Hi, I am Mubiru Elton Felix. I am self taught programmer and software developer in Uganda. I am 17 years old and I would like to share my experience and story of how I started programming and hopefully I can inspire many people out there.

Back then in 2014, I saw many people developing interest in the internet and people were talking about the big tech companies like Google, Twitter and so on. Fortunately, I had a computer and I could be able to access some of the services on the Internet.

I opened the Google Browser and it then requested for my google account details. This sounded new to me and then immediately I typed, 'How to create a google account online' into the Google search engine and I received a good number of links.

I created my first google account and then my next move was to then join Twitter, the app that was one everybody's lips then. I joined twitter with my google account and I was shocked because it was my first time to log in to a social media app.

I started wondering how these amazing apps were built because they could catch the attention of many people in the world. I searched for more of these apps until I landed on Alibaba, owned by Jack Ma.

This triggered my imagination and my urge to create an app increased. I went back to the Google Search Engine and typed, 'How to program an app'. Results that appeared in the browser directed me to programming languages and I cited out C, Python and JavaScript.

I headed to YouTube to search for videos and tutorials on these languages and I landed on Programming with Mosh and Clever Programmer. The two Youtube channels that have guided all throughout my programming journey so far.

I built my first program 'Hello World' and I felt like this is it, I am now a Professional Programmer or sort of a program developer. I then built other projects but most were related to Math since I love Mathematics a lot. I designed programs that could do basic math calculations like solving quadratic equations, simultaneous equations, calculate tips, stopwatch and finding areas of various shapes. All this was done in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

During the COVID 19 period, we didn't study for almost two years and Uganda became the country to keep children out of school for the longest period of time due to the pandemic. This was a blessing in disguise for me as I used this time to upgrade my skills in web development. I used resources like Udemy, w3schools, Solo Learn, Havard's CS50 Course Online. I was trained by professionals like Brian Yu from Havard CS50, Jonas Schmedtmann from Udemy and Rafeh Qazi from Clever Programmer.

I've earned certificates from Udemy, Solo Learn and many touch typing websites because I wanted to increase my speed when am typing on a keyboard. I started with 39 Words Per Minute but I am now at 65 Words Per Minute. My goal is to reach 100 Words Per Minute. The certificates can be accessed on my LinkedIn account. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mubiru-elton-felix-9ab50a1b0?originalSubdomain=ug)

My goal is to become inspire many African children to study programming. I am currently doing courses and researches on Artificial Intelligence: It's Application, Accuracy and its Effects on the future of Human nature.

discuss #newdeveloper #programmer #dev