Introduction To Modern Application Development: An Account By Hasura

Over the course of my work, a variety of individuals have used me as a sounding board for their technology choices. These interactions have given me a lot of insight into the state of the developer and technology ecosystems, which I have distilled into the following observations (all of which will bring to mind a certain fictional military man, but bear with me)

1. Technology has to be an important part of any problem solving process, and everyone realises this. A business looking to build a more sophisticated customer experience has to rely on applying technology well, and does.

2. Everyone (regardless of background) attempting to solve a problem now must be familiar with the state of the technology ecosystem. The best ideas I have seen have come from people aware of how technology can help them.

3. I have observed that even among people working in tech teams, there is very little understanding of the fundamentals underpinning their work. A lot of the blame has to be borne by universities who haven’t caught up with modern trends.

Originally, these observations served me well as dinner table conversation, and I used them solely to impress people with the depth of my piercing insight. However, a chance encounter with Madi set in motion an unstoppable series of events that led to Hasura and Madi launching IMAD and Hasura becoming a better Hasura.

(If you ever listen to Madi’s version of this story, he will claim that the unstoppable nature of the series of events was because of my weight, but this is nonsense. It was written.)

“Introduction to Modern Application Development” or IMAD was an attempt by Hasura and IIT Madras, through the medium of a MOOC, to fill this vacuum that most universities had so generously left for us, and aimed to:

help people,
from all walks of life,
get started,
on a solid foundation,
when it came to this technology thing that everyone is talking about and that I saw trending on twitter,
so they could build the next big thing,
or not.

The first iteration of IMAD was launched in September 2016, and was exceptionally well received - over 57,000 registrations made IMAD India’s largest MOOC. These registrations covered a wide gamut - from college students to faculty, from working professionals to retired professionals to stay at home parents. They cut across geographic barriers (participants came from 21 countries), age (7% of the participants were over 40) and gender (30% of the participants were women). Companies such as Swiggy, Mastercard, Hackerearth and Furlenco partnered with us to offer internships to the best performing students. IMAD also received excellent feedback from the participants, and was covered extensively in Indian media - for example, by NDTV, the Hindu and Hindustan Times. I was very happy, and celebrated by taking Madi out for dinner - I will only say there was candlelight involved.

The old me would have welcomed the boost to my ego, put my feet up and sipped piña coladas by a beach. However, Madi has taught me that one-off initiatives rarely affect any kind of change, and sustained effort is required to have lasting impact. I was initially taken aback by his insistence that we not rest on our laurels. I would have thought that not being able to rest on them would render laurels useless, and I told him the same in no uncertain terms. He agreed with me. We went back to the drawing board.

Initially, we doodled a bit (let it not be said that I have not had an equal influence on Madi). We then proceeded to review the amazing feedback we received from participants and our partner companies, and use it to fine tune the existing course structure (it is now an 8 week course), add new modules (such as a module on mobile application development), and refine the assignments and practicals. We had lots of help - amazing organizations such as DigitalOcean and SHEROES came forward to pitch in. My best friend Tanmai, his best friend Rikin (it’s complicated) and Madi’s best friend Gaurav also offered invaluable support.

Several caffeine-fuelled nights later, we believe we have created a course that is a significant improvement on the first version. This version offers something for everyone - whether you are a budding developer, a Django ninja, a business professional looking to understand more about this space, or even a student of the previous version of IMAD who found her appetite whetted. IMAD goes live again on January 23rd, and registrations are now open. Our hope is that this version is as warmly received as its predecessor, and helps as many people.

Happy learning.

Hasura

#Hasura&Madi4eva

#H&M

This article was originally published on Medium.