2013 GDG Kimathi University in Review

Posted By: Unknown On Thursday 6 March 2014 Under: ,

Google Developer Group (GDG) Kimathi University had a very prosperous year and lots of events happening at the time. 2013 was our 1st year in action and we kickstarted it with the Google I/O Extended 2013 Viewing party that has been talked about on this post.

But it was the last quarter that had the most fun events:
  1. The GDG Europe Summit
  2. GDG Devfest Nyeri 
  3. GCDC Hackathon
The GDG Europe Summit 2013

A view of Google UK
GDG Kimathi University was picked by Google to represent Africa in GDG Europe Summit in London UK. +Mercy Orangi  of +GDG Nairobi  and +Kenneth Kinyanjui  of +GDG Kimathi University  represented Kenya amongst +Femi TAIWO  of +GDG Lagos (GDG Champion Nigeria), +Oyewale Oyediran of +GDG OAU , +Hiren Patel of +GDG Cape Town  and lastly +Ishmael Makitla of +GDG Pretoria. This fine team represented Africa and gained a lot from the sessions, which they all shared at the DevFests, G|Days and Event Recap Meetings.




The 2 day Summit , involved technical sessions with the Developer Advocates of various Google Products.

 The Sessions that we had were on the following Topics.
  1. Evolution of GDGs globally 
  2. Engaging the Developer Community to build Android
  3. Engaging the Developer Community with Google Cloud
  4. Chromium Project and Chrome as a Developer Tool
  5. Google + API and the Google Sign In Tool


From Left to Right,
Kenneth Kinyanjui, Van Riper, Adriana Cerundolo,
Dan Franc,Mercy Orangi, Rupert Whitehead

GDG DevFest Nyeri

The GDG DevFest Nyeri 2013 was the first of its kind to be seen in Nyeri and Central Kenya, and also the last DevFest in the Devfest Kenya series. The Event was special in that we had 2 GDG Champions in attendance, +Femi TAIWO (GDG Champion Nigeria) and +Said Fuad (GDG Champion Kenya). The event also had +James Odede (GSA Maseno University), +Njeri Chelimo (GDGw Nairobi).  Honourary mentions for GDGs +Andrew kyalo (Former Lead GDG JKUAT) and +Dennis Riungu (GDG JKUAT). More on this here.


DevFest, to us was all about having fun and appreciating developers, and we did just that.


There was plenty of refreshments, and we had some great time to share our experiences.

Who said no ladies were part of the Devfest? There were some ladies in the house who really enjoyed themselves.

Lastly this GIF just summarizes how the DevFest mode was at the end. A lot of fun and energy! Check out this blog post for more stories about  DevFest Nyeri 2013.


GCDC Hackathon.
Our University striked one week before the event, so we moved to Nairobi and did a 48 hour hack for the GCDC. A group of 4 guys, each working on something for the Google Cloud. +Joseph Ndungu working on +Movie Buddy , +arlus ishmael , +Gideon Maina and +Kenneth Kinyanjui working on Iponline.

We started out in a small room in Nairobi, working, coding, drinking some Monster Energy ... all through the night. With some good background music, coffee and food ... we were good to go.


Morning came, and it was Sunday +GDG Nairobi was having its hackathon, so we moved to the +iHub and joined them for the extension of the hack. What a weekend! I was very tired with the tour, but having had that sense of hacking through and building something using Google Cloud was fullfilling.

I almost forgot we had the Eclipse happen at the same weekend and we were able to view it from the iHub.

At the end of the submission date, I presented IPONLINE but was not able to get to the semi finals. Better luck next time :) I think +GDG Kimathi University will be more prepared this year, but this was a great lesson.

2013 was great, 2014 is here and looks to be even better and promising. So keep in mind, we will still be here and will come up with the next big thing.


Some Darwin “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptive to change.”





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Movie Buddy

Posted By: Unknown On Sunday 2 March 2014

+Joseph Ndungu , a member of +GDG Kimathi University  and one of thematic lead, has build a web application that assists you to manage both your movies and series.  Movie buddy allows you to add all the movies that you enjoy and can rate them. Humans are inherently social beings which is why he made it possible for you to see your friends of Google Plus and Facebook.


Where as there is the o-auth for the application, You can use Google Plus Sign in or Facebook Sign in.  The application has become popular and awesome to use.

Joseph says that the beta version might have an Android Application which you can use to add movies from the comfort of your smartphone.

We support and endorse more innovative ideas to come from our GDG and Movie Buddy is one of those great ideas that we are proud of as GDG Kimathi University.

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