Hey, amazing readers 👋 I know I am posting a blog after a (very 🥲) long time. This year has been jam-packed with exciting adventures, incredible milestones and most importantly personal growth. I can't wait to share my proudest moments of 2023 with you!

From getting admission into my dream branch to winning multiple hackathons to building amazing projects, this year has given me many opportunities and taught me a lot. I hope to celebrate my achievements and inspire you to chase your dreams, push your boundaries, and never underestimate the incredible things you're capable of.

So let's dive in and relish the big and small victories that have shaped my journey in 2023 until now.

Introduction

Let's start with an introduction because if I don't, I'll just be another anonymous face in the crowd. And I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of attention👀.

I am a student pursuing a B.Tech degree in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science with a keen interest in data science (obviously 😅), android development, and photography!

I love to build things, start new projects (don't ask how many of them have finished 🫠), learn new technologies, and share them with the world! That's the reason I started this blog and, as you can see, I am also a professional procrastinator!

Getting into AI & DS

Although the admissions were done by late November 2022, "college life" started in 2023.

I went from being a high school nerd to being surrounded by people who were just as smart, if not smarter, than me. And the workload was no joke. But I managed to keep my head above the water and score an 8.32 SGPA in sem 1. I'm not sure how I did it, but I'm pretty proud of myself 😎.

Of course, college life isn't all about studying. I also had a lot of fun during my first semester. I made a lot of great friends and even learned how to code in Python and C++. Below are some projects that I made in my first year of college.

Projects

Stock Market Trend Prediction using Python

During my first semester, I worked on developing a web application that predicts stock market trends 📈. The app was created using Python and Streamlit and utilized a 2010-2023 dataset, which was split into 70% for training and 30% for testing. The LSTM model was trained on 70% of the data to predict the next set of data. The algorithm for the model was straightforward; to predict the data for the next day, we analyzed the previous 100 days of data.

Included below is a screenshot of the data predicted by our model, as well as the actual data:

This project has been a valuable learning experience for me! I discovered that my Python skills needed improvement and took steps to address that 💪. It was also my first time working on a project with a team, which taught me about delegation and organization, enhanced my communication abilities, and turned me into a reliable team player! 🫂

If you're intrigued and want to learn more, you can find the project repository here.

A Mini Golf Game!

In my second semester, I led a team of six in developing a C++ and Raylib mini-golf game. Our goal was to create an engaging experience that was both simple to play and challenging to master, requiring players to achieve victory with the fewest possible strokes. We made sure to build the game entirely from scratch, including the physics engine. Please find attached a screenshot of the final game:

I must say, this project has been an exceptional learning experience for me. The knowledge and insights acquired from my previous endeavors have undoubtedly served me well in this one. Specifically, it has deepened my understanding of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) concepts and enabled me to enhance my skills to a whole new level👨‍🎓. While it was not without its fair share of challenges, as they say, practice truly makes perfect 💯.

Check the complete project out here.

My First Hackathon Experience

I'm not sure if I'll call it a hackathon or not as I didn't submit my project on time 😶‍🌫️. It was the 'Beginner's Week' in Global Hack Week from MLH. It was more of a learning journey rather than a competitive one.

Participating in a Hackathon proved to be an incredible learning experience for me. I was able to gain a wealth of insights by joining a guild and observing the other skilled developers in action. The observations I made were incredibly valuable, and I learned a lot without even realizing it. 🎓

Witnessing how people connect, interact, and collaborate toward a common objective within a limited timeframe was truly eye-opening. I was fortunate to have the support of experienced members who were more than willing to guide newcomers like myself.

This experience for me highlighted the true value of teamwork and its importance in achieving success. 🚀

And surprise surprise! I ended up in the top 15%😎 by completing various tasks and won a swag! This is my first developer swag ever 🔥

Building A Personal Brand

Once you get exposed to all of these, everyone asks about your proof of work and your identity. Therefore, a need for a personal brand arises. There are numerous ways you can achieve it but, I chose Twitter (𝕏)

I have not yet achieved much on Twitter but I am growing each month. I am currently at 32 followers (Shameless Plug! Follow me 😉) and slowly moving forward. Being on Twitter has already given me a lot!

Fun Fact: The next hackathon I participated in, I came to know about it from Twitter! I started building in public as guided by many (special shoutout to Kunal Kushwaha ✨) and met (virtually 💻) many new developers and opportunities.

I will continue building my brand one tweet at a time! 🚀

My Second Hackathon: This Time, I Actually Submitted My Project!

As I mentioned earlier, I learned about my second hackathon on Twitter from Kunal Kushwaha. I'm telling you, Twitter has played a huge role in my journey!

I checked out the page and participated in the "Improving Docs" challenge, as it was easy and didn't require any coding (I'm a pro procrastinator, what can I say? 😅). I found that there were numerous broken links in the documentation, so I decided to fix them and submit a pull request (PR).

My PR got merged, and I won another swag! I was on cloud nine! I received a nice T-shirt and an inspiring handwritten note from the organizers, which made my year! 🤩 This motivated me to do more open-source contributions and boosted my confidence.

I'm not going to lie, I was a bit of a pro-procrastinator on this one and didn't start working on the hackathon until the last minute. But I was able to pull it off, and I'm so glad I did! It was a great experience, and I learned a lot. 🤓

If you're thinking about participating in a hackathon, I highly recommend it. It's a great way to learn new skills, meet new people, and have fun. And who knows, you might even win some swag! 🚀

My First Digital Product

I was inspired by the people on Twitter launching new side projects almost every day. I didn't know what a side project was, but I was intrigued. I thought, "If they can do it, why can't I?" 💪

So I started brainstorming ideas for my digital product. I thought about what I could create that would be useful to other developers. After a lot of thinking (and procrastination 😅), I came up with the idea of creating a digital product based on my Git and GitHub notes. 📝

I took my notes and converted them into a PDF. I then listed the PDF on Gumroad for free. I was nervous about launching my digital product, but I was also excited. I didn't know what to expect, but I was determined to give it my best shot.

To my surprise, my digital product was a success😁! I made a total of 29 sales from 11 different countries. I was so happy that people were interested in my work. It gave me the confidence to keep creating digital products. 🚀

This just tells us that, the world will appreciate you all you need to do is start!

Conclusion

Well, that's it for my blog post about my proudest moments of 2023. I know, I know, I'm only halfway through the year, but I'm already feeling pretty proud of myself. I mean, I've achieved more in the first half of this year than I did in the whole of 2022 🤩.

I'm not sure what the second half of the year has in store for me, but I'm excited to find out. I'm planning on participating in more hackathons, launching more digital products, and maybe even starting my own company. Who knows, maybe by the end of the year, I'll be a famous tech entrepreneur😎. But even if I'm not, I'll still be proud of what I've accomplished.

So, to all the aspiring techies out there, don't be afraid to start, to ask questions, be stupid at times, be genius at times, just don't ever give up! You don't need to have everything, to know everything to start TODAY!

git commit -m "Fail Quicker, Learn Faster, Grow Stronger 💪."

And to all my readers, thank you for following my journey. Feel free to comment on what you think about my journey and the blog. I'll see you in the next blog post! ✌️