Clash of the Coders 2015 has come to a close. Once again, our developers split into teams to face off in a 72-hour coding competition, building apps for a chance at Nerdy glory.

“Landslide” isn’t a term we’ve had to use when selecting winners, and this year was no exception. Even though it was a tough call, we narrowed it down to three winners. Without further ado…

Third-Place Team: The Awkward Family

We use a lot of charts, graphs and diagrams around the Ranch (you may have noticed this in our training and programming guides), so The Awkward Family put together a useful diagram-generating language, editor and interpreter called BigGraph.

The succinct markup language is highly intuitive, using arrows and dashes to easily create and edit tables, labels and more. In addition to markup support, BigGraph has support for XML. Adam Preble, Nate Chandler, Robert Edwards and Kar Loong Wong can take credit for this handy new tool.

Second-Place Team: Cervezas

Cervezas (aka “Survey says!”) came in second place this year with a take on the game show Family Feud. Todd Gandee, Bolot Kerimbaev, Chris Donnelly and Steve Sparks (pictured below) paired their programming know-how with their hardware hacking skills to build a motion-sensitive podium with circuit boards, switches and lights. The game brings together JavaScript, Python and Ruby, along with a Raspberry Pi, to let Nerds compete and answer questions with Nerd-sourced answers.

First-Place Team: ROFL House

And finally, it was Team ROFL House who came in first place, thanks to their survey analysis tool. With this ambitious app, instructors can analyze student feedback in an organized, easily accessible and visual manner—allowing us to make our bootcamps even better.

Team ROFL House learned Go and combined it with R and Python to build this app, which is fast, responsive and entirely AJAX. It features a full automated build pipeline with hinting, uses OAuth for sessions and is written with ES6 syntax and modules.

Their hard work earned Matthew Mathias, JJ Manton, Jonathan Martin and John Gallagher the Clash trophy, some impressive prizes and eternal bragging rights.

Congratulations, ROFL House! You left the competition smothered, covered and chunked.

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It’s once again time for the greatest app-building competition in the history of Nerd-dom: Big Nerd Ranch’s Clash of the Coders. Held in the coliseum that is our Intergalactic Headquarters, this annual event challenges us to seek out fame, new technology and the very limits of our skills.

This is a non-stop skirmish lasting 72 hours, kicking off tomorrow and only ceasing on the evening of March 7, when the teams will demo their accomplishments. Apps may be mobile, web-based, or desktop, and points are awarded for technical wizardry and learning something difficult and useful. There will be teamwork, talent and—most importantly—lots of coffee.

Last year’s winners set the bar high with innovative apps that improved our internal tools (or punched things in virtual reality). But what trophy is worthy of this prowess? Members of the winning team win notoriety, bragging rights and their choice of Nerdy technology, like their very own drone, a synthesizer or even The Modernist Cuisine cookbooks.

We’ll announce the winners of our Fourth Annual Clash of the Coders on March 9, but until then, follow their journey on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with #BNRClash.

Other Clash coverage:

• Third Annual Clash of the Coders
• 2014 Clash of the Coders photos

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Our Nerds are a group of globetrotters lately. We’re attending and speaking at conferences throughout September, so keep an eye out for us at these events:

Sept. 8-12: Nate Chandler will attend CppCon in Bellevue, Wa.

Sept. 11: Jonathan Martin will present Teach JS About Aesthetics with Machine Learning at Reject.JS in Berlin.

Sept. 17-19: Blithe Rocher and Kylie Stradley will attend Strange Loop in St. Louis.

Sept. 18-20: Step Christopher will speak at CocoaConf Las Vegas. On Friday, he presents Style in Motion: Interactive Animations and Transitions at 10:15 a.m.

Sept. 19: Zac Stewart will be at MLConf in Atlanta.

Sept. 19-20: Blithe Rocher will speak at Golden Gate Ruby Conference.. She will present The Scientific Method of Troubleshooting at 2:15 p.m. on Sept. 20.

Sept. 23-24: Tj Usiyan will attend a3exchange in Boston.

Sept. 24-26: Pamela Overman Vickers will speak at Rocky Mountain Ruby in Boulder, Co. She will present Your Company Culture is “Awesome” (But is “Company Culture” a Lie?). Charlie Maffitt will also be in attendance.

If you’re also attending these events, take a photo with our Nerds and tweet to us—we’ll send you a gift from the Ranch.

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August’s Big Nerd of the Month took home the title in a landslide vote. Word around the office is that Project Strategist Kathryn Thomas has been “crushing it” and exemplifying Nerd values, bringing our best to client projects.

Her fellow Nerds couldn’t agree more. As UX/UI designer Zack Simon said, “Kathy is always trying to make consulting a better experience for designers, developers and clients. I haven’t yet walked away from a conversation with her without learning something about both of our jobs.”

We sat down with Kathy to see what it’s like to be the very definition of a project strategist.

Big Nerd Ranch: Congratulations on your well-deserved win! As a project strategist, you’re a bit of a behind-the-scenes powerhouse. Tell us a little more about your role at Big Nerd Ranch.

Kathy Thomas: The project strategists and I do everything we can to help make a project successful. A lot of that tends to be ensuring that clients and engineers are communicating well, that there are clear expectations on both sides and that everyone has what they need in order to do their jobs.

BNR: You’re clearly doing your part! Your fellow Nerds overwhelmingly nominated you, praising you for being level-headed, focused and consistent. What inspires your work ethic?

KT: I like to be helpful. I want a project to be better off because I’m a part of it. The Nerds are a great inspiration because they truly are brilliant, passionate people. I want to improve myself in order to be a better teammate for them.

BNR: You aren’t just a good teammate, however. You have served as co-chair of Carnegie Mellon’s Women @ Information Networking Institute and organized university tours for middle school girls. What has been your most rewarding experience as a mentor?

KT: I like introducing mentees to new ideas and new ways to think. It’s rewarding to know that I can introduce a whole new approach of problem-solving to someone. It’s also important to reinforce the idea that you don’t have to be the best, brightest, fastest person in school—some of the greatest successes as an adult are done in a team, which is why it’s so important to be kind to others.

BNR: Lastly, what advice can you offer for someone kicking off a career in project strategy?

KT: Transparency is the key. Be transparent about your intentions and plans to both the clients and to the software developers. As long as you have honorable intentions, a hardworking spirit and a constant desire for improvement, most issues will be eased.

BNR: We appreciate your hard work and leadership, Kathy! Congratulations again, and thanks for taking the time to chat.

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Ever wonder how Ruby handles Arrays or Hashes? Join our Data Structure Hack Night on Monday, August 25, and re-implement some of the Ruby core!

Explore advanced topics in a familiar language, while learning some computer science fundamentals and digging into Ruby internals alongside the Nerds and local developers.

We recommend that attendees have intermediate Ruby development skills to participate in the challenge. Please bring along your laptop. If you’d prefer, you may work on a project of your own and ask for feedback from the group.

We’ll provide drinks and a taco bar from Willy’s Mexicana Grill. You don’t need to bring your ticket along, but please RSVP so we’ll have enough food for everyone.

Schedule:

• 6 p.m. – Challenge introduction
• 6:30 – Dinner
• 9: 30 p.m. – Presentations, challenge winners announced

Our office is located in Suite #200. Parking is available at the front of the building.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

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Our Nerds are attending and speaking at conferences around the globe. Here’s a roundup of where we’ll be over the next few weeks:

Aug. 1: Mark Dalrymple will present Thoughts on Debugging: What Makes a Good Debugger? at 1:30 p.m. at iOSDevCamp DC.

Aug. 1-3: Blithe Rocher will speak on The Scientific Method of Troubleshooting at eurucamp in Berlin. She presents at noon on Saturday, Aug. 2, and again at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 3.

Aug. 7-8: Blithe Rocher will present The Scientific Method of Troubleshooting on Aug. 8 at 2 p.m. at Distill in San Francisco.

Aug. 8-9: Mark Dalrymple will give three talks at CocoaConf Columbus. On Friday, he delivers the opening keynote at 9 a.m., and The Squishier Side to Software Engineering at 4:45 p.m. On Saturday, he presents The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Swift at 10:15 a.m. Sean McCune will also attend this event.

Aug. 15-16: Blithe Rocher will be at Steel City Ruby in Pittsburgh.

Aug. 20-22: Thomas Ward will attend Unite 2014 in Seattle.

Aug. 21-23: Blithe Rocher will speak at Madison+ Ruby.

August 28-29: Travis Douce will present Testing Rails Service Oriented Architecture at RubyConf in Brazil on August 29 at 10:15 a.m.

If you’re attending any of these conferences, we’d love to meet you. And if you take a photo with our Nerds, tweet to us and we’ll send you some Nerdy swag.

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Big Nerd of the Month: John Gallagher

July’s Big Nerd of the Month really knows his stuff. iOS developer and instructor John Gallagher embodies what it means to be a Big Nerd Ranch expert. John guides his students along the path to Nerdvana at our Beginning iOS Bootcamp and Fast Track iOS Bootcamp.

Plus, he’s diving headfirst into Swift to make sure his team shares a wealth of expertise! We were able to pick John’s brain for a few questions below.

Big Nerd Ranch: Congratulations on being awarded Big Nerd of the Month, John. You’ve been part of the team leading our charge into Swift. What do you find most compelling or exciting about Swift so far?

John Gallagher: I’m excited that we’re going to be able to lean on the compiler more. Objective-C’s dynamic nature can be very powerful, but it can also be dangerous – there are a lot of things that are left up to the programmer to make sure things are wired up correctly. Because Swift has a more advanced type system, we’ll be able to eliminate the possibility for some bugs entirely, and build libraries that build on top of Swift’s strengths to make code more expressive (while still remaining safe).

BNR: Rumor has it that you wanted to be a professional football player when you grew up. What happened? What made you decide to become a developer instead?

JG: I was a total football nerd when I was a kid – I could tell you who had won every Super Bowl, who I thought the best players were throughout history, the whole works. When I was 10 or 11, I finally got the chance to play football in one of the pee-wee leagues, but after being tackled a few times, I realized I liked watching more than playing. I switched over to computers in high school and haven’t looked back.

BNR: Your fellow Nerds describe you as someone who truly embodies Big Nerd Ranch’s core values: kind, hard-working and brilliant. How do you maintain these values? Tell us your secret!

JG: No secrets here. I think the thing that matters most is that you’re passionate about what you do. It’s easy to come in and do good work when you look forward to it, and when you get to work with all of the kind, hard-working, brilliant nerds we have at the Ranch.

BNR: In your bio, it’s mentioned that you’ve improved apps for the Department of Defense. That’s an intimidating responsibility, but you managed to achieve great things. What’s your strategy when it comes to working under pressure?

JG: I try not to think about the pressure. I tend to focus in on the specific thing that needs to be done, and try to do whatever that is as well as I can. Concern about deadlines or how things fit together comes later.

BNR: It seems you’re a proud dad, John! Have you learned anything from your time as a developer that’s applicable to parenting?

JG: I wish! One of the things I like most about computers is that they always do exactly what you tell them to do. For some reason, I don’t seem to have that kind of relationship with my kids…

BNR: Speaking of learning, you’ve spent a lot of time teaching at our iOS bootcamps and regularly participate in our Cocoa Teaching Club. What’s some wisdom you’ve received from students on their path to Nerdvana?

JG: It’s always interesting to see things through the eyes of a beginner. Students who come in with little-to-no programming experience tend to ask questions that someone who has been around software development a while would never think to ask. I’d like to try to keep that sort of open mind when tackling new concepts. E.g., as we work in Swift, it’s very tempting to write “Objective-C style” Swift, but that’s probably not going to be the most effective use of the language.

BNR: We ask each Big Nerd of the Month to add something to the official Big Nerd Trophy. What will be your addition, John?

JG: Great question – I wish I knew! Probably something with Lego blocks – they’re a big hit around my house at the moment.

BNR: That’s great! We can’t wait to see it. Lastly, what advice would you offer to someone who wants to become a software developer?

JG: Never stop learning. There is far more “stuff” in the software developer world than any one person could master in a lifetime. Even if you don’t expect to use some esoteric programming language or technique, odds are good learning it will make you better at the things you do use.

Think you’ve got what it takes to become a Nerd? Check out our open positions and apply to join the team.

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Venture into the world of wearables at our Android Wear Hack Night.

Stop by our Intergalactic Headquarters on Monday, July 21, from 6-10 p.m. for a chance to explore the inner workings of the new Samsung Gear Live and LG G Watch, just announced at Google I/O.

If you’d prefer, bring your own project, stay for the conversation and sharpen your skills. Food and drinks will be provided, so get ready to enjoy your Monday night with your friendly neighborhood Nerds.

Here’s the schedule for the night:

• 6 p.m. – Hack Night begins
• 7 p.m. – Dinner
• 9:30 p.m. – Presentations

RSVP here. We’re looking forward to seeing you!

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We’re getting ready for Google I/O! Join our knowledgeable Nerds in San Francisco and at our Intergalactic HQ in Atlanta to discuss the conference’s latest announcements.

Big Nerd Ranch Android Community Party

In San Francisco for the big event? Join our Android-savvy Nerds Kristin Marsicano, Kurt Nelson and Bolot Kerimbaev at ThirstyBear Brewing Company, June 25 at 7:30 p.m. PDT. RSVP here.

Google I/O Extended Livestream at Big Nerd Ranch HQ

We know Atlanta’s local developers can’t wait for the latest Android announcements, so beam yourself to our Intergalactic Headquarters to watch Google I/O’s live stream with the Nerds on June 25 & 26.

We’ll kick off each day at 11:30 a.m. EDT and run until wrap-up. Plus, we’ll provide tacos, so come out and enjoy the festivities! RSVP here.

Can’t make either event, but still thirst for the latest knowledge? Check out our Android bootcamps, available in Atlanta and California.

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