It was a busy but fruitful day on Day 3 of the trip.

​

The agenda for today was as follows:

​

1. Attend Day 1 of the GitHub Universe Conference (I attended the opening keynotes and several lecture sessions)

2. Pass the GitHub Foundations Certification exam (Thankfully, I've passed and got a shiny new Credly badge ;))

3. Fireside chat with Martin (VP of Developer Relations at GitHub)

4. Escape room team-bonding activity (Sooooooooooooo fun!)

5. GitHub Dark Mode (A social drinking and networking session)

​

The GitHub Universe 2023 Conference was held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this year. Upon arrival, I was taken aback at the scale of the conference. Compared to my first tech conference - i.e., AWS Summit ASEAN at MBS Singapore back in May 2023, the venue of this conference was much larger in scale. There were also more conference participants as well in GHU 2023, compared to AWS Summit ASEAN 2023. The Opening keynote for Day 1 of the conference was enlightening as I managed to learn about the latest AI, Security, and Developer Experience features on GitHub. To summarize my learnings in one sentence, look out for Copilot-enabled features, automatic security scans (thanks to CodeQL), and new accessibility features in the upcoming months!

​

Somewhere in the afternoon, we had to head over to an exam venue for our GitHub Foundations Certification exam. Most of us campus experts did not have time to revise for the exam due to our packed schedules over the past 2 days. Nonetheless, I managed to pass the certification exam and got a shiny new Credly badge and a Github T-shirt :)

​

The fireside sessions and several lecture sessions at the conference allowed me to soak in the wisdom of experienced technologists. I loved learning from their experiences and perspectives - and I hope to bring back the knowledge learned and impart them to enlighten future generations of technologists. 

​

Amongst all the activities for the day, the highlight was the Escape room activity with the campus experts. We had a lot of fun solving the different puzzles in the escape room. The group of 10 campus experts was divided into 2 sessions. One session had 6 campus experts (a harder escape room), while the second had four campus experts (an escape room of easier difficulty). I was assigned to the first session - i.e. group of 6.

 

In my group of 6, we needed to be further equally divided into two groups of 3. As there were 2 Ph.D. students in this group of 6, I knew I had to split them up - one in each group of 3 - to leverage their brain power equally to solve the escape room. This strategy of mine paid off in the end - and together with our teamwork and efforts, we were able to solve all the escape room puzzles in the allocated time. Hehe :P

​

As both sessions finished the escape room, I noticed how much closer we became as a group. This was the true icebreaker activity - and as we left the escape room venue, we fervently discussed our experiences and how much fun we had during the activity. At this point, I realized, we started to bond and become much closer with one another. It's a pity that we only had 1 week (or to be exact 5 days) with one another. I do hope future batches of GitHub Campus Experts scholars will be able to extend the trip by 1 to 2 days more, to bond and forge stronger friendships, that might lead to future collaboration activities in the long run.

​

The last activity of this packed day was GitHub Dark Mode. It was a social drinking and networking event. There were tons of technologists at the event - ranging from software engineers to product managers to even startup CEOs at this event. Most of us ordered alcoholic beverages and we had a toast with one another - wishing each other well-wishes and successes in our futures. At this event, I also got closer to campus experts like Larry - as we both talked about our future plans and various intricacies in life. I also got to learn more about the lives of Michal and Alberto, who were situated in Poland and Mexico respectively. The summary of my conversations with the other campus experts is essentially that all of us have our unique struggles, hardships, and battles to fight every single day - despite us being community leaders.

​

On the cab back to the hotel, Larry, Harsh, and I shared a nice heart-to-heart conversation about each other's hardships and insecurities. For once, it felt good to be understood by peers of the same wavelength. Back in SG, I was the only person in my circle of friends who made the switch to become a software engineer. Most, if not all of my other friends, are non-technical in nature, and do not come from SWE/computer-science-related backgrounds - hence it is difficult for them to relate to my hardships at work and/or school. Coming from different countries and backgrounds, it felt great to openly talk about each other's hardships, learn about each other's efforts and goals, and learn from their experiences and knowledge. These interactions at the event inspired me to become a more driven and much better person than I was, before attending this event.

​

Before I headed to bed, I reflected on my learnings for the day. A realization came to my mind as I lay down on my bed - these campus experts whom I've met, despite being high-flyers in their unique ways, do have their issues, insecurities, and fears. Behind the seemingly successful facade as community leaders - the universal truth is we are all still figuring things out along the way in life, that nobody has everything figured out - and that is perfectly fine. What matters more is that it does not stop our fervent passion for helping others in their technological journey.

​

And with that realization, I soon fell asleep, immersed in my sweet dreams, where the burdens of the day melted away like snowflakes on a warm palm.

 

FYI - Uploaded photos are of reduced quality due to space limitations on this website.