October has been an exciting month for what was formerly known as the Computer Science Club. The club got a new name and affiliation, and a team of twenty-two current and alumni members participated in Cal Hacks v11.0, with over 1500 participants making it the largest collegiate hackathon in the world—hosted by UC Berkeley.
At the beginning of the month, the Computer Science Club became officially inaugurated as the Google Developer Group on Campus Skyline College, or GDG Skyline College for short. Skyline College being selected to become a GDG chapter is unique – it is one of only three community colleges across the country to be represented amongst the over 150 chapters at universities like UCLA, UC Davis, SFSU, and SJSU, among others. Joining the world-wide network allows the club to join a broader community of developers, provide networking opportunities and connections with other GDGs, receive funding and sponsorships to host bigger and better events, and serve as the hub for Google Developer Groups across the San Mateo Community College District. Despite the name change, GDG Skyline college preserves the same goal as ever – to serve as a platform and catalyst in student growth across software engineering, networking, and design.
As a testament to this vision, on October 18 – 20, GDG Skyline College was well-represented at Cal Hacks with four teams working on different projects – Vocis, Ayllu, UC Pathway, and AI Song Suggest. The teams spent three days at the City View at Metreon in Downtown San Francisco. They worked around the clock collaborating with teammates, coding away, participating in workshops, meeting sponsors and other college students, and napping in their folding chairs as needed.
The Vocis team, comprised of Lance Ruiz, Assem Alghaithi, Majed Elqossari, and Lynn Aung, developed a tool to help students and instructors practice public speaking across various scenarios. Using technologies like Hume AI, Tailwind, and Next.js, the team created an innovative platform for building presentation confidence. Lance Ruiz described the networking opportunities, “I got to meet a lot of sponsors including from fetch.ai, hume.ai, and visited a couple workshops for Google Cloud and Next.js.” His teammate Assem Alghaithi reflected on the deeper impact of the experience, “This experience taught us to fully grasp what it is to be a computer science major… The experience and the chance to test our abilities was invaluable.
The Ayllu team, featuring Ethan Ayaay, Jarred Ramos, Samanta Chang, and Oscar Meza, created an event planning and mood tracking app for long-distance families. Samanta Chang explained, “Ayllu is a word in Quechua, a native language from my country, that means family. It was my first experience of a hackathon, I really liked the atmosphere of so many people sharing the passion for innovating and programming.” The project reflected the team’s commitment to keeping families connected across distances. “Building an app in a short amount of time was no doubt very stressful, but was also extremely fun and rewarding,” added Ethan Ayaay, another first-time participant.
Natalie Luong, Justin Ruidera, and Brandon Lum formed the UC Pathway team, developing an application to guide students through the UC admissions process. Brandon Lum noted, “Although our app was pretty simple, as we were all beginners and not aiming to win, I was proud of us for learning UI design pretty much from scratch during the event and successfully implementing it. Cal Hacks was more of a learning experience for us, and we had fun attending workshops and exploring the neighborhoods around the venue.”
The AI Song Suggest team, consisting of Mateo Quiroz, Alberto Estrada, Anas Jebali, and Audric Encarnacion, built a web-based application that generates personalized music recommendations based on personality quiz results. Alberto Estrada emphasized both the technical and cultural aspects of the experience, “We built a web-based application where users would take a personality quiz. We would send those answers to an AI application and it would return songs recommended for them… We learned more than anything, not only technical skills but there were many different cultures there. One of my teammates was from Peru so we learned a lot about his culture and we got to work together to make a finished product.”
The successful participation in Cal Hacks combined with the club’s transition to GDG status, marks a significant milestone in the club’s growth. As GDG Skyline College continues to evolve, members can look forward to more opportunities for hands-on learning, networking with industry professionals, and participating in events that challenge their technical skills and creativity. The dedication and enthusiasm demonstrated by the club members set a strong foundation for future GDG initiatives and underscore the value of hands-on learning experiences in computer science.
By Lance Ruiz and Denise Hum
Photos by the GDG Skyline College members