Hi everyone! This is Sudarshan. I’m reaching out t...

# getting-started

[Sudarshan]

Hi everyone! This is Sudarshan. I’m reaching out to share a serious problem I’m facing. I belong to a community of students where most people are only familiar with Java, JavaScript, Python, C, and C++. It’s really hard to find someone who knows Kotlin. In fact, I was talking with one of my professors at college, and when she saw Kotlin mentioned in my resume, she said she had never heard of it before.

Well, it’s not rare to find someone in tech who doesn’t know about Kotlin—but I want to change that. To make a difference, I’ve decided to approach different colleges in my city and give talks on Kotlin and Kotlin Multiplatform. I believe that spreading awareness about Kotlin will help increase its adoption and possibly make it even more popular than Java.

I’m not sure if this is the right place to talk about it, but am I thinking in the right direction?

[Jeremie D]

"when she saw Kotlin mentioned in my resume, she said she had never heard of it before." this is the problem with university professors. This is why I learned about MIPS and everything in JAVA in 2006 - dated knowledge before graduating

[Sudarshan]

That’s true! Honestly, we can’t do much about professors not knowing new technologies, but we can prevent this from happening with students, right?

[Jeremie D]

well the expectations for professors within the computational studies should be required to stay up to date. Its not super helpful to be learning the tech from 20 years ago and doesnt setup your students for success. staying up to date is part of being a good computer scientist, like it or not. sliperry slope though, ive seen guys just want to do flavour of the day which is borderline worse.

[Sudarshan]

Yes! I agree with your opinion.

[James Richardson]

All those languages are kind of the same. Its more useful at university to learn languages in different categories. There's no advantage in learning the latest trendy technology, its much more beneficial to learn patterns that can be applied in any language. Often a final year project can be submitted in whatever technology you want - a good opportunity for learning a specific one.
A student who knows about Java, Haskell, Erlang, Prolog, K, Bertrand has much more depth than one who knows Javascript, Java, Kotlin and C++.

[CLOVIS]

Same over here. Take a look at https://kotlinlang.org/community/user-groups/, maybe there's a group near you?

If there isn't, and you're really motivated, you can try creating your own, but it'll be hard to find people at the start

[Kirill Grouchnikov]

How is this a serious problem? Why would any professor at a solid college want to jump on the latest language of the day, whatever that language might be?

A solid college program teaches fundamentals, not the latest buzzwords. My program started with C for the intro to CS, and then had C++, Lisp and ML to introduce various types of languages as a way to broaden the students' toolset and give us different ways to look at the various problem spaces.

Kotlin is just a language. It's just a way to take your specific solution to a problem, and express it in a way that a computer "understands" - that is, a way that it can take your instructions and run them.

Professors do not - and should not - be chasing the latest shiny tool just because it's the latest. A proper CS program teaches the fundamentals of the field, and one of the most important things it should do is to teach the students how to learn new things - and how to understand the stronger and weaker sides of each tool (language), so they can later make informed choices after they leave the school.

[CLOVIS]

Why would any professor at a solid college want to jump on the latest language of the day, whatever that language might be?

There is a difference between "changing the entire curriculum on every new thing" and "having heard of the new things". I would argue a person in place of teaching, no matter the topic, should have at least a vague idea of the industrial trends.

There are three schools/universities in my town. One of them has quick lessons on Kotlin and JavaScript. Another one doesn't. Guess which students find jobs the easiest?

[Kirill Grouchnikov]

Quick lessons on Kotlin is something that any junior / senior in a properly structured CS program can pick up on their own on weekends

[Sudarshan]

I agree with you, @Kirill Grouchnikov! But let me clarify one thing: I'm not saying whether one should know Kotlin or not. My goal is to spread awareness about the Kotlin programming language. I understand that, at the end of the day, everyone has to understand the fundamentals first and then the tools and technologies. However, I'm just here to ask if my approach is good or not.

[Sudarshan]

If my approach is correct, I can then ask for your help on how to structure my talk, as I don’t have a strong understanding of how to present ideas effectively. I agree my wording may not have been perfect, but my goal was to get suggestions, not to blame any professor. The reference was only meant to provide background on the current situation.

[Sudarshan]

Hey @CLOVIS, we have a group in our city, but it’s mostly inactive. I enjoy talking about Kotlin and teaching people how to use it, but since my presentation skills are limited as a student, I wanted to get guidance from you all so I can deliver my talks successfully.

[CLOVIS]

IMO, don't stress too much. Try to find a library or anything that you'd like to talk about, target ~15 minutes, and just go with that. You don't need to be an expert at everything, if you know the thing you want to showcase you're fine!

[CLOVIS]

You can get an idea of how I organize things here: https://www.youtube.com/@BordeauxKt (🇫🇷)

[Sudarshan]

Thank you so much @CLOVIS!