Coffee Break Episode 7: Second Annual Udacity Global Meetup Day

Welcome to the Udacity Coffee Break!

Today, tune in to hear about next month’s Second Annual Udacity Global Meetup Day -- make sure to RSVP on Meetup.com and mark your calendar for Saturday, July 20th. 

Global Meetup Day is a day where Udacians worldwide will gather with their classmates to celebrate the Udacity community and our mission to empower students to educate themselves to get ahead in (or get into) their careers in tech!

For details and updates, RSVP to the Meetup.com event, and stay tuned for blog updates. Most importantly, remember to mark your calendars (Saturday, July 20th) for the Second Annual Udacity Global Meetup Day: a day to celebrate your Udacious accomplishments, meet new friends, and learn great tips for getting ahead in (or into!) a career in tech.

Cheers and happy Friday!

Vish Makhijani: Why I Joined Udacity

All of us at Udacity, from Sebastian on down, welcome Udacity's new President & COO, Vish Makhijani. 

Vish Makhijani

I am excited to announce that I have joined the team at Udacity.

As I spent time with my family and recharged over the last year and a half (the first real break in my career), I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do next after earning my stripes at Yahoo, Zynga and other Bay Area companies. I realized that I most enjoyed work when I was tied into the company's mission and dug the people I worked with.  

I fast realized that education is an area that I care enormously about.  Education, especially higher education, is at a crossroads and is fast becoming unaffordable and inaccessible for many in our society (and around the world).  As I stare into the future for my child, I worry that he, and others like him, will be handed an antiquated experience that will ill prepare him for a life of fulfillment and economic self-sustainability. I owe him something more. That's why I joined this team.

The Udacity team is a bunch of brilliant folks who are inspired to educate people so they can live a better life. I can't think of a better way to spend my days.

Vish Makhijani
President & COO
Udacity

Announcing Second Annual Udacity Global Meetup

Save the date! You're invited to join the Udacity community as we gather for our Second Annual Global Meetup Day on Saturday, July 20th at 2pm PDT.

The theme of the event will be to bring Udacians together on a single day worldwide to celebrate our community and our mission to educate and empower people to advance their education and careers in technology.

Cities across the world will hear from one or more of Udacity's founders and instructors. We’ll be formally organizing five official U.S. meetup locations in Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and New York. After you’ve heard from us about advancing your education and careers in tech, stick around for job-readiness activities for those who are interested. And, of course, much socializing and making of new friends is encouraged.

RSVP to celebrate the Udacity community in one of these cities, or consider hosting your own meetup locally. Follow these steps:

1. Find or organize a Meetup. Check out the Udacity Meetup page, where you can view a list of Meetups communities by location. RSVP to Udacity-hosted meetups in these cities:

• Palo Alto
• New York
• Chicago
• Los Angeles
• Seattle
  
  

For Udacians tuning in from outside of the United States, or far from our officially hosted locations, host your own by creating a Meetup in your city! To organize your own Meetup, follow these steps:

• Go to our Udacity Meetup page.
• Search for your community by location. If a community does not yet exist in your area, click on "Start a community."
• Fill out details: if you’d like to virtually connect with Udacity during your meetup, plan to tune in to our livestream at 2pm PDT for opening remarks.
• Stay tuned for your downloadable Organizer packet: this will include a flyer you can post locally, a sign-in sheet, fact sheet and best practices for hosting.
  
  

2. Let everyone know you’re coming! Let us know you’re coming on Meetup.com, Facebook, and Google+. You can also tweet @udacity using #MeetUdacity to help spread the word and connect with other Udacians. And bringing friends and family is always welcome.

Mark your calendars for July 20 and stay tuned for updates here on the blog as well as on Meetup.com!

Jose: A Magical Thing Called Programming

Jose 

At Udacity, we love hearing from students who have been touched by our mission to broaden access to education. Today, we’d like to introduce Jose, a Udacian who tenaciously followed his passion for technology and programming, in spite of access setbacks along the way.

Jose’s family is originally from Costa Rica, and moved to the United States when Jose was 15 years old. His family bought a computer when he was 16 years old, and when it was his turn to use the computer, he loved reading technology blogs. Jose puts it, “I discovered this thing called ‘programming.’ For me, it was all magic -- I didn’t know there was anything behind the computer interface.”

Inspired, Jose tried to teach himself programming out of a textbook, and signed up for his school’s computer science class -- however, unfortunately, both the textbook and the class were a bad fit. Demoralized, Jose started to think that computer science was only for geniuses and for people whose parents could teach them.

In college, Jose studied electrical engineering, but saw an announcement for Sebastian Thrun’s MOOC AI course and when Udacity’s CS101 course was released, made time every night to study. Working his way through Intro to Computer Science, Web Development and Programming Languages, Jose felt more and more at home with programming.

Since starting his programming journey, Jose has taken two co-ops, or extended internships, with Intel and IBM, focusing on software development and electrical engineering. After graduation, he has job offers lined up and is also interested in pursuing his online masters degree in computer science with Udacity.

Jose is proud of his accomplishments and has a personal mission similar to Udacity’s: as the oldest of ten siblings, Jose is dedicated to nurturing passion for technology among his family. He teaches programming to his younger siblings and their friends, sometimes modifying assignments from the Intro to Computer Science and Intro to Programming in Java courses for them. He is happy to report that his eight-year-old brother writes Python!

Huge thanks to Jose for sharing his story! If you’re interested in pursuing your own passion in programming, head on over to our Course Catalog to get started today. Happy learning!

Francisco: From CS101 to Masters Program in Computer Science

Udacity is a great place to learn because of our amazing student community, which is constantly buzzing with inspirational stories. We especially love hearing from Udacians who have discovered worlds previously unknown to them, such as programming!

Francisco 

Today, we’d like you to meet Francisco, who took a first look at programming in Python with our CS101 course and today is working towards a masters degree in Computer Science with an emphasis in Information Assurance at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Francisco, who graduated in 2011 from Santa Clara University with a degree in Economics, knew that he wanted to return to school to advance his career, but he wasn’t sure what path he wanted to take. In 2012, he heard about internships available in the STEM fields at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Francisco was accepted to an internship in operations research work, which required Python. One of Francisco’s professors recommended Udacity’s Introduction to Computer Science course as a gateway to programming in Python, and the rest is history. Francisco says, “Programming wasn’t on my radar -- it wasn’t part of the world I knew,” but he loved the feeling of building something and seeing it run.

After the internship, Francisco pursued his new passion by applying for a scholarship at the Naval Postgraduate School’s masters program in Computer Science with an emphasis in Information Assurance. When Francisco graduates, he will work for a federal or state agency in cyber security. He also plans to continue his education at Udacity and is taking Web Development and Introduction to Programming in Java.

If you’re inspired to jump start your journey in programming, check out our Course Catalog and get started today! Stay Udacious, and happy learning!

Coffee Break Episode 6: Inside the Recording Studio

Happy Friday, Udacity! This week, we want to give you an inside look at what goes into producing one of our courses. Lauren Castellano, course developer for Udacity’s new Intro to  Psychology offering, gives you a tour of the recording studio. Tune in for Lauren’s tour of scripting, recording and editing her lessons.

If you’re curious about Intro to Psychology or any of our other amazing courses, head over to our course catalogue and take a look at your options. Happy Friday and happy learning!

Py-dacious Course Hits Pi-dacious Milestone

CS101 celebrated a milestone this week when the 314,159th student enrolled to learn introductory computer science and create a search engine using Python. This is a “Pi-dacious” (or is that “Py-dacious”?) deal!

Our first thought was, “Wow, who are these amazing students? Where are they from, and what do they enjoy about CS101?” To fully appreciate the breadth of scope that comes into play with 314,159 students, we pulled together some fun stats around our CS101 students. Enjoy!

Hello, world!

We have folks tuning in from 168 different countries, with the Top Ten ranked as follows:

1. United States

2. India

3. United Kingdom

4. Germany

5. Canada

6. Spain

7. Brazil

8. Australia

9. Russia

10. Greece

In tribute to the entire, enormous CS101 classroom, here’s an image made from the gravatars of all forum commenters from all over the world. This isn’t all 314,159 faces from CS101, but it shows all the folks who spent time with us in the forums.

With the forums hopping since day one, here’s a fun word cloud of top terms from CS101 over the last year.

Many of Udacity students have used CS101 as a launching pad to explore professional development. Hayden Lee was a junior in college with no experience in programming when he stumbled onto CS101, and was inspired to found his own company. Brian Bonus, a video editor, discovered his passion for programming through CS101 and has since started a new job as a software engineer!

To the CS101 students who have made us what we are today, thank you for being part of our Udacious community and for learning with us! It has been a pleasure to learn with each of you, and we hope you’ll write in to social@udacity.com to tell us your own special CS101 story -- why have you taken CS101, and what do you hope to do (or have already done!) with your newfound programming prowess?

For anyone who’s curious about Python, programming, and building a web crawler, check out CS101 and start learning today!