Cybercrime will cost companies worldwide an estimated $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion in 2015, and added that there is a global collaboration undergoing among various security agencies to tackle cybersecurity.
Hamzat further disclosed that during the third quarter of 2022, approximately 15 million data records were exposed worldwide through data breaches.
Comes Google Cloud
Google Infrastructure Security Design Overview Hamzat stated that Google uses an approach called invisible security. Google has a big ecosystem when it comes to security. As a user, you have a responsibility to protect your data.
Forms of Google Cloud Security Approach
Autonomic Security Operations
Google security action team
Security command center
GCAT Security & Resilience Framework
Google Cloud Platform Security Controls
Google Cloud Platform Security Controls
The next talk was on Branding: An Overview by Lukman Bello alias Aboki.
Bello explained that a logo is what different companies use as an identifier for themselves.
In the words of Marty Neumier, > Brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company. You can’t control the process, but you can influence it.
Branding is a process where you create a positive impression on your consumer. Branding is the process of creating a strong positive perception of a company, its products, or services in the customer’s mind.”
Branding is not what you say it is; it is what they say it is.
Disciplines of Branding
Differentiate:- standing out from the crowd. It involves Focus Focus Focus
Collaboration: a brand is built by a village. Models of Collaboration
One-stop Shop
Brand Agency
Integrated Marketing Tea
Innovation:- a concept is innovative when it scares everyone.
Validate:- Involve your audience in the creative process.
Cultivate:- Distribute the compass through a continuing brand education program.
The next talk was on Open source design: why it matters by Fauziya Mohammed.
What is Open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution.
Open source project:- She defined an open source project as a collaborative effort where people improve upon a project ( with permission to do so ) and share the changes within the community so people can improve on it further. The project is free to distribute and modify. "In other words, open source is simply volunteering.-" Mohammed said.
**Forms of open source ** Community project:- work on design system or communication is placed online Working on an open source software.
Why do you need to contribute to an open-source project? It allows you to shape the future of design.
On the real problem, Mohammed listed Cultural assumptions, Tooling, Documentation, Assets Awareness/Discovery as part of the real problem facing open-source designs. She further stated that it was beneficial to join a community as a designer.
**Find an open community **
Open source Africa (OSCA)
Open Designers
Open Source Design
**Open-source internship **
Contribution by She Code Africa
Google Summer of Code (GSoC)
Linux Foundation Mentorship Program (LFX)
MLH Fellowship
Google Season of Docs (GSoD)
Outreachy
FOSSASIA Internship Program
The last talk was on Flutter & Web3: Interact with Smart Contract in Flutter App by a former GDSC Lead FUT Minna, Mujeeb Muhideen
Muhideen explained that smart contracts can be written in any language. However, to deploy a smart contract to Polygon Network (Solidity);
Log on to Remix Ethereum.org
Copy and paste your solidity program
Compile and run
Deploy
Copy your solidity ABI and smart contract address On how to interact with a smart contract with Flutter
Bootstrap flutter app and install some dependencies such as
web3dart
http
provider
jazzicon, etc while dev_dependencies
build_runner
web3dart_builders
Generate dart class from Contract ABI Just copy your smart contract ABI then create file inside your project lib folder, make sure the file extension ends with .abi.json. Then run build runner command.
Highlights of the events were games, group photography, discussions on career fairs, an 11-year-old boy kicked started his career in cyber security, and a 12-year-old girl interested in solving problems in the Health sector (HealthTech) and networking.
The event ended around 3:30 pm.