As the Oulu Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) marks a year since its inception, Moustafa Khairi, its Founder and Lead at the University of Oulu, talked to us about how the project came together and its achievements in its first academic year.
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Oulu GDSC is one of the very first Google Developers Student Clubs in Finland. The association was established in September 2021 with the goal of enabling, utilizing, understanding and learning of trending technologies to everyone!
The main trigger behind founding the entity was to build a community where we connect everyone interested in tech (no matter what their backgrounds are), provide guidance whenever possible and help each other achieve our diverse goals.
Starting from the ground up
Building the team behind this work was one of the key challenges. Our team has students from different
backgrounds such as Computer Science, Engineering, Business and Marketing. Some of us are studying
bachelor degrees, whilst others are doing their Master’s at the University of Oulu in addition to the ones
starting their P.h.D soon. I believe it is also important to mention that one of our core team members joined
us from Turku!
On a personal level, founding and leading the club was a fruitful experience that helped me develop not
just my leadership and organisational skills but also my technical skills, in addition to expanding my
network and being part of such a great community.
Highlights from the first year
Given the fast pace of trending technologies such as AI, Blockchain, etc. we organize different
sessions, workshops, study jams, hackathons and many other different events to keep the community up to speed with the tech world.
One of our highlights from the previous academic year is our participation in the Google Solution Challenge 2022. Different teams from various cities in Finland were competing worldwide to provide a technical prototype to solve one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), using Google technologies in collaboration with LUT University GDSC.
Want to get involved with the Oulu GDSC?
You can join us as a member, core member, or if you are particularly ambitious, you can be the next lead of the
club. Being a member means that you do not have any responsibilities and you can participate in all our
events, be part of the community and stay updated. Being a core member means that you have some
responsibilities of conducting and delivering our events; in return you get a wide variety of
networking and learning opportunities, as well as direct communication with Google Developers.
More information on how to join, as well as our upcoming events, can be found on the Oulu GDSC website.
You can also follow us on social media:
Finally, free free to connect with me on LinkedIn and have a virtual coffee!