Research shows the potential impact of FAW on continental wide maize yield lies between 8.3 and 20.6 million tonnes per year (total expected production of 39m tonnes per year); with losses lying between US$2,48m and US$6,19m per year (of a US$11,59m annual expected value). The impact of FAW is far reaching, and is now reported in many countries around the world.
Agriculture is the backbone of Uganda’s economy, employing 70% of the population. It contributes to half of Uganda’s export earnings and a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Fall armyworm posses a great threat on our livelihoods. We are a small group of like minded developers living and working in Uganda. Most of our relatives grow maize so the impact of the worm was very close to home. We really felt like we needed to do something about it. The vast damage and yield losses in maize production, due to FAW, got the attention of global organizations, who are calling for innovators to help. It is the perfect time to apply machine learning. Our goal is to build an intelligent agent to help local farmers fight this pest in order to increase our food security.
Based on a Machine Learning Crash Course, our Google Developer Group (GDG) in Mbale hosted some study jams in May 2018, alongside several other code labs. This is where we first got hands-on experience using TensorFlow, from which the foundations were laid for the Farmers Companion app. Finally, we felt as though an intelligent solution to help farmers had been conceived.
Equipped with this knowledge & belief, the team embarked on collecting training data from nearby fields. This was done using a smartphone to take images, with the help of some GDG Mbale members. With farmers miles from town, and many fields inaccessible by road (not to mention the floods), this was not as simple as we had first hoped. To inhibit us further, our smartphones were (and still are) the only hard drives we had, thus decreasing the number of images & data we can capture in a day.
But we persisted! Once gathered, the images were sorted, one at a time, and categorized. With TensorFlow we re-trained a MobileNet, a technique known as transfer learning. We then used the TensorFlow Converter to generate a TensorFlow Lite FlatButter file which we deployed in an Android app. We started with about 3956 images, but our dataset is growing exponentially. We are actively collecting more and more data to improve our model’s accuracy. The improvements in TensorFlow, with Keras high level APIs, has really made our approach to deep learning easy and enjoyable and we are now experimenting with TensorFlow 2.0.
The app is simple for the user. Once installed, the user focuses the camera through the app, on a maize crop. Then an image frame is picked and, using TensorFlow Lite, the image frame is analysed to look for Fall armyworm damage. Depending on the results from this phase, a suggestion of a possible solution is given.
The app is available for download and it is constantly undergoing updates, as we push for local farmers to adapt and use it. We strive to ensure a world with #ZeroHunger and believe technology can do a lot to help us achieve this.
We have so far been featured on a national TV station in Uganda, participated in the #hackAgainstHunger and ‘The International Symposium on Agricultural Innovations’ for family farmers, organized by the Food Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, where our solution was highlighted.
We have embarked on scaling the solution to coffee disease and cassava diseases and will slowly be moving on to more. We have also introduced virtual reality to help farmers showcase good farming practices and various training.
Our plan is to collect more data and to scale the solution to handle more pests and diseases. We are also shifting to cloud services and Firebase to improve and serve our model better despite the lack of resources. With improved hardware and greater localised understanding, there's huge scope for Machine Learning to make a difference in the fight against hunger.
We’re thrilled to announce we’ve expanded our collaboration with PayPal to make payments easy and seamless no matter how or where your customers like to shop. Now, you’ll be able to accept PayPal with Google Pay on your app or website in all 24 countries where your customers can link their PayPal account to Google Pay.
Here are 5 ways this integration can add value to your business:
Hundreds of millions of users already have their payment methods saved to their Google Account. And as of 2018, customers who use their PayPal account to make a purchase on a Google app or service like Google Play and YouTube can automatically choose that PayPal account when they pay with Google Pay—no new setup required. When you enable PayPal as a payment method on your Google Pay integration, all of these customers will be able to seamlessly check out on your website or app.
Users will be able to choose PayPal—or any other payment method—right from the Google Pay payment sheet.
Once users link their PayPal account, they won’t need to sign in to PayPal when they use it with Google Pay. This means they’ll enjoy fewer steps at checkout, which often leads to higher conversion rates. In addition, your customers will get all the advantages that come with their PayPal account—like Purchase Protection and Return Shipping—along with Google Pay’s fast, simple checkout experience and increased security.
Google Pay lets customers keep all of their payment methods in one place. They’ll easily be able to switch between debit cards, credit cards, their PayPal account, and more just by choosing Google Pay at checkout.
PayPal merchants who enable the acceptance of PayPal through Google Pay can continue to get the PayPal benefits they already enjoy. This includes the ability to receive payments directly to their PayPal Business Account within minutes, no minimum processing requirements, and seller protection on eligible transactions.
If you’ve already implemented Google Pay, enabling PayPal is as easy as adding it to your list of allowed payment methods in the body of your requests:
const payPalPaymentMethod = { type: "PAYPAL", parameters: { purchase_context: { purchase_units: [{ payee: { merchant_id: "<YOUR_PAYPAL_ACCOUNT_ID>" } }] } }, tokenizationSpecification: { type: "DIRECT" } }; paymentRequest.allowedPaymentMethods = [payPalPaymentMethod, cardPaymentMethod];
Once you’ve done that, you’ll receive a token you can send to your servers as soon as your customers confirm their transaction. You’ll use this token to issue a call against PayPal’s payment service—see PayPal’s documentation for more details and best practices.
If you haven’t implemented Google Pay yet, check out our online API introduction video or our step-by-step guided codelabs for Android and Web to learn more about it. If you prefer to explore on your own, read our documentation.
We’re excited to offer developers the best of both worlds with Google Pay and PayPal, all while making payments simpler for customers and businesses around the world. Stay tuned for more updates.
Posted by Stephen McDonald, Google Developers Engineer and Jose Ugia, Google Developers Engineer
At Google I/O 2019, we shared some of the new features we’re adding to Google Pay and discussed how you can use them to add value to your customers—whether you accept payments on your app or website or engage with customers beyond payments through loyalty cards, offers, event tickets, and boarding passes.
Read on for a summary of what we covered during the event. If you want to hear the full story, check out the recordings of our sessions: Building Powerful Checkout Experiences with Google Pay and Engaging Customers Beyond Payments: Tickets, Transit, and Boarding Passes.
Better checkout experiences are more likely to increase your conversions. Here’s a look at some of the ways Google Pay can help you improve your checkout process from start to finish.
In an effort to bring customers more detail and transparency, we’ve made some changes to the Google Pay API. Going forward, the Google Pay payment sheet will display pricing information, so customers can double-check their order before they confirm their purchase. We’re also adding modifiers based on transaction conditions (like shipping options), so customers can see all relevant purchase details quickly, without going back to the merchant site, leading to a faster checkout experience.
Users paying online can see the price of the order dynamically before they initiate the transaction.
Along with these improvements to the payment sheet, we’re offering creative new button and onboarding options to encourage customers to choose Google Pay for faster checkout. To start, we launched the createButton API for web developers. This enables a dynamic purchase button that uses the right styling and colors and is localized to your user’s device or browser settings. We’ve also been experimenting with personalized buttons that display important information before users enter the checkout flow. For instance, we can show customers exactly what card they’ll be paying with or let them know if they need to sign in or set up Google Pay – and this information is displayed right on the button. As the button is hosted and rendered by Google Pay, all of this happens without you having to make any changes.
createButton
createButton API allows to display card information directly on the checkout button
The Google Pay API for Passes lets you connect your business to millions of Android users by linking your loyalty programs, gift cards, offers, boarding passes, and event tickets to their Google Accounts. This year, we’re launching new capabilities and integrations that will help you engage customers at more times and places.
Your passengers can add their boarding pass to Google Pay for a seamless check-in experience. Google Pay sends the passengers a high priority notification with their boarding pass just a few hours before their flight so they can easily access it when needed. They’ll also receive notifications with important dynamic information like gate changes or flight delays. These notifications are high priority and will stay prominent on passengers’ phones until they dismiss it or their flight takes off.
Google’s ecosystem can help create complete user journeys across multiple touchpoints. Earlier this year, we announced the ability to check-in to flights directly from the Google Assistant. Once a flight is ready for check-in, your passenger will receive a notification that takes them directly to the Assistant to complete the process. At the end of this flow, the user is issued a boarding pass that can be accessed from the Assistant or from Google Pay. This is built on top of the Passes API, which means that as an airline, if you already added support for boarding passes, you can just add the check-in with the Assistant integration on top of it.
From left to right: new high priority notifications, integration of Myki card inside of Google Maps, new transit tickets and automatic Gmail import.
We’re excited to announce we’re making transit an open API. This means if you’re a transit provider and currently offer barcode tickets for your transportation services, you can now utilize the Passes API to get your tickets digitized in Google Pay. We’ll also be enhancing this API to support dynamic barcodes. The barcodes on customers’ transit tickets or passes will update every few seconds – even if their device is offline. This allows you to increase security -- since your QR codes are changing all the time, it makes it harder to duplicate the ticket.
Now you can also give customers the opportunity to import your loyalty cards to Google Pay right from Gmail—just by adding some markup to your emails. When customers open the Google Pay app, they’ll be shown any loyalty cards from Gmail they haven’t added to Google Pay. With just a tap, they can add them all automatically so they can access them at any time. This feature is currently only available with loyalty programs, but we’ll be expanding to other types of passes in the future.
We’re working on making Passes available to your users on Google even if they haven’t installed the Google Pay app. We are starting with boarding passes and transit tickets, then plan to extend the same functionality to the other Passes. Stay tuned for more.
To learn more about Google Pay, visit our developer resources:
Google Pay is designed to make transactions simple from contactless payments to online purchases and even peer-to-peer payments. It also allows users to store tickets and passes, manage loyalty cards and keep track of transactions. With Google Pay, users can pay with all credit and debit cards saved to their Google Account, making hundreds of millions of cards enabled for faster checkout in your apps or websites. This includes payments for goods and services on e-commerce merchants, online marketplaces and Android apps.
When you integrate the Google Pay API into your app or site, your customers can then transact using any of those cards in as few as two clicks.
When users use their NFC-enabled mobile device or smart watch to pay in places such as supermarkets, restaurants or shops, the card selected is emulated from the device using a secure number that changes on every transaction. Only the bank or card issuer can decrypt this number to process the transaction. The process of securing your card details is called tokenization. Only cards from supported banks can be tokenized, and this is a necessary step to pay contactless using Google Pay.
Users can pay in-stores using NFC-enabled devices with forms of payment that support tokenization.
In contrast, when users pay in your app or on your site through Google Pay, they can select any card saved to their Google Account, including tokenized cards. This enables users to pay on any device in your sites and apps globally.
Users paying online can use any card saved under their Google account(s).
All forms of payments are stored in the user's Google account and protected by multiple layers of security. This includes payment methods that users have already saved to pay for services like YouTube, Google Play or to speed up checkout forms using Chrome Autofill.
You can integrate Google Pay's online APIs to increase conversions by providing a more convenient, more secure and faster way to pay to your users. Some of the benefits include:
Adding Google Pay to your site or application is just a few lines of code away. There are tutorials on how to integrate Google Pay in your website or Android app and step-by-step guided codelabs for Web and Android. Here is a more visual tutorial:
To get started, use this integration checklist (Android | Web) to make sure you have everything you need to complete the integration. When you’re ready to go live with your integration, request production access and follow the final steps to deploy your app (Android | Web) in a production environment.
The Payment Request API is a Web Payments W3C standard that provides a native browser experience for collecting payment information from the user. You can accept Google Pay via PaymentRequest directly, however this may not be available across browsers.
To enable Google Pay for your users across all major browsers with a single implementation, we recommend using the Google Pay JavaScript library as described above. This enables a native Payment Request experience on Chrome, while giving you the flexibility of supporting Google users on other browsers.
The payments sheet is presented natively when triggered from a browser with support for Payment Handler API (on the right), while it falls back to showing a pop-up on browsers that don’t.
As users’ needs evolve, we continue to add features and forms of payment to the Google Pay API –like the recent addition of PayPal– so you can get access to these new payment methods in your app or site without any additional development work.
Don’t miss Google Pay sessions at Google I/O this year to learn about the latest features we are bringing to Google Pay. Bookmark our sessions and check back for livestream details–we look forward to seeing you this week.
Posted by William Florance, Global Head, Developer Training Programs
Building upon our pledge to provide mobile developer training to 100,000 Africans to develop world class apps, today we are pleased to announce the next round of Google Africa Certification Scholarships aimed at helping developers become certified on Google’s Android, Web, and Cloud technologies.
This year, we are offering 30,000 additional scholarship opportunities and 1,000 grants for the Google Associate Android Developer, Mobile Web Specialist, and Associate Cloud Engineer certifications. The scholarship program will be delivered by our partners, Pluralsight and Andela, through an intensive learning curriculum designed to prepare motivated learners for entry-level and intermediate roles as software developers. Interested students in Africa can learn more about the Google Africa Certifications Scholarships and apply here
According to World Bank, Africa is on track to have the largest working-age population (1.1 billion) by 2034. Today’s announcement marks a transition from inspiring new developers to preparing them for the jobs of tomorrow. Google’s developer certifications are performance-based. They are developed around a job-task analysis which test learners for skills that employers expect developers to have.
As announced during Sundar Pichai - Google CEO’s visit to Nigeria in 2017, our continued initiatives focused on digital skills training, education and economic opportunity, and support for African developers and startups, demonstrate our commitment to help advance a healthy and vibrant ecosystem. By providing support for training and certifications we will help bridge the unemployment gap on the continent through increasing the number of employable software developers.
Although Google’s developer certifications are relatively new, we have already seen evidence that becoming certified can make a meaningful difference to developers and employers. Adaobi Frank - a graduate of the Associate Android Developer certification - got a better job that paid ten times more than her previous salary after completing her certification. Her interview was expedited as her employer was convinced that she was great for the role after she mentioned that she was certified. Now, she's got a job that helps provide for her family - see her video here. Through our efforts this year, we want to help many more developers like Ada and support the growth of startups and technology companies throughout Africa.
Follow this link to learn more about the scholarships and apply.
Posted by Peter Lubbers, Senior Program Manager, Google Developer Training
In January, as a part of Grow with Google’s ongoing commitment to create economic opportunities for Americans, the Google Developer Scholarship Challenge—hosted in partnership with Udacity—awarded nearly 50,000 scholarships to aspiring developers from a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels.
In April, the 5,000 top performers in the Scholarship Challenge earned scholarships for a full Udacity Nanodegree program. These scholars come from every part of the United States, range in age from the late teens to the late sixties, and vary in experience from beginning to advanced. Despite these differences, they share a desire to strengthen their web and Android development skills, and to grow professionally.
Together, they’ve created nearly 18,000 web and Android apps, and exchanged over 2 million messages on the support channels. Students all across the country have reported new jobs, career advancement, and engagement in community programs as a result of their scholarships.
We’d share every story if we could, as they’re all remarkable. But today, we introduce you to five scholars in particular. Because of their hard work, and what they’ve made of the scholarship opportunity, their lives and careers have changed in dramatic ways. Let’s meet them now.
Kansas City, MO
From Missouri Long-Haul Trucker to Web Developer
Tony Boswell was a long-haul truck driver for 14 years. He covered over 1.5 million miles, drove through almost every state in the US, and hauled everything from fresh produce to crude oil. It was steady work, but it required being away from home 320 days out of every year. Tony told us “My wife was home alone and we were living two entirely separate lives.”
Last year, at age 48, Tony decided he had to make a change. Despite not having any transferable skills or relevant work history, he believed he could become a developer. He applied to the Grow with Google Developer program, and earned the Nanodegree scholarship. It was the right move. Tony completed his Nanodegree program in September, and recently found a full-time position focused on front-end web development. Thanks to the career lessons included in his program, he was able to confidently negotiate a $10,000+ increase in his starting salary offer.
“I am happy to say, thanks to the education, training, and coaching that I received from this program, I have finally completed my transition from the open road and a steering wheel, to accepting the title of Technical Support Specialist — Web Developer. I can truly say that my whole life has changed because of coding.”
Virginia Beach, VA
From Virginia Homemaker to Technology Apprentice
Kimberly McCaffery applied for the Grow with Google scholarship to acquire new skills that would help her transition back to the workforce. She is a mother of four, and has been a military spouse and homemaker for over 20 years. She was motivated to apply because she recognized the need to contribute financially to her family:
“Since 1999, we’ve moved 10 times; in the US and overseas. When we got back to Virginia, I returned to the workforce as a substitute teacher. The W2 I received was my first one this century, but, my total pay was less than $500! As my husband approaches retirement, I knew it would help us all if I could shoulder more of the load.“
After completing her Front-End Nanodegree program earlier this fall, Kimberly got a job as a Technology Apprentice at MAXX Potential in Norfolk, Virginia. “I’m so pleased and proud! It's 10 minutes from the kid's school, very flexible, and full of challenges with IT as a service. And there is plenty of room within the company to grow as fast as I want!”
Glendive, MT
From unemployed to Software Engineer
After being laid off from a job in Pennsylvania, Charles and his family moved back to his wife’s hometown in rural Montana, where he struggled to find work as a freelancer. It was a very difficult time, and his confidence suffered.
“I fell into major depression. When my phone rang, I had panic attacks because it was people asking for money. Job-wise, there was nothing in our small town.”
Charles had applied for, and earned, a Grow with Google Scholarship, but there didn’t seem to be a single place where he could apply his skills. He was desperate, but one interview changed everything for him:
“In June I applied for a job at the local cable company to do cable installation. In August I finally got called in for an interview. Immediately the CEO asked me why I didn’t apply for their programming position. I never actually saw it. Instead of an interview for an installer job it turned into the first of 2 interviews for a programming job. For the 2nd interview, I loaded up my phone with all the apps I had made during the Android Basics program. In the interview I answered all the standard questions but it was when I pulled my phone out and showed off the applications I made in the Nanodegree program, that I could tell that I nailed it.“
Two days later, they called and offered Charles the job.
“I never imagined I’d end up doing a job like this. My first day was on September 24.”
Tularosa, NM
Working with Students to Build an Apache Language App
Anna is a Special Education teacher and STEM program coordinator for a middle school in New Mexico. She has a passion for technology, and applied for the Google Developer Scholarship to gain new knowledge and be more helpful to her students and her community.
Anna lives and works near the Mescalero Apache Tribal lands and is now working with her students to develop an Apache language app.
“Students are collecting Apache words and phrases as raw data for the app, and have been working closely with our Apache Language teacher, who is a member of the tribe. Students are designing artwork for the app and are consulting their elders to make it meaningful for Apache people.”
Anna is also having a school-wide drawing contest for the launching icon. During the STEM meetings, students work with Android Studio—they learn how to change the look of their app with XML, and make it do things with Java. “My students are really motivated by this project!”
Castine, ME
Building A Website for African Widows and Orphans
Lourdes Wellington worked in the information technology field, but in the back of her mind, she harbored a desire to learn software development. She was gearing up to make that transition, when a serious health crisis put a hold on her plans—it was cancer, and survival meant having part of her right arm amputated. Despite the challenge, she was determined to move forward both physically and mentally:
“Losing my arm was a small price to pay considering I did not lose my life. My mental aptitude became stronger and I began to consider how I wanted to move forward in the future with my life.”
Lourdes successfully applied for the Grow with Google scholarship, and with the new skills she learned in her Front-End Nanodegree program, she went looking for a meaningful way to make an impact. She learned about an organization that benefits African widows and orphans, and decided to get involved. She created a website to help increase visibility for the organization, calling attention to their efforts to raise funds so a fish hatchery and fish ponds can be constructed to feed small villages.
“Taking programming classes with Udacity for website development has motivated me to create even more websites for charity.”
It has been an honor and a pleasure to play a small part in the remarkable journeys each of these scholarship students has undertaken since we first met them back in January. We look forward to seeing how each and every graduate puts their new skills to work to advance their lives, their careers, and the world around them!
Posted by Amit Chopra & Maggie Hohlfeld
2 years, 225+ agencies and 36 countries later, the Google Developers Agency Program has grown from a simple effort to connect with development agencies working on mobile apps to a global, exclusive program that recognizes and trains the best software agencies in the world.
The program's mission remains simple: identify, upskill, and promote top development agencies. It provides agencies with access to local events, hangouts, dedicated content, priority support from product and developer relations teams, and upcoming developer products.
As a way to identify top agencies who demonstrated excellence in Android development within the program and promote them, we first announced the "Certified Agency" Program at Google I/O in May 2015. Certification has now become the gold standard for Android development agencies, and has helped to push the agency ecosystem to improve as a whole.
Today we are pleased to share that we now have reached 50 Certified agencies from 15 different countries in the program.
We celebrated our newest class of Certified agencies at Google I/O, where it all began, and can't wait to see how much the program will have grown by this time next year.
Learn more about the program by clicking on Google Developers Agency program.
Grow with Google in partnership with Udacity, is awarding 5,000 Nanodegree program scholarships to help aspiring developers in the US continue their digital skills training and prepare for jobs as Android or Mobile Web developers.
As part of the Grow with Google Developer Scholarship program, scholars completed an initial challenge course at Udacity - completing on average over 100 hours of coursework, building coding project portfolios and engaging with their local developer community. Today, Google and Udacity are excited to recognize the 5,000 top performers in the challenge course, and offer them a chance to continue their training through a Nanodegree program with a full scholarship.
By successfully completing a Nanodegree program, scholars earn an industry-recognized credential helping to create a path for increased job opportunities as well as prepare for one of Google's Developer Certifications: Associate Android Developer or Mobile Web Specialist. These developer training programs offer scholars the opportunity to build their skills and become job-ready, helping to close the gap in the more than 500,000 open computing jobs in the US.
We are incredibly inspired by the hard work and passion shown by all our Grow with Google developer scholars -- including these stellar scholars:
Bela from Tennessee, a mother of two working toward her goal of becoming a web developer. Bela recently shared her personal story of determination to complete her developer training.
Desmend from Illinois, who is taking what he learns in his Android developer course and sharing it with local high school students that he mentors -- teaching them about technology and the type of career opportunities offered to developers.
Sean from Alabama, a veteran using his course training to transition into the civilian workforce as an Android developer.
And Demetra from New York, who utilized the online training and forums to achieve her goal of advancing her skills in web development.
This scholarship effort is part of the Grow with Google initiative, which is aimed at helping create economic opportunities for Americans by offering free tools, training, and events. Udacity is excited to partner with Google on this powerful effort and together we look forward to seeing what these scholars will achieve in the coming year.
Hamilton and Posse, a design and development agency in New York, had three short months to develop and launch mobile apps for the hit Broadway show. How did they accomplish that? Using Flutter, Google's new mobile UI framework.
Reaching millions of users — with an outstanding half a million monthly active users and featured on both the App Store and Google Play— the apps let fans enter the ticket lottery, buy merchandise, play trivia, take selfies with a #HamCam, read frequently updated news and interviews, and more.
Watch this video case study to see how Flutter continues to help apps like Hamilton succeed on iOS and Android. You can read more details about the development of this app on Posse's blog post.
Flutter is free and open source. Get started today at flutter.io. We can't wait to see what you build!
Africa's digital journey is rapidly gaining speed. According to the recent data, over 73 million people came online in Africa for the first time in 2017- that's more than the population of the UK! This means there are now about 435 million people on the continent using the Web to engage, connect and access information online. That's a good thing! But with this growth comes with an increased need to scale efforts to make the Web more relevant and useful to African users. This will require more skilled hands working with individuals and local businesses to develop content and platforms that will support Africa's digital growth.
In July 2017, Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced a pledge to provide digital skills training to ten million people in Africa, and also to provide mobile developer training to 100,000 Africans. Today, in line with that commitment, we're excited to announce the launch of our new Africa Web and Android Scholarship program aimed at providing 15,000 scholarships to developers resident in Africa countries.
Working in partnership with Udacity and Andela, we will be offering 15,000 2-month 'single course' scholarships and 500 6-month nanodegree scholarships to aspiring and professional developers across Africa. The training will be available online via the Udacity training website, and the Andela Learning Community will support the students (in Nigeria and Kenya) through mentorship, in-person meet-ups, and online communities.
In order to access the full nanodegree scholarships, learners will have to complete lessons and quizzes courses being offered under the Udacity single course scholarships (also known as challenge courses) in addition to their active participation and support of classmates in the student community. We will be offering 10,000 scholarships to beginners (with little or no programming experience) and 5,000 to professional developers (with +1 year of experience) spread across Android and mobile web development tracks. The 10,000 beginner scholarships will include Android beginner courses and basic introduction to HTML & CSS; while the 5,000 intermediate scholarships include Android fundamentals for intermediate and building offline web applications courses respectively. Both courses are taught in English through an online program on Udacity open to Africa residence. The top 500 students at the end of the challenge will earn a full Nanodegree scholarship to one of four Nanodegree programs in Android or web development.
The application period closes on April 24th. Interested or want to learn more, visit https://www.udacity.com/google-africa-scholarships?utm_source=devblog
The Grow with Google Developer Scholarship—a US-focused program offering learning opportunities to tens of thousands of aspiring developers—has given rise to a wealth of powerful stories from amazing individuals who are using their scholarships to pursue their goals and achieve their dreams. Some are creating new beginnings in new places. Others are reinventing their paths and transforming their futures. Still others are advancing their careers and growing their businesses.
Rei Blanco, Paul Koutroulakis, and Mary Weidner exemplify what the scholarship program is all about.
Rei Blanco immigrated to Lansing, Michigan from Cuba seven years ago. He began learning English, and found opportunities to practice his skills in jobs ranging from housekeeping to customer support. Today, as a Grow with Google Developer Sscholarship recipient, he is learning a whole new language—Javascript—as well as HTML and CSS. Rei earned himself a spot as a student in the Front-End Web Developer challenge course, and is now fully-immersed, and loving every part of his journey to becoming a developer.
"When I get home, I immediately go to the basement and start coding!"
Rei studies several hours every night. He credits his partner for the non-stop encouragement she gives him. He embraces a daily workout routine that keeps him focused and energized. He also praises the student community for helping him to advance successfully through the program.
"The live help channel in our Slack workspace is great. Once you get stuck, you get immediate help or you can help out others."
As his skills grow, so does his confidence. A year ago, when he first began taking online coding courses, he felt out of place attending a local developer meetup. These days, he's a busy member of a student group working on outside projects, and has plans to attend many more in-person events. Rei is taking his developer career step-by-step—he's bolstering his chances of earning freelance work by steadily adding new projects to his portfolio, and has his sights set on a full-time job in front-end web development.
Paul Koutroulakis was a 20-year restaurant industry success story. For 10 of those years, he even owned his own establishment. But like it was for so many others, 2008 was a terrible year. Sales dropped, and the burden became too great. Paul lost his restaurant, and ultimately, his home.
Despite the hardships, Paul retained the spirit that had made him a success in the first place, and he was determined to persevere. But he also saw the writing on the wall, and knew he needed to make a change.
"This was a wakeup call with my resume. I didn't want to be an old man managing a restaurant."
From his research, he learned that demand for web developers was growing rapidly, and he recognized the opportunity he was looking for. From that moment forward, Paul focused his energy on becoming a developer.
He worked daytime hours at a logistics company, and started taking computer programming classes at night at a local technical college. Paul earned his associates degree, but he wasn't done. He felt the pressure to go the extra mile, and made the commitment to do so by competing for, and ultimately earning, a Grow with Google Developer Sscholarship.
"I need to make myself more marketable. I would like to show that age doesn't matter and that anyone can make a great contribution to a company or field if they are passionate about learning."
Today, Paul is focused on building a project portfolio, and wants to land a job as an entry-level web developer. His long-term goal is to enter the field of cybersecurity. Despite the hard work and long hours, he's excited by the skills he's learning, and by the transformation he's undergone. Best of all, he knows it's all worth it.
"Even if it's a late night of studying, it's better than coming home at one or two in the morning after a long shift at the restaurant."
Mary Weidner's degree was in finance, and after graduating, she went right into the field, spending several years in a series of finance-related roles. Simultaneously, she was nurturing an interest in coding, even going so far as to take a few free online courses. Everything changed for her when a friend asked her to join him as co-founder for a fitness app he was developing. She was intrigued, and agreed to take the leap. As one-half of a two-person team, she found herself immediately supporting all aspects of the fledgling operation, from launching the database, to filming videos.
Mary's hobbyist-level interest in coding transformed into a primary focus, as she realized early on that building her tech skills would significantly enhance her ability to grow the business. But there was more than just operational necessity at work—Mary recognized she was facing an additional set of challenges.
"Not only do I want to learn how to code in order to help my company, I also want to be more respected in the industry. Being a woman and a non-technical co-founder is not the easiest place to be in tech."
As a Grow with Google Developer Sscholarship recipient, Mary is now engaged in an intensive learning program, and her skills are accelerating accordingly.
Strongr Fastr officially launched in January 2018, and has already been downloaded by thousands of users, boasting a user rating of 4.7 stars. It's an impressive start, but neither Mary nor her partner are resting on their laurels. They're motivated to grow and improve, and are focused on "finding traction channels that work, and trying to find that scalable groove."
Despite her head-down determination and focus, Mary's approach to learning is a spirited one, and she's enjoying every minute of her big leap forward.
"I'm loving it. It's really cool to have apps on my phone that I've made, even if they're the most simple thing. It's very empowering and just ... cool!"
Grow with Google is a new initiative to help people get the skills they need to find a job. Udacity is excited to partner with Google on this powerful effort, and to offer the Ddeveloper Sscholarship program.
Grow with Google Developer scholars come from different backgrounds, live in different cities, and are pursuing different goals in the midst of different circumstances, but they are united by their efforts to advance their lives and careers through hard work, and a commitment to self-empowerment through learning. We're honored to support their efforts, and to share the stories of scholars like Rei, Paul, and Mary.
With ARCore and Google Lens, we're working to make smartphone cameras smarter. ARCore enables developers to build apps that can understand your environment and place objects and information in it. Google Lens uses your camera to help make sense of what you see, whether that's automatically creating contact information from a business card before you lose it, or soon being able to identify the breed of a cute dog you saw in the park. At Mobile World Congress, we're launching ARCore 1.0 along with new support for developers, and we're releasing updates for Lens and rolling it out to more people.
ARCore, Google's augmented reality SDK for Android, is out of preview and launching as version 1.0. Developers can now publish AR apps to the Play Store, and it's a great time to start building. ARCore works on 100 million Android smartphones, and advanced AR capabilities are available on all of these devices. It works on 13 different models right now (Google's Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL; Samsung's Galaxy S8, S8+, Note8, S7 and S7 edge; LGE's V30 and V30+ (Android O only); ASUS's Zenfone AR; and OnePlus's OnePlus 5). And beyond those available today, we're partnering with many manufacturers to enable their upcoming devices this year, including Samsung, Huawei, LGE, Motorola, ASUS, Xiaomi, HMD/Nokia, ZTE, Sony Mobile, and Vivo.
Making ARCore work on more devices is only part of the equation. We're bringing developers additional improvements and support to make their AR development process faster and easier. ARCore 1.0 features improved environmental understanding that enables users to place virtual assets on textured surfaces like posters, furniture, toy boxes, books, cans and more. Android Studio Beta now supports ARCore in the Emulator, so you can quickly test your app in a virtual environment right from your desktop.
Everyone should get to experience augmented reality, so we're working to bring it to people everywhere, including China. We'll be supporting ARCore in China on partner devices sold there— starting with Huawei, Xiaomi and Samsung—to enable them to distribute AR apps through their app stores.
We've partnered with a few great developers to showcase how they're planning to use AR in their apps. Snapchat has created an immersive experience that invites you into a "portal"—in this case, FC Barcelona's legendary Camp Nou stadium. Visualize different room interiors inside your home with Sotheby's International Realty. See Porsche's Mission E Concept vehicle right in your driveway, and explore how it works. With OTTO AR, choose pieces from an exclusive set of furniture and place them, true to scale, in a room. Ghostbusters World, based on the film franchise, is coming soon. In China, place furniture and over 100,000 other pieces with Easyhome Homestyler, see items and place them in your home when you shop on JD.com, or play games from NetEase, Wargaming and Game Insight.
With Google Lens, your phone's camera can help you understand the world around you, and, we're expanding availability of the Google Lens preview. With Lens in Google Photos, when you take a picture, you can get more information about what's in your photo. In the coming weeks, Lens will be available to all Google Photos English-language users who have the latest version of the app on Android and iOS. Also over the coming weeks, English-language users on compatible flagship devices will get the camera-based Lens experience within the Google Assistant. We'll add support for more devices over time.
And while it's still a preview, we've continued to make improvements to Google Lens. Since launch, we've added text selection features, the ability to create contacts and events from a photo in one tap, and—in the coming weeks—improved support for recognizing common animals and plants, like different dog breeds and flowers.
Smarter cameras will enable our smartphones to do more. With ARCore 1.0, developers can start building delightful and helpful AR experiences for them right now. And Lens, powered by AI and computer vision, makes it easier to search and take action on what you see. As these technologies continue to grow, we'll see more ways that they can help people have fun and get more done on their phones.
Last month, we announced the 50,000 Grow with Google scholarship challenge in partnership with Udacity. And today, we want to remind you to apply for the programs before the application window closes on November 30th.
In case you missed the announcement details, the Google-Udacity curriculum was created to help developers get the training they need to enter the workforce as Android or mobile web developers. Whether you're an experienced programmer looking for a career-change or a novice looking for a start, the courses and the Nanodegree programs are built with your career-goals in mind and prepare you for Google's Associate Android Developer and Mobile Web Specialist developer certifications.
The scholarship challenge is an exciting chance to learn valuable skills to launch or advance your career as a mobile or web developer. The program leverages world-class curriculum, developed by experts from Google and Udacity. These courses are completely free, and as a reminder the top 5,000 students at the end of the challenge will earn a full Nanodegree scholarship to one of the four Nanodegree programs in Android or web development.
To learn more visit udacity.com/grow-with-google and submit your application before the scholarship window closes!
Posted by Jocelyn Becker, Senior Program Manager, Android Training
As one of our most popular Udacity courses, the Developing Android Apps course was recently updated to ensure developers have the resources to build high quality apps. This course, which has already helped more than half a million developers learn to build Android apps, has been through the car wash and come out sparkling clean and updated.
Google and Udacity have worked together to update the course to include the very latest changes in Android and Android Studio, including how to use the new Constraint Layout editor, and how to use Firebase Job Dispatcher. Learn best practices for building Android apps using Android 7.0 (Nougat) while keeping your apps backwards compatible in older versions, learning at your own pace in your own time.
You sent us feedback that some of the lessons were a little difficult to get through, so we've restructured the lessons and added smaller apps for you to build as you progress through the course. So not only will you build the Sunshine weather app as a complete, integrated application that spans the entire course, but you'll also create an app in each lesson to help you learn individual concepts.
Combined package for Developing Android Apps course and Associate Android Developer Certification
This updated course teaches the skills that are tested by the Associate Android Developer certification exam. Udacity is offering a package that combines the updated Developing Android Apps course with a voucher for the Associate Android Developer certification exam. If you pass this exam, you will earn the Associate Android Developer Certification and show that you are competent and skilled in tasks that an entry-level Android developer typically performs. Enroll in Udacity's Fast Track to get prepared and take the Associate Android developer exam at: https://www.udacity.com/course/nd818.
