[APPLAUSE]
KOMAL SANDHU: Good.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah.
KOMAL SANDHU: Do I need--
I have no slides, so I am just going
to plan on charming you all with how eloquent I am.
So hi, everyone.
My name is Komal Sandhu, and I work on Developer Student Clubs
globally, based out of New York, with Erica.
Thank you so much for the amount of attention
that I've been seeing from all of you.
I've been kind of walking around the back
and through, every session, seeing how engaged,
involved all of you are, taking pictures of the content.
Really, really cool.
And I hope you bring this back to your communities
and share back and get them as excited as we all
are to have you here.
Right?
So I'm going to start with a few questions.
How many of you want to work in tech once you graduate?
Show of hands-- that's, I would say, about 95% to 100%, right?
Now, how many of you feel like you have everything
you need in order to actually get that job in tech?
Take a look around.
Do you see a breakdown?
Yeah?
So you've seen this kind of phrase
pop up a couple of times today, and it's
that we're trying to bridge the gap between theory
and practical application for student developers,
because there is a breakdown.
And that's a key reason why Developer Student Clubs exists.
Now, how we actually go about bridging that gap
is not just encouraging you to host workshops and events where
you do Cloud Study Jams, and you kind of
grow the knowledge of student developers on your campus.
Well, we tell you to take that knowledge
and actually identify local problems around you
and build real solutions for real problems.
So let's take it from theory, and actually apply it
in a practical fashion that can not only
allow you to add, hey, on my resume,
I actually built a solution.
But now all the students that you brought along
with your journey get to have that skill that
will really, really allow them when they graduate
to attain that job in tech, which
from the sounds of this room, everyone wants to do.
So to talk about The Solution Challenge specifically
and why it came about is we had students last year doing--
so the program launched in 2017, the way Erica said.
And we had communities in India, Indonesia, and parts of Africa.
And these students were incredible.
I mean, the momentum, the innovation, the creativity,
the drive was truly inspiring.
But one piece of feedback these students shared
was, how are we getting recognized?
Right?
Because a lot of responsibility falls on your shoulders,
on the shoulders of the core team.
And that was feedback received from students.
And we said, you know what?
We need to create a platform where
we can recognize students.
So how many of you feel that problems go unsolved
around you?
Now, how many of you feel that oftentimes talent goes
unnoticed?
And that's why we have The Solution Challenge.
It happens once a year.
And it will happen around February and March of 2020,
so you know when.
But we're starting talking about it right now, because we
want you to really understand what it is, why we're doing it,
how it's going to work so you can start building out
your plan for the year to make sure
that you're set up for success.
Cool?
So I'm going to talk a little bit about the program.
I only have a few minutes.
I went to save some time for questions.
So what it is is it happens once a year.
It's an open call for the best solution
that your community has built. What does that really mean?
So the things that qualify as a best solution,
we want to make sure they are addressing a real problem.
Now, you hear hey, work with local businesses.
And you know what?
Sometimes it is a local business,
but sometimes it's also a greater community problem.
If you think back to the video we watched earlier with David,
they were solving for a problem that
was felt in their community of students
coming to their campus.
If you think back to any stories,
you notice that the problem goes beyond just a business.
It could be something that you, sitting together as a group,
identify that's faced, shared by a lot of people.
And maybe you find users affected by it
and go collect some feedback on that.
So make sure that it's addressing a real problem.
We want to make sure that you have
taken the steps from that problem
and worked with real users, collected feedback, gone
to them and said, hey, this is some kind of solution
that we're working on.
What do you think?
How is it working?
Does it fit your needs?
Iterate.
What we are looking for is that you're not
only identifying a real problem, but actually bringing
solving that problem through the development cycle that
gets you working with real clients, real users,
getting that feedback.
Now, one thing that's really important, particularly
in the US--
I don't know if you guys know this, but about 89%
of all businesses in the US are small businesses
with less than 20 employees.
Think about that.
A lot of those companies and small businesses
have problems and challenges that they're facing.
So a lot of you will solve problems for local businesses.
That will happen in this ecosystem.
But what's really, really important to note
is making sure that you're setting the right expectations
with them.
You're not committing to too much.
You're managing those relationships,
because even outside of DSC, if you
build a relationship with a client,
you want to make sure they are setting the right expectations,
you're making sure that anything that you build for them,
you're bringing back to them, collecting feedback.
So to go back to what is a great solution,
or what's the best solution you should submit,
make sure it's addressing a real problem.
Make sure that it's involved, connecting with the user
and getting feedback.
We want to see that it's incorporating
some kind of Google tech.
It's not limited to just Google tech,
but we want to see you incorporate
and be creative and innovative with technology.
So thinking about things like, OK, is the solution
that I'm building scalable?
How am I deploying it?
Those kind of questions.
And the way that we actually evaluate this
is you guys submit all your stuff
through a Google Form that will include
a demo of your solution.
And then we'll have it evaluated through an unbiased group
of Googlers.
And then in addition, we'll have interviews where we actually
reach out and probe around, understanding,
how did you get to the solution?
Did you build it yourself?
Did you build it with a team?
Did you actually connect with a user?
How many times did you have to iterate on this?
Because those are really, really important
attributes of building a great solution so that we can then
surface and recognize the work you're doing
through The Solution Challenge.
In regards to who can participate,
it can be the lead, the core team, and members involved
in the Developer Student Club.
We want to make sure it's open, because it's
a great opportunity to recognize the work
that you and your community are doing.
So this is kind of my little snapshot of what The Solution
Challenge is.
In regards to next steps, I want you to start now.
So how many of you have already started thinking about problems
that you want to solve?
That is very impressive.
So I think that's amazing, right?
So if you already have an idea of problems
that you want to solve, now start working backwards.
If you know by around February, you
want to submit a solution for that problem.
Maybe that informs your decisions
of the kind of workshops, the kind of events, the way you
set up your core team.
These are important things.
Work backwards.
Which technologies do you think are being
covered in your curriculum?
Maybe what are technologies that you can
incorporate in your workshops?
So start now, and make sure that you
report once you get a project to a state
that you want it to be reviewed by Danny or someone.
So start working on the solutions now.
Make sure that you report them so we can provide you
with relevant support.
And then when The Solution Challenge comes,
prior to that we'll make sure that you
have all the information that you possibly need.
Cool?
How are you guys feeling?
Thumbs up?
Yay!
All right, guys, that's all I have for you.
[APPLAUSE]
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, give her a round of applause.
KOMAL SANDHU: OK, thanks.