New Experiences at PyCon APAC 2019

(All photos in this post were taken from PyCon APAC 2019 Official Photos)

            I woke up in the morning of February 24, clearly excited for something, but what?

          Oh, yes. Today was the second day of the PyCon APAC 2019.
I received a diversity ticket to the nearby PyCon for being one of the youngest Python programmers! And I was going to have a lightning talk. With that in mind, I packed up, got ready, and headed off to the iACADEMY Nexus for the PyCon with my mom. Today was going to be a great day of programming and learning experiences!

          This event was quite new to me. I was only a beginner at Python and have never been to this particular tech conference before. Plus, I’ve spoken in front of other people before, but never with an audience of 499 other people! I was really thrilled with the opportunity to learn more about programming, but a bit nervous about speaking before a crowd.

          Soon enough, I arrived at the vast venue of this tech conference. I eagerly listened to the first Keynote Speaker talking about Artificial Intelligence, and had a great time learning about Django in the workshop I went to next. It was really fun to learn these things, but I couldn’t ignore the nervecited (nervous but excited) feeling in my stomach.

          Lunchtime came, and passed by in a blur. I was feeling very jittery as I ate the delicious chicken they served us. My lightning talk was right after that, and if I failed, I would do so in front of the biggest crowd ever.

            At the end of lunch, my anxious seatmates, other speakers, gave me good conversations, but even more bursts of nervous thoughts.

My turn came. It was time.

          I walked up the stage, putting on a brave smile. I started talking, and got less nervous as I went along. I talked about Hot Boiled Egg. This is a game of Hot Potato where players pass around a plastic egg, and the circuit I programmed (which is placed in the egg) would light up and make a buzzing sound after a random period of time. The person holding the egg at this point in the game would be out, and the circuit could be reset so the game continues until only one player is left. Unfortunately, we only had enough time to play until one player was out, and just gave him a consolation prize. In a classic game of Hot Potato, music would play. When the music stopped, the player holding the “potato” would be out. Attached is the CircuitPython code for this game of Hot Boiled Egg. You can activate it with the MU Editor app, an Adafruit Circuit Playground Express (set it up by going here), a plastic egg, and a sound file (.wav) that can act as an alarm. You can also download the code through GitHub here:

https://github.com/Sunshinebunny11/CircuitPythonProjects/blob/master/Hot%20Boiled%20Egg.txt

          I then moved on to explaining my next topic: The Pixel Pixies. (From here, I wasn’t only explaining this to the audience at the PyCon, but the rest of the world including you.) This is a workshop dedicated to teaching young girls how to code, so that in the future, they could use the coding skill to make inventions to change the world for the better. However, not many kids know how to code, since they only watch other people’s videos, play other people’s games, and use other people’s inventions, without making any themselves. In our first Pixel Pixies session, there were only around ten of us, though my best friend and I had tons of fun teaching them how to code. They also had a great time making cool games and animations with us, and then learning about the use of technology in our lives in relation to the projects before the workshop ended.

          To continue this workshop, though, we’ll need your help. All of us here at Pixel Pixies would really love it if you would give suggestions for a venue or future projects, teach programming at one of our workshops, and help our cause of teaching and inspiring future programmers in any way you can. We would really appreciate it!

           Next on my schedule was the rest of the Django Workshop. There, I made a website using HTML, CSS, and Django, a Python framework. Eventually, I hope to put more in it using all the things I’ve learned! Perhaps soon, you’ll be reading this story and more from that website.

            I used Sublime Text 3 as my code editor. Using HTML, CSS, the command line, Django, and PythonAnywhere, I made a cool page with different fonts, colors, and a database. This database included the title, author, date of creation and publication, and contents. There was a site just for viewing the changes, and to put them on the actual site, I would type in the command “git push” from my command line and “git pull” from PythonAnywhere, to “pull” it onto the actual site. It was a pretty awesome learning experience, but after hours of fun, it was time to go.

            On the way out, I met some new friends who also liked Python and Star Trek. They had cool Star Trek stuff like combadges and themed arcade controllers, and we agreed to meet up and play sometime.

           This day was truly a great one, and I brought home with me not only my files in my laptop, but also new memories of awesome learning experiences.

           A special thank you to all my new friends and to the organizers for a great time at the #PyConAPAC2019! I hope to see you again next year!