Beyond Limits: A Journey with Bangkit Academy

Curiosity

Back in my 5th semester, i have a Mobile Programming Course at university with Flutter as the tech stack. After i wrapped up the course and finished my Valorantlab project, i got interested in native mobile development. That’s when i started looking around to figure out where to start learning. That’s when i stumbled upon the Bangkit Academy from dicoding feed instagram.

Bangkit Academy

Bangkit academy is a career readiness program that aims to produce hight-caliber technical talent for world-class Indonesian technology companies and startups. It is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia. The Bangkit curriculum offers three interdisciplinary learning paths: Machine Learning, Mobile Development, and Cloud Computing. From Bangkit we will grow in-demand skills in tech and be prepared to pursue Google Certification, as well as the chance to be selected as the best teams to receive incubation funding for our capstone project.

For more information about Bangkit Academy, you can visit g.co/bangkit.

Applying to Bangkit

After I found out about Bangkit, I didn’t apply because i wasn’t confident my English, i wanted to prepare for next year.

In the following year, which was my final year, I pushed myself to apply for the Bangkit Academy Android learning path and took the Assessment Test. Thennn, I was accepted! 😂🔥

Just so you know, right now i’m in my final year, juggling my thesis and Bangkit at the same time 😅. I know this is going to be a tough and an excited journey, lol. I’m diving into learning native Android because I wanna snag that Associate Android Developer Certificate and be surrounded by amazing people from other universities. Can’t pass up this chance, though my thesis is still top priority, obviously.

Learning Methodology

So, in Bangkit the learning methods consist of: Online self-paced (Dicoding course, Coursera, Qwikilabs), Online Synchronous (ILT, Soft Skills, English, Study Groups, Guest Speaker Sessions), Project-Based (Capstone Project) and Reflection & Consultation.

Challenge

I’ve learned Flutter before (semester 5), and at Bangkit i learn Android native, with the programming language is Kotlin and XML for crafting the UI. From Flutter (declarative) to Android native (imperative), this is interesting. I learn Kotlin & XML which are new to me, and understanding and implementing imperative concepts has been the most challenging and took some time for me to fully i understand it.

Meanwhile i got a new title for my thesis, but before the final title, i changed topics 3 times 🤣, changed my thesis advisor, so i have to manage my time. From 5AM until 7AM, i help my sister business, then work on my thesis until 12:00 PM. During this time, i do research, write my thesis, and sometimes go to campus for guidance. After that, i work on Bangkit until 5PM. At night, it’s flexible i can either work on Bangkit or my thesis, depending on which one is the priority or urgent. If there are no urgent tasks, i learn React and build my web portfolio. I document how i build it and the challenge i faced on this personal web at this Post. I repeat this process until i finish Bangkit. HAHAHA, what a nerd life 🤣

Battling Illness

Yes, i got sick. This nerd life has taken some tradeoffs. Sometimes i rest and don’t do anything for a day, i just want to give my eyes a break from the monitor or smartphone, so i don’t open any social media. Sometimes i read a book if i get bored. At this moment, i’m reading The Psychology of Money. This is a nice book, u guys have to read it 🤣.

When i’m bored with coding, i just go outside and jog. idk why, but after jogging, i find it quicker to solve bugs in the code instead of spending my whole life finding the bug, lol.

Capstone Project

Capstone Project has started and everyone is busy to finding a team and getting into one, while i’m working on my thesis 😭😅

Capstone Project is where students work on projects as a team to solve a problems around them. The teams consist of students from different learning path (ML, MD, CC) and different universities

While i’m working on my thesis, sometimes i make time to find team, chat with other students to ask if there are any available mobile dev positions or not.

Team

After finding every team, finally i got a team. The team consists of 2 Machine Learning, 2 Cloud Computing, and 2 Mobile Development students, all from different universities. Interestingly, i’m the last person to join this team, and coincidentally, they were in need of 1 Mobile Dev.

Tradify

Before we build project, we had some discussions about what we will build, which theme we choose, how we manage the tasks, present our own ideas and analyze them using the SWOT Framework.

After we discussion, our idea started with a lack of insight into Traditional Food in this modern era. We want to create a platform where both local and foreign tourists can buy souvenirs that are typical of the region, more precisely in the form of food. We aim to help and bridge MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) / UMKM (Usaha Mikro/Kecil/Menengah) in this field and preserve traditional food culture in Indonesia.

We agreed to build an application which specializes in preserving Indonesian traditional food, which we called Tradify. Basically with Tradify, both local and foreign tourists will be able to discover their own traditional foods and get the information from there.

Our first idea for Tradify was to create an Indonesian traditional food ordering service (E-commerce App) that could also scan traditional food and provide information about it. During our time at Bangkit, we had mentoring sessions for our capstone project team. We attended two mentoring sessions: one for App Development and the other for UI/UX. In the App Dev session, we asked for recommendations on which tool to use for our backend and database, as well as tips on completing out app. During the UI/UX session, we sought design consultations, including feedback on the designs and logo we had already created. After the mentoring sessions, we made adjustments to our plans. we decided to drop the food ordering service and focus on developing our MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

For more information about Tradify, you can check out my post here.

We use Trello to manage and track our tasks. Every week, we also discuss our progress, give advice, and so on. I’m glad to be part of this team, we support each other and create a safe space for discussion. Sometimes, we even stay up all night to pursue progress 🤣.

The fun part is that everyone on this team has their own busy schedules and agendas, yet we still make progress on the Capstone Project, even if it’s just a little progress. For example, one team member had a thesis seminar proposal / sempro (that’s me 🤣), another had an event on campus, and another had an internship seminar, and so on. Despite all this, we managed to finish the Capstone Project 😂, even though there were still some todos left unfinished, and even though we didn’t make it to the top 100 Capstone Project in Bangkit. I’m so proud of this team.

Graduate

It’s a wrap!! after finishing the course, Capstone Project, attending ILT, etc., we earned points that we cold exchange for Bangkit merchandise. The merchandise available includes stickers, keychains, pouches, mugs, lanyards, shirts, even jackets (the most expensive item).

I traded my points for a sticker, keychain, pouch and jacket (i have a lot of point 😎)

After graduating, we will receive a Bangkit certificate and careers opportunities from Bangkit hiring partners.

You can watch the graduation live stream on here

AAD Certification

Bangkit has offer free vouchers for global certification from Google, limited to the highest-performing students. If you successfully completing all requirements, they’ll give you a voucher to take the exam for free.

I get the free voucher and successfully passed the certificate exam 😂

Appreciation

First of all, i want to give a huge shoutout to Bangkit Academy for giving me such an awesome opportunity and an unforgettable journey over the past 6 months. At Bangkit, i’ve learned so much, i even earned myAAD Certificate, made new friends, and had the privilege of being by an amazing facilitator, kak Anna who’s been an absolute rockstar with all her tips, tricks, insightful discussions during our weekly consultation sessions.

I’m also super proud of my Capstone Project team. We’ve spent countless hours building our project, learning together, and pushing through to finish the app we’ve been working on.

Overall, i’m just really grateful to be surrounded by such amazing people.