THE DAY KGP LIVED THE DROID LIFE

               Android and Google have taken over the world as the leading mobile OS as Google continuously refines Android to a flatter, cleaner look with brighter, fuller colours and improving the greatest open source OS to a whole new level. Android was always a fun thing to use, to learn and to create. And so, Google Students Club at IIT Kharagpur decided to do just that, with a fun and interactive learning session on android app development.

          GSC organised a highly successful event on the 8^th of November, with George Machibya being the guest speaker. Machibya is an android developer who is a part of the Google Developers Group in Mwanza , Tanzania with multiple apps of his own up on the play store. The inquisitive students turned out in big numbers for the event and were ready, with everything set up in no time. The event started with an hour long live hangout with George Machibaya, laying the groundwork by covering the basics and essentials of app development. And soon after, Dhruv took over to brush up java concepts and did a brief comparision with structural languages like C and then an involved doubt session with experienced seniors, Avijit and Gaurav (Google Students Ambassador at IIT Kharagpur) followed. As soon as the students were fresh and out of all the minor doubts, a lecture on XML followed, flying through the Android Studio layout editor and shown the changes through XML in real time. Further XML concepts were then introduced, and the method to use XML to change layouts, and also about the various components like buttons, image view, etc thoroughly explained and then followed up by covering all the major design aspects. A quick doubt session ensued, and then the participants were further taken to the most engaging part of the event. The participants were encouraged to make a simple app with their own ideas! Several innovative ideas were seen and the participants were helped by the team members in the process, so they never have a setback. To wrap up the eventful day, a short presentation on efficient design principles was given, and a few examples of beautiful apps on the play store were displayed to capture the interest of the students and a brief introduction was given on material design, the biggest visible change in Android 5.0, a new design language with flatter icons, simpler shapes, and bolder bars of colour.

    And as they say, “A hard beginning maketh a good ending”. The students left the event with a whole lot learnt and a lot more to discover on the path to learning android. Peace.