My programming journey #HourOfCode #JetBrainsAcademy

I was halfway through medical school when I became fascinated with medical devices and their numerous applications in medicine, I made a mental note to take a course on Medical device engineering in future. However, along the line, computer programming caught my attention. With computer programming, medical devices could do even more, and even more exciting, everyday devices such as the mobile phones could become “medical devices”. Mobile devices powered by programming have become powerful tools in the hands of health workers and in the hands of the general population, for health education, health tracking, diagnosis, continuing medical education, virtual consultations and managing data.

As cheaper versions of mobile phones are built and sold, a growing number of people are acquiring these devices, making the possible applications of programming limitless. Most importantly, these ubiquitous mobile devices and their accompanying technology, made possible by programming will make technology, and of particular interest to me, health tech, accessible and affordable, with great potential to improve quality of life in resource poor settings. Beyond Medicine, computer programming has protean applications. This has inspired my programming journey and kept me going despite challenges along the way.

The first language that caught my attention is java, because of its versatility and its application in mobile software development. It was during my internet search for “the perfect site to learn java” that JetBrains academy popped up and I began my JetBrains academy java journey which has been exciting. I love the JetBrains academy’s java’s course because it is self paced, project based and brilliantly structured. Rather than series of large volumes of literature (or long videos), the concepts are introduced gradually with code problems in between. These code problems assess and improve my understanding, and spur me to research and decipher their solutions . The code problems also prepare me for future topics and various stages of building my project. For me, I believe this is one of the best ways to learn.

I also enjoy the fact that the course is in text format. While some other people prefer video tutorials, I love text tutorials. It is less deterred by poor internet connection, it is less expensive to access and gives me time to code along the tutorials without having to constantly pause the videos. The intellij IDEA IDE and the accompanying educational plugins are like an extra virtual tutor holding my hand and walking me through my coding journey.