[Call for participants (undergraduates and graduates] Programming Boot Camp (PBC)

This is an announcement about the “Programming Boot Camp (PBC)” to be held in 2024 3Q4Q, and a call for entries to the briefing meeting about the program.
(PBC is one of the contents of “(Master’s/Doctoral) Practical Group Work for Leadership I/I”, AY2024 3Q-4Q ToTAL course and Entrepreneurship Course (TAL.W504-02, TAL.W505-02, TAL.W602-02, TAL.W603-02.)

Participants will develop a “web service they want to propose” from scratch in 4 days, accompanied by professional web developers, in a team of several members. The main purpose of this program is to strengthen your “leadership” and “entrepreneurship” to develop new value and set it in society.

Even beginners in programming can participate in this program. We will offer courses on no-code tools in advance for those who wish to participate. We will also prepare a pre-course for advanced users (only for those who wish to participate). We plan to provide courses mainly on API development (including database design and development experience using generative AI).

This program is the content of the Entrepreneurship Course for graduate students (Master’s and Doctoral) offered by Tokyo Tech Academy for Leadership (ToTAL) as “(Master’s/Doctoral) Practical Group Work for Leadership I/II”, and you can expect to have 2 credits together with graduate attributes GA0M/GA1M or GA0D/GA1D. Graduate students are strongly encouraged to take this course regardless of whether they are enrolled in ToTAL or not. Bachelor’s students who cannot take the course can apply to participate in the program as open participants.

1. Briefing Meetings of this program

First, please attend the program briefing meeting. Of course, you may decide whether or not to apply for the program after attending a briefing meeting.

At the briefing meeting, we will explain the overall schedule, contents, preparations to be made in advance, and how to participate in the program. You can attend both the first and second sessions either “in person” or “online”, and the contents are the same for both days.

We would like those who are interested in this program, including those who plan to take courses, to “definitely” attend either the first or second session, but it is better to have time to prepare before the program starts, such as what kind of web application you want to make and how to build a development team, so we recommend that those who have already decided to participate in the program attend the first session.

2. PBC-Development Phase Outline

We will concentrate on developing a web app over 4 days in December (1 full day + 3 days training camp).
The web app to be developed will be the one that the participants themselves proposed, thinking “It would be nice to have a web app like this.” Groups of 3-5 students will form a team and make a development plan, and develop it from scratch over the course of 4 days.

During these 4 days, a web app development expert will work with you almost all the time, providing advice and support. On the last day of the 3-day training camp (@Seminar House Crosswave Funabashi (https://x-wave.orix.co.jp/funabashi/), you will present the apps you have developed, and the prize will be decided by mutual vote of all participants.

Schedule*

*NOTE: Participants for this program must attend both #1 and #2 above.

3. What to do before starting this program (PBC-Development Phase)

1) Participate in both of the “Information Exchange & Team Building Meeting” to brush up the web service proposal to be developed and build a team(all participants who wish to participate in the program)

(1) By the end of October, participants must propose web apps they think would be good to have and form a development group with members who agree with that idea. To accomplish this, we plan to hold two information exchange & team building meetings, where participants can propose their web app ideas and recruit others who are interested in those ideas. All students who want to join the program must attend.

(2) In addition, web development experts who will support you during development will attend the Information Exchange and Team Building Meetings and give you advice on your app ideas, so you can brush up on your app ideas before starting program.

(3) Through these two information exchange and team building meetings, we will narrow down the teams participating in PBC to around six teams.

2) Take programming lecture course “PBC-Learning Phase” (4 sessions, for those who wish to take)

(1) In November, a series of lectures about programming will be offered as “PBC-Learning Phase” to those who wish to attend to learn basic programming skills necessary for web app development.

(2) For programming beginners and novices, lectures and exercises on “application development using no-code tools” will be offered. Even if you are not familiar with code for program development, you will be able to create a UI on a browser and develop a web app.

(3) For advanced users who are also considering server-side development for the web app, lectures and exercises on the knowledge and skills necessary for API development will be offered. This will enable data exchange with servers, which no-code tools cannot cover. We also plan to provide development experience using database design and generation AI.

(4) This learning phase is open to those who wish to attend, and is not a prerequisite for participating in the development phase, but we recommend that program participants to take the learning phase, as beginners can acquire basic development skills and advanced users can review their development skills.

PBC-Learning Phase Schedule and Contents：

4. About Programming Boot Camp (PBC)

1.　Purposes：

(1) To practice your own “leadership” and/or “entrepreneurship” for developing and executing new value
(2) To understand the fundamental concept and skills for designing new web services
(3) To understand the fundamental rules and codes for programming user interface and materialize your web services
(4) To foster “teamwork” to maximize results

2.　Features：

(1) This program was started in 2015 and this year of the program will be the 10th time.
(2) Students form a team of 3-5 members and engage in development of their idea of a new web service.
(3) Web application development experts will provide leading-edge lecture on programming and support students on their development.
(4) In addition to “Development Phase”, this program offers “Learning Phase” for learning and understanding rules and codes for programming so that programming beginners can enjoy the program and advanced students can also improve their capabilities.

3.　Mentors – Web application development experts：

(1) Students will get support from the following experts.

(2) All lectures and supports by those experts will be made in Japanese. If your team has non-Japanese speaking member(s), please help them.

4.　Voices from students who participated last year：

(1) You definitely won’t regret participating. You’ll gain a lot.（M1 Global Engineering for Development, Environment and Society）

(2) In this workshop, you will set your own problem and work on developing a service or application that solves it. Since the development is carefully supported by experts, I felt that it was up to the students to gain experience. There are many things you can experience depending on your preferences, such as the ability to find problems, the ability to think about what people can use, and how to proceed (such as by interviewing the target you have actually set), and I think these will always be necessary when creating new value or working in a team.（M1 Life Science and Engineering）

(3) As long as you have an idea for a web service you want to create, you can create it even if you don’t have any experience with web development tools or programming. I was able to create a search support web page with the support of a mentor and team members who specialize in web service development. In addition, from the pre-classes and the training camp where you can concentrate on development, you can learn the thinking required for service development, how to use the software, and design concepts. （M2 Life Science and Engineering）

(4) I think this is the quickest way to realize your desire to create something! （M2 Engineering Science and Design）

(5) 0 experience? Just dive into programming and unlock your potential by joining the workshop! Challenge yourself in unfamiliar fields can lead to surprisingly rewarding results! (D1, Nuclear Engineering)

(6) Are you interested in developing a web application that can transform lives, create social change using non-code tools, and at the same time develop or improve your critical thinking, teamwork, communication, time management, and overall leadership skills? I encourage you to participate in ToTAL PBC course (a fully sponsored camp) and make your dream of becoming a talented scientist, engineer, and leader come true. (M1, Global Engineering for Development, Environment and Society)

(7) If you want to learning the no-code programming, and make friends with more people. Please join our PBC!（M2, Material Science）

5.　Photos from 2023 PBC：

Contact

Please do not hesitate to contact Prof. Yamada if you have questions:
Prof. Keisuke Yamada, Tokyo Tech Academy for Leadership
e-mail address: yamada.k.be@m.titech.ac.jp
Office: Room S6-309B, 3rd floor, South Building 6, Ookayama Campus