Ask HN: How to setup a software culture in my school

[deathWasp271]

I'm a undergraduate freshman at an above average engineering school in India. My school has one of highest rated computer science and engineering programmes in the country, right after the top 10. It also has the students of sufficient intellectual capacity. One of the reasons I joined this institution was because I was informed that there was an excellent coding culture in place.

However, since then I have realized that the extent of this 'coding culture' is limited to teaching beginners programing, training for programming contests and providing bare minimum introductory classes to topics that are in fashion like block chains and ML.

I recognize the practical importance of such activities, but I lament the lack of a culture that promotes students to build actual software solutions to real life problems i.e. Software that people actually use. That was one of the reasons I started programming in the first place.

So I have taken it upon myself to remedy the situation. From my perspective, the only way to do this is: A) Actually make software solutions to real life problems and B) spread the word around the campus that there is a group of students doing this.

Any suggestions/comments?

[Hamatti]

(Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with the culture in India, this is based on what I would do in Europe. YMMV)

I like that you're taking initiative and getting into changing the culture, kudos for that! Here's how I would start building a community for that and through that, showing example that would hopefully change the culture:

1) Gather together a small group of people who are passionate about building stuff. Start bi-weekly "demo sessions" where this group showcases to each other what they have built. In some countries/universities these are called Clubs or Guilds.

2) After you have the core group (4-5 people) actively participating, turn it into something bit more formal: make a website, book a room for these demo sessions and start inviting people outside your core group

3) Run a hackathon for the group once it's bit bigger: this will bring attention to the group and its activities and it's a great way to connect great developers with the industry and prove to other students that it's worthwhile building stuff while studying.

4) Get the university involved. If you want to change the culture at the administrative level, involve them after you've shown that people are interested in it and they are already doing it.

That's one really surface level example of how I would start building such culture through action and community. It's much easier to affect someone once you have a following.