Bits of Good’s Sibling’s Day & Meet One of the Directors!
Sib’s Day is a Georgia Tech event hosted each spring semester by the Parent and Family Programs, bringing together current Georgia Tech students and their brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, and family friends to experience some of campus life. A multitude of events were hosted around campus- one of which was Bits of Good!
(Before Sib’s Event)
What Was the BoG Event?
Geared towards engineering (pun intended), this past Saturday- February 18, 2023- Sharath Palathingal (Director of Engineering) and Samrat Sahoo (Associate Director of Engineering) hosted an event for Sibling’s Day for students to get a taste of what Bits of Good does here at Tech!
The event was formatted to take groups of students and their friends or relatives and divide them into 5 groups. Each group was given a 15-minute ‘lecture’ to introduce them to Bits of Good, our values and visions, and to Tech. Then, each group was presented with a non-profit organization (NGO) partner and their problem, similar to the experiences that we try to solve, and they were allowed free reign to analyze the issues and formulate solutions using technology (mobile applications). The groups discussed different features to customize products for the NGOs, using beginner-friendly tech menus to accomplish creating an app with efficient features. The biggest issue with this process was how to explain to less technical individuals how to take complex tech and make it digestible. To deal with this, Samrat came up with plenty of analogies to ease the process for newcomers! Overall, the basic processes of analyzing projects and of brainstorming large-scale technical solutions were taught, and the event was a big success!
Meet Samrat Sahoo and Hear His Story!
Our current Associate Director of Engineering is a 2nd year CS student here at Tech: Samrat! Not only does he continue to lead others, but he has been in BoG for 4 semesters now. He was a developer for his first 2 beginning semesters, and he was an Engineering Manager (EM) last semester!
In his current position, he collaborates across multiple departments for smooth operations. For example, he ensures that project teams submit designs in time for developers and EMs to move forward with their duties, and he clarifies product requirements to create expectations. He has formed a lot of memories and learned a lot while working in Bits of Good!
(Work Sessions with Devs to Finish Tickets)
Samrat’s Team and Roles
Under the role of Associate Director of Engineering, Samrat holds executive meetings, manages EM’s, prepares and leads dev bootcamps, and helps oversee his team members: dev departments, EM’s, and engineering ops. The newest addition to Engineering is engineering ops who work on logistics and improve the engineering for BoG projects.
(Engineering Ops Dinner)
Favorite Moment in BoG?
One of Samrat’s top moments in BoG is Demo Day as an EM. He was especially proud of his leadership, melding a team together, and combining everyone’s technical ability to produce the end product for a robust function.
(Sprint Day - Last Semester)