Students in LATAM come together for continent-wide tech conference
Posted by Paco Solsona, Regional Lead LATAM
A continental community of coders
Growing up, many students across Latin America watched eagerly as the technology in their
cities became more advanced and opportunities to create the future expanded. For some,
computers and web technologies presented untold potential. Still, excitement about doing right
by their communities was all at the heart of it all. Now, a forward-looking group of
university students from 27 different Latin American nations and Google Developer Student
Clubs (GDSC) have formed a continent-wide network to chart a course forward for their
continent. They are building a community of Spanish-speaking Latin American student developers
that support each other, help foster leadership skills, and bring more opportunities to
student developers in the region.
Teaming up to build skills and teach other student developers
In November 2021, this regional coalition of students came together to host a continent-wide
LATAM conference, a
two-day
student conference
(the team planned and executed it in just two weeks). The event
featured ten speakers from Spanish-speaking Latin American countries and taught students about
different developer technologies. Attendees learned about
machine learning
,
automating processes using data
pipelines
, leveraging react to upload landing pages to Firebase, and
building mobile applications with
Firebase and React Native
. 300 people attended the conference over two days, and the
conference recordings have attracted hundreds of views on YouTube.
“We’re coming from a less developed region. We grew up seeing other
countries that were more technologically advanced. Now, developers from Latin America are more
confident that they have the skills to implement projects, produce new things, and bring
advancement to the continent.” - Maria Agustina Cuello (Chichi)
Working together with purpose
Through working together on the conference, the organizers of LATAM conference know Latin
American youth have a bright future. They are excited by the opportunity to use the power of
technology and connectivity to change the world.
Luis Eduardo, Lead GDSC UTP (Peru), says it felt amazing to be part of the LATAM conference:
“being able to meet students from other countries with the same desire to work for the
community was wonderful. Knowing that, despite being thousands of miles away, there was no
impediment to being able to work as an organized team. This is what makes this family unique.”
“LATAM conference was the opportunity to show that wherever we are, we
can help others, and you will always find people with similar ideas,” says Francisco Imanol
Suarez, Lead GDSC UNPSJB (Argentina).
Solution Challenge preparations
The group is now hosting events to teach student developers new skills and prepare them for
the
2022
Solution Challenge
, a global contest where students from around the world are
invited to solve for one of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals using Google
technologies.
In preparing their communities to build projects, the group plans to activate the countries
and regions in Latin America. The students aim to expose each other to multiple technologies
in the field and plan to host theme weeks for the Solution Challenge, like a Firebase week, a
UX/UI week, and a
Flutter
Festival
.
Students across the GDSC LATAMs are forming teams for the Solution Challenge. Some are local,
coming from a single university, while others are broader, like students in Argentina working
with students from Mexico. “A few months ago, no one knew how many people we would help take
their first steps in the world of development. Let's hope this community continues to grow to
be able to show that amazing things can be done in LATAM,” says Luis Eduardo, Lead GDSC UTP
(Peru).
“I’m grateful to be part of this community and work with amazing team
members who are so eager to work together and do activities. We want to bring all the
opportunities we can to Latin American students, and gender and language are not a barrier,”
says Cuello.
What’s next for GDSC LATAM
The members of GDSC LATAM plan to continue hosting collaborative events for the community such
as Google Cloud Machine Learning bootcamp, a hackathon, and a 2022 student conference and
related events with other student communities. The group holds Android and Google Cloud
Platform (GCP) study jams, publishes a podcast, and hosts networking events to help reach more
students, create networking opportunities, and expand each university’s GDSC. Eventually, they
hope to positively impact the region by encouraging budding developers to build new
technologies in Latin America.
?
If this inspires you, sign up for the Solution Challenge and submit a project by March 31,
2022 at
goo.gle/solutionchallenge
and join a
Google Developer Student Club
at your college or university.
Check out GDSC LATAM on social media:
Twitter
|
FB
|
YouTube Channel
|
Instagram
?