SDSLabs, most generically put, is a group of software development enthusiasts aimed at fostering technical activities in the campus of IIT Roorkee. Before I dive into how my experience has been in the group, let me introduce myself.
I am a pre-final year student of Electronics and Communication Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. I’ve been a part of SDSLabs since January 2017. I am originally from Delhi. I’m also a part-time speedcuber and like indulging in music and photography.
I got the first taste of web development in the campus through HeartBeat and Watch Out. I was in the web development cell of these groups. The seniors of these groups were kind enough to teach us the basics of HTML/CSS and even stuff like Git and JS. I spent the better part of first-semester writing and re-writing my very own About Me page, each time to add or to improve some section. Then came the winters. SDSLabs had for the first time organized The Winter of Code. It was supposed to be a month-long coding program based on the lines of popular open source programs like GSoC. I applied, with a proposal to implement a basic Password Manager. The idea wasn’t selected, but I went ahead and implemented it on my own anyway. Then came the recruitment tests and interviews. I remember being called at 10 PM for my interview. Once I was in time flew. The next four hours that followed involved intense grilling. The result was announced and I had managed to get in!
To kickstart our time in labs, we were made to brush up on our basics through several interactive lectures and assignments. We were then handed over minor followed by major projects on applications of our choice. Many of these applications have been maintained by our seniors for years. Deadlines are short and code quality expectations are always high. Through these projects, we learned the 101s of development.
The most fun we guys have is during the annual trip. No matter how much planning we put into making our applications, not much is planned when it comes to our trip and we end up going to the same place and doing the same stuff every year. But it perhaps in between this poor planning and familiarity of activities, that we end up having some of the best moments of our time in Lab. It’s “not about the place but about the people” anyway.
The time that I’ve spent in labs so far has been immensely interesting and fun. The overnight lectures, the fun that we have during hackathons (both while participating and organizing), the movie and game nights and the all-nighters and deadlines, have overall been a very good learning experience.
Written on October 21st , 2018 by Ankit KatariaI’ll be back