To celebrate coding and programmers, we are highlighting YouthSpark stars in Asia Pacific who have learned to code and have found success in school, competitions and career by understanding this language. We hope their stories will inspire you. What are you waiting for? Learn to speak Code now. #WeSpeakCode.
Name: Gabriel Eric Majo Villanueva Country: Philippines Occupation: Student, Treston International College
Bio Gabriel Eric Majo Villanueva has clinched a number of achievements, and he hasn’t even graduated from college yet. Most recently, he and his team placed first in the international Imagine Cup 2014 User Experience Challenge – Innovation Category, for a comprehensive app that helps commuters plan their routes. Prior to this, he has been an avid tech writer with his tech blog nominated for awards in the Philippines and in the United States. Apart from being an official Microsoft Student Partner, Gabriel is also a certified Microsoft Office Specialist at Microsoft Philippines, and recently received the 2014 Microsoft MVP Award for his contributions. He aspires to be the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Satoru Iwata.
Can you tell us how you got started in coding? My interest in programming started when I was 16, and C++ was the first programming language I encountered. From then on, I explored and learned other programming languages, such as Java and Visual Basic, both in college and in my own free time.
What are some coding projects that you have done?I’m very excited about the travel app that my team designed for the Imagine Cup User Challenge. This app pulls in real-time information from various forms of road-based public transport, as well as the rail system, to help commuters plan the best way to get to their destinations. Commuters can rate their travel experience, file complaints and request emergency assistance. They can also pull up maps, ratings and other dynamic data. We hope that the app will benefit the thousands of people who take public transport everyday in Manila, and hopefully, be adapted to help commuters in other parts of the world.
I also created The Ultimate Cyborg, a blog to provide information on the latest technological innovations. I was rather overwhelmed by the support and interest in it. The blog not only became one of the 120 most viewed blogs in the Philippines, it also made it as a finalist for the Best Technology Blog on the National Level at the Philippine Blog Awards. It was also nominated at the Chicago International Blog Awards for Best Science Blog.
The YouthSpark WeSpeakCode campaign aims to encourage young people to learn code. If you were to speak to the younger generation, what kind of advice would you give them? Learning a programming language isn’t easy at first. You need dedication, focus and passion in order to have a solid grasp of it. A good way to start would be to first consider the platform you want your apps to be published on, so you can determine the programming language you should learn.
With Internet access, aspiring programmers today have easy access to learning resources. To cite a few, there are websites like the Microsoft Virtual Academy, code.org and Lynda.com. Or they can purchase guide books, too. Don’t ever hesitate to spend on acquiring these resources, because you may well earn it back again. Just think of them as investments for becoming the next programming superstar!
From experience and after assessing my strengths and interests, I find that I am more a visual person, as in, I am more interested in the visual aspects of application development. But I know a solid foundation in programming will help me achieve the final product I want, which is why I’m still upgrading my skills whenever I can.
Remember: you are never too old or too young to learn programming!
You’ve already accomplished so much. Where do you see yourself in five years after graduating from college? I see myself as a passionate and unstoppable individual working in a big tech multinational company, earning a stable income that can support my family and at the same time, finance my own needs. I wish that I would have by then fulfilled my dreams of visiting New York City and the Silicon Valley.
Ultimately, I hope to realise my biggest aspiration which is to make an impact in the tech industry through innovation, and to live by a “do no harm” work ethic at every stage of my career.
By Rane Johnson-Stempson, Director, Education and Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research Connections
I am pleased to announce that our second annual International Women’s Hackathon took place on university campuses around the globe April 24 to 27, 2014. Last year’s event spanned 14 campuses in seven countries, with more than 600 university women participating.
We launched the International Women’s Hackathon to encourage, support and retain women pursuing the computer sciences at the university level. This event, largely promoted by word-of-mouth, empowers young women to become leaders in computer science, informatics and electrical engineering. By providing a fun and safe environment in which to explore computing, hackathons encourage and support young university women around the world, preparing them to create technology innovations that will help meet worldwide challenges in such areas as improving healthcare, protecting the environment and upgrading manufacturing. The presence of women in technology is essential to innovation. When confronted with a problem, we each encode our perspectives and then apply our particular heuristics to explore new and better resolutions. Diverse teams often outperform homogeneous teams (even those composed of high-achieving individuals), because diversity of perspectives and problem-solving approaches trumps individual ability. Research has identified the diversity of work teams as one of the key influences in the innovation process—and without question, a diverse team needs women. As I travel around campuses, I hear the same concerns repeatedly from women in computer science courses:
This is why the International Women’s Hackathon is so important. It provides an opportunity for female students to demonstrate their technical chops and unique problem-solving approaches.
To ensure that this year’s hackathon met the needs of university women, we enlisted the help of recent winners of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. These gifted young women helped us organize the challenges, reassess the rules and regulations and upgrade the toolkit.
We are excited to have had this year’s challenges sponsored by the following nonprofits: UN Women, Hindsight Group, Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary and Teens Against Distracted Driving. Hackathon participants designed a software application that met one of two challenges: (1) increase women’s participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) majors, or (2) put a halt to texting while driving. I am also pleased to announce our partnership with the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC.
Learn more
There are nearly 3.5 billion people speaking more than 2000 languages in Asia Pacific. Can you imagine if there was a common language that could unite this diverse region and open doors to opportunities?
Through our YouthSpark programme, Microsoft is challenging youth across Asia Pacific to do an hour of code between 21-27 April, and help make code our second language. We’ve pulled together plenty of free and fun ways to learn to code! Learn more here.
To celebrate coding, we’ve just launched the Microsoft YouthSpark #WeSpeakCode Instagram Contest!
Coders are some of the most creative people out there! So we want you to help us prove it – Instagram your photo of the most creative, funny or crazy place you and your friends are coding and stand a chance to win cool prizes and a Nokia Phone. Contest FAQs can be found here.
Vote for your favourite photo! You have until 17 May to vote and tell us who YOU think deserves to win. The three grand prize winners will be announced on 27 May 2014 and posted on the Contest Site and/or here on the Microsoft Asia Pacific Citizenship Blog.
Finally, if you agree with us that coding should be taught in every school on earth, sign the worldwide petition at Code.org now.
What are you waiting for? Learn to speak Code now. #WeSpeakCode #YouthSpark