[Call for participants (undergraduates and graduates] Programming Boot Camp (PBC) 3-4Q, AY 2025

【Entrepreneurship (Leadership, Value Creation) Courses (ToTAL Courses) in 2025 3Q4Q】
Programming Boot Camp (PBC)

This is an announcement of the “Programming Boot Camp (PBC)” program to be held in 2025 3-4Q, as well as information on the program briefing session.

This program is conducted in a “hackathon” style, where participants propose a web service that they “wish existed,” form a team, and develop it from scratch in a short period of four days, including a three-day camp. Six to eight professional web application development experts will accompany you and support you.
The main purpose of this program is to strengthen your “leadership” and “entrepreneurship” in order to develop new value and set it in society through your activities, such as proposing a web service and developing it in a team in a limited time.
In addition, for those who wish to develop a web service, we will prepare a pre-training course for beginners to learn no-code tools and for advanced users to develop APIs.
In addition, this program is open to all students of Science Tokyo, regardless of whether they are undergraduate or graduate students. You can earn credits (for both graduates and undergraduates) and GAs (for graduates) by taking the following courses. You can also participate in this program without taking the courses (credits not granted).

【Bachelor students】
ENT.V206　 Bachelor’s Practical Group Work for Value Creation B（0-2-0）
【Graduate students】
TAL.W504-02　Master’s Practical Group Work for Leadership I （0-2-0, GA0M & GA1M）
TAL.W505-02　Master’s Practical Group Work for Leadership II*
*For students who completed TAL.W504-02（0-2-0, GA0M & GA1M）
TAL.W602-02　Doctoral Practical Group Work for Leadership I （0-2-0, GA0D & GA1D）
TAL.W603-02　 Doctoral Practical Group Work for Leadership II**
**For students who completed TAL.W602-02（0-2-0, GA0D & GA1D）

1. 　Program Outline

1. Proposing a web service you want to develop and building a team: By the beginning of November

(1) Propose a web service you want to develop and form a team.
(2) You can invite your colleagues from your lab and/or friends to form your team, or you can present your idea for the web service you want to develop and recruit team members at the two Information Exchange and Team Building Meetings in the schedule (5) below. In either case, those who are considering to participate in this program must attend the two Information Exchange and Team Building Meetings in the schedule (5) below.
(3) At the two Information Exchange and Team Building Meetings, you can get advice from professional web app development experts about the feasibility of developing the proposed web service, so you can brush up your idea based on that, propose it to friends and other participants to gather members and form a development team.
(4) You can listen to other people’s ideas and participate in the program as a team member of the idea that interests you.
(5)Schedule* (updated on July 31):

*Note: Those who are considering to participate in this program must attend both meetings above.

2. Developing Web Application “Development Phase: 4 days in December

(1) Web app development will be concentrated over four days in December (one full day + three-day training camp). Each team will draw up a development plan and develop it from scratch over the four days. During these four days, professional web app development experts will support you and give advice almost all the time.
(2) On the final day of the three-day training camp (@Seminar House Crosswave Funabashi, the developed apps will be presented and all participants will try out all apps, and the grand prize will be decided by mutual vote of all participants.
(3) Schedule:

3. Programming Workshops for Development “Learning Phase” for those who wish to participate): 4 days (Saturdays) in October to November

(1) In October to November, a series of lectures and exercise will be offered to the students a who wish to participate as the “Learning Phase”. For beginners in programming, we will provide lectures and exercises on application development using no-code tools, and for advanced programmers, we will provide lectures and exercises on the knowledge and skills necessary for API development.
(2) In the former, even if you are not familiar with programming codes, you will be able to create a UI on a browser and develop a web app. In addition, the latter will enable data exchange with the server, which cannot be covered by no-code tools.
(3) This Learning Phase is available to those who wish to participate, and is not a prerequisite for participating in this program. However, beginners will be able to acquire the minimum development skills, and advanced programmers will be able to review their development skills, so we recommend that program participants participate.
(4) Schedule (updated on July 31):

2. 　Briefing session for PBC2025

We will hold three briefing sessions to provide an overview of PBC, and explain what you should do to prepare and how to participate in the program. The contents of each session will be the same, but it is better to have time to prepare, such as deciding what kind of web app to develop and finding team members for development, so we recommend that those who are interested in participating in this program should attend the first or second session.

Reference

1.　Program Features:
(1) This program has been held every year since 2015, and this is the 11th time.
(2) Participants work in teams of 3-5 people to develop a web service (UX) they wish to develop.
(3) Participants may receive almost one-on-one guidance from a group of web development experts.
(4)In addition to this program, we offer a “Learning Phase” for those who wish to train in programming skills, including learning the programming rules and codes necessary for web service development. Beginners in web app development can participate with confidence, and advanced users can also learn the server-side development skills.
(5) In this project, a group of professional web app development experts (the core group of engineers at Guild Works Co., Ltd.) will provide support.

A group of experts to support web application development

2.　Web apps developed by last year’s participating teams:
(1) App to record training and share among members
(2) Bias recognition app
(3) Using AR technology to project satellite tracks onto the real world in real time through a camera
(4) Information exchange app for the ToTAL program “Debate Club”
(5) An app that uses AI to arrange drinking parties
(6) ToTAL workshop registration and points determination app

3.　Comments from last year’s participants:
(1) Unlike regular classes, PBC taught me PC programming skills and teamwork in practical development, and it was the best class that changed my life. (D3)
(2) Even if you have no experience in programming or web development, you will be taught carefully and patiently, so if you are even slightly interested, I recommend joining PBC. (M2)
(3) Although it is a long-term program, I think that the experience of putting your ideas into shape from scratch, which you cannot get from regular research activities, will be very stimulating and meaningful. (M2)
(4) This program is recommended for those who want to learn databases and data science in a short period of time and use it to experience app development. (M2)
(5) Thanks to the support of experts who taught me carefully, even though I am a programming beginner, I was able to proceed with development efficiently. It was also very appealing to be able to experience developing an actual app in a short period of time while working together as a team by using the no-code platform! (M1)

4.　Photos of PBC 2024：

Contact

Academy for Leadership (ToTAL)/Center for Entrepreneurship Education (CEE)
Keisuke Yamada, Specially Appointed Professor
e-mail address: yamada.k.9f82@m.isct.ac.jp
Office: S6-309B, 3rd floor, South Bldg. 6, Ookayama Campus