Introducing our Winter 2015 Outreachy Interns
We’re honored to be participating for the first time in Outreachy after invitations from Marina and other organizers of the program the past couple of years. Our mission of 3 Billion Maries aligns deeply with Outreachy’s goal to helps people from groups underrepresented in free and open source software get involved. Outreachy is the successor to the Outreach Program for Women (OPW) which was inspired by Google Summer of Code and how few women applied for it. Outreachy is now led by the GNOME Foundation and Software Freedom Conservancy.
37 interns are participating in December 2015 – March 2016 round of Outreachy. We are fortunate enough to take on three brilliant interns from across the world – Nelly Kiboi from Kenya, Olya Fomenko from Ukraine, and Nasim Banu from Canada. We are directly sponsoring one as an Includer-level sponsor and through the generous support of the Outreachy General fund were able to take on two additional interns.
We’re delighted to participate in this program that connects talented and passionate newcomers with people working in free and open source software. Our mentors will help these participants learn how exciting and valuable work on software freedom can be, while helping us to build a more inclusive community.
Visit http://gnome.org/outreachy or follow @outreachy on Twitter to learn more.
Meet our Winter 2015 Mifos Interns
All three of our interns are Android developers and we’ve got them focused on projects that will deliver tremendous value as more and more financial institutions go digital and mobilize their field operations. Nelly will be focusing on building out Version 2 of our Android field app providing new core functionalities needed by staff out in the field. Olya will be providing a refresh to the user experience on the Android field app by implementing Material Design and adding long-awaited offline functionality to the app. Nasim will be building out a mobile interface for our brand new surveys framework including the PPI in addition to optimizing our AngularJS Community App.
Mentoring our interns will be Ishan Khanna, Satya Narayan, and Gaurav Saini. Special thanks to Ishan and Gaurav who have been an instrumental part of the intern onboarding process.
Join in congratulating them on the mailing lists and saying hello! They’ll be sharing progress on their work throughout the coming months.
Nelly Kiboi
Nelly Kiboi hails from Nairobi, Kenya where she’s in the second and final year of her Masters Degree with a concentration in Information Systems Technology – Software Engineering at the United States International University – Kenya. She’s an experienced Android developer and has participated previously in the Rails Girls Summer of Code 2015.
For her project, she’ll be working on Version 2 of our Android Field Operations App, adding additional core functionalities needed including creating new loan accounts, attaching documents, capturing signatures, and more.
Keep up in touch with Nelly at:
Olya Fomenko
Olya Fomenko is a third-year student at State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. She is retrieving bachelor degree and studying civil engineering and modeling. Olya has a good math background as well as knowledge of Java programming. She is used to writing Java/Android code, knows object-oriented programming paradigms and is familiar with patterns and best practices in Android, having worked as a professional Android Developer.
Olya will be implementing Material Design for our Android field operations app – getting our app in line with the latest Android design and usability standards and providing a cleaner more lightweight user experience. One of the most critical needs out in the field, is access to data while offline. Olya will be extending offline data capture throughout the major field processes so staff can download data, view and edit it locally, and sync back to the server when back online. Olya also will be wrapping up some outstanding GIS tasks for the Android app.
Keep in touch with Olya at:
Nasim Banu
Nasim is based out of Vancouver, BC and has her Master’s Degree in Computer Science from OUAT (Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology. She has spent the 10 years of her life honing skills in the following technologies: HTML, ASP, ASP.NET, VB, C,C#,Python JAVA, Android, iOS.
Nasim will be working on implementing the mobile interface for capturing surveys and social performance management scorecards utilizing the brand new surveys framework shipping in Mifos X 15.12 – this will be a powerful tool for capturing client data in the field. Apart from that, Nasim will also implement a number of enhancements and usability improvements to the AngularJS Community App.
Keep in touch with Nasim at:
When and why did you start coding?
Olya: During school time when I learned programming basics with Delphi I realised that this profession fits to me. So later, in university, I continued to study it. Mobile development direction is very interesting and exciting for me, and basing on my Java background I chose the Android.
Nelly: I joined JKUAT in 2010 to pursue a degree in BSc information technology , that was the first time i got to interact with code.The first challenges that we resolved in class when learning code was what made me realize that this is what i want to do for the rest of my life, i loved solving programming problems and still do, from then on it has been a steep learning curve, and i’ve enjoyed every moment. I am still learning.
Nasim: When I was a little kid I liked to play with numbers. There were a few years when I was doing math everyday from the time I woke up till the time I went to bed nonstop. I might have solved many thousands of algebraic equations in my life. When I came to high school I felt the same stimulation when I started Fortran & Pascal. My journey to coding started.
Of all the projects, you could have applied to for Outreachy, why Mifos?
Nelly: Mifos stands for something powerful, it aims to create a world of 3 Billion people who will have access to financial resources needed to create a better life for themselves and their family and i want to be part of the change , coming from Africa, where most of the people are unbanked this platform offers an opportunity for a better life for our people and the entire world as large,contributing to Mifos provides me with the opportunity to part of this great initiative.
Olya: The domain is interesting for me as well this project will provide the opportunity to work on mobile applications and contribute using latest trends in mobile such as Material Design.
Nasim: I have looked at few other open source project like openMRS, openStack, moVirt, Air Mozilla & Playframework before Mifos. I found Mifos development environment is easy to setup and easy to contribute.
With Mifos I found great talented developer community, quick response from mentors and warm welcome.
Though Mifos has been started 8 years back but it always update its software to the current standard. The software stack it uses like Android, AngularJS, Spring MVC, Java & Cloud Computing attracts a developer like diamond attracts a woman.
Mifos empowers poor women. As a woman I always wanted to help poor and needy. If I go out and help I can reach to hundred or maximum thousand,but through Mifo I can reach to billion. I don’t need to spend any money to help them rather only to use what I have already and what God has gifted me. One line of code at a time.
You’ve only been a part of the community for a few weeks now but you all have made such great contributions, what’s been most rewarding for you so far?
Nasim: When Ishan accepted my Pull request; that was most rewarding for me till so far.
Nelly: The fact that i have been able to make a contribution , interacting with other people who work with Mifos , the community is great and it has provided me with the opportunity to meet such great people.
Olya: I am really inspired when people appreciate and use my developments.
What is the one thing you’re hoping to learn or take away from your Outreachy internship?
Olya: I want to earn experience to works in international team and on open-source project. Also I want to explore how people interact in huge open-source communities.
Nasim: Minimum time maximum hand on knowledge gain.
Nelly: To learn and make a difference by contributing to open source while working as a team.
What is the most lasting impact you’re hoping to have on the community during your internship?
Olya: I want to produce really great (not only for user perspective, also from development side) software with our team.
Nasim: I hope to present my best capability during my internship.
Nelly: Improving on the android application and helping others while at it, also sharing information about mifos.
Most of us on the project have been away from college for a number of years but we all have fond memories – what’s your most memorable experience from university thus far?
Nelly: Going out to have fun with friends with little money and still having the time of our lives, that moment is priceless.
Olya: Students life 🙂
Nasim: I was in the first batch of Computer Science in my University. That time my University couldn’t provide computer to each student, so me & my friend was sharing one system in our Computer Lab. We were working together. Down the line after few years I have my own Macbook pro but I miss my friend. I wish someone to sit beside me and code together. Amazing things happens when we work together
Share something about your local culture that the community and other interns might like to know
Nasim: I am Muslim. I pray five time a day. I think this way I am meditating for 10 to 15 mins 5 times.
Nelly: We eat people. I got you scared there. No, we don’t eat people.
In Kenya we have 42 ethnic communities, i come from the Kalenjin community, one of the largest communities. Milk, meat and sour milk (called ‘mursik’ in our native language ) are our staple food. Our community has produced some of the best runners in the world,am sure you know them. Female names start with Jep or Chep (am jepchirchir)and male names start with Kip and they all have a meaning.
Olya: Ukrainians are very open-minded, but have high requirements for ourselves as well as for other people
If you could have lunch with anybody (living or deceased) in the world, who would it be? What would you have for lunch?Share one fun fact about yourself
Olya: In my spare time I am creating designs for flats.
Nelly: I love basketball and swimming and am secretly addicted to ice cream.
Nasim: I comb my hair for one hour everyday. It’s not approximately one hour rather exact one hour. I see the watch. If I start at 10 a.m, I stop it at exactly 11 a.m. Though I don’t do it now, I was doing that when I was in my teen and in college
If you could travel to one place in the world where would it be?
Nasim: Mecca, Saudi Arabia where muslim go for pilgrimage.
Olya: Silicon Valley
Nelly: Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, it is a breathtaking place
If you could have lunch with anybody (living or deceased) in the world, who would it be? What would you have for lunch?
Nelly: Grace Brewster Murray Hopper such an amazing woman, just to understand her mind, she is an inspiration to me and other women. She lived a full life.
Olya: Elon Musk. Something produced using hi-tech
Nasim: I would like to have lunch with the person because of whom I got the chance to be within Mifos family. Who has chosen me as Outreachy intern. I would cook the lunch for him whatever he orders.
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