2020 Q4 Developer Onwards: Galvanize Future Innovations
Last year, there were moments that made us proud and moments that encouraged us to make changes. In June, Agora had an IPO and was listed on Nasdaq as API. It was a very important moment for us at Agora and a milestone for the developer community. In response to your support and trust in Agora, we’ve done our utmost to continually innovate to serve you better. For example, in October we hosted RTE2020, which was a great opportunity for the community to come up to speed on new trends in the Real-Time Engagement industry.
Though the world has changed, our intention remains the same: to serve and educate the community, and to empower the next innovations. To this end, we published numerous tutorials to help you add many features in the application, such as Call Stats UI, AR Remote Assistant, and AR Face Mask. We are also working hard to enable RTE technology across more platforms, such as Unreal Engine, Flutter, and React Native.
The last quarter of 2020 was packed with exciting news. We launched a program that provides the platform for developers to share insights and we launched an education program that provides hands-on experience to university students on software development.
Featured Developer
Ekaansh Arora
Agora Superstars are a group of elite, passionate, and visionary developers who are eager to lead and inspire the developer community. Today, we feature Ekaansh Arora, who has React Native and UI design experience. His passion for RTE technology has inspired other React Native developers in the community.
“My name is Ekaansh Arora, a senior at Vellore Institute of Technology. The Agora Superstars program has been an amazing opportunity for me. I’ve worked with some amazing developers and mentors throughout my journey.
“It’s a great feeling to work on real-world projects and see other people use them. It’s a great platform to ideate and bring your ideas to life. As an Agora Superstars member, I worked with the React Native SDK projects. I have not only contributed in the Agora App Builder project but also published the React Native tutorial articles.
“These are the experiences and things that I couldn’t learn in a classroom. I would highly recommend the program to all developers who want to work on real-life projects.”
Content Contributor Program
People say sharing is caring, and that could be the motto of our developer community. Many creative and passionate technologists in the RTE community are eager to share their experience and expertise with you. To better serve that purpose, we launched the Content Contributor Program, which provides a platform to encourage developers to contribute content and get rewards. Community contributors focus on expanding and reinforcing RTE knowledge among the broader community. For example, they craft tutorials on building sample projects, showcase apps built on the Agora SDK, and share insights about the RTE industry.
Sounds interesting to you? Submit your topic and get started here. Not sure what to write about? That’s okay! Reach out to us at community@agora.io., and we can help you brainstorm.
Agora Certificate Program
Students are innovators in progress. Many students are more interested in acquiring practical skills instead of studying theories in the classroom. So, we launched the Agora Certificate Program, which provides an outstanding opportunity for university students to gain hands-on experience in RTE technology and software development. After participating in a series of workshops, students receive an official Agora Certificate that acknowledges their new skills.
In November, we were proud to partner with DubsTech, the largest technology student organization at the University of Washington, to launch the pilot Agora Certificate Program. This is what Michelle Wong, president of DubsTech, had to say about the partnership:
“We were really excited when we heard about the Agora Certificate Program–allowing students to learn about the actual coding of the web application and creating their own versions of the project. Our members felt that the series was really interesting and requested a repeat of the workshops in the list of our subsequent events. The workshops were challenging, but with the guidance of the Agora team, our members were able to complete the project with new knowledge and skills for their portfolio. In partnership with Agora, we hope to continue fostering and expanding the tech community in UW!”
After amazing feedback from University of Washington students, we are dedicated to bringing this program to more universities and students in 2021, starting with Princeton University.
If you are interested in bringing this program to your university, please send a request to community@agora.io.
Ending
Last year, the world was full of uncertainty but we are lucky to have developers like you bring RTE solutions to reality. We can’t wait to see what 2021 will bring!
Happy New Year!
