December 23, 2019 Community Team Remembers 2019

jmpld40

Best things from 2019:
It’s the end of the year and an entire decade! 2019 was a pretty awesome year in my book. Some of my favorite highlights include:

• Launching THRIVE: A HUGE team effort, we were able to capture all the amazing content we have and thoughtfully organize them for you for maximum potential. Find what you need, read something new, or even just learn. THRIVE has made a huge difference for us already and I hope we can continue the momentum.
• TCO19: From the regional events to the onsite finale, TCO19 was a huge success for our community and for our customers. I am so grateful for the amazing team that helped me pull it off and for all the members who participated.
• Working closely with the product development team to maximize all we do for the community. You may see a few of us driving community visibly but there is a huge team behind us doing so many awesome things every day – just for you all. We even had a large in person meeting near my home town to chat in person and really bond together. That was definitely a highlight of the year.

For 2020, I can’t wait to continue making Topcoder an amazing place for all. We hope you’ll continue being a valued member of our community. Check in to see all the great things happening in the coming months.

I could go on and on because it was a pretty good year but I’ve asked my team to share with me their thoughts about 2019 and of course what they are most looking forward to for 2020. Take it away community team!

Billsedison

Best things from 2019:
There were many best things for me –  my 2019 was memorable!

• I got direct praise from the T-Mobile team for my copiloted projects. That’s the best honor for me in Topcoder!
• TCO19!! It was my favorite TCO. I would like to thank the Topcoder team for giving me a chance to be onsite. Without the opportunity, I would have not had the chance to meet the Topcoder admins, members and clients, witness the customer success, growing community, and the exciting and competitive TCO finals!
• And I was very happy and grateful to be part of the TCO19 Regional Events as the Development Evangelist. It was a great experience. I was also glad that my challenge specification was used for the Development onsite competition in all four regional events.
• The Hour of Code challenges! It just ended a week ago and we reached great success. I was so glad my idea was adopted. It was exciting to make the idea come true.
• I proposed an idea to revamp the educational process at the beginning of 2019, and now we have Thrive! This is another exciting idea that was realized this year.

Most looking forward to in 2020:

• Topcoder Algorithm Arena 3.0: This is a big dream of mine and Harshit’s. I will try my best to get it done and put it into production so then millions of Topcoder SRMers can use it. It will replace the legacy arena, which has served us for 20 years! This will be a revolutionary upgrade. Hope the dream comes true.
• Winning a ticket to TCO20.
• Achieve more customer success for my copiloting work.
• Engage more new members for the development track.

Winterflame

Best things from 2019:
The best things for me from 2019 were being a QA Evangelist and Community Team Member attending TCO19 in Houston. It was exciting to meet a lot of talented guys competing at TCO19 and witness the whole process of the QA Finals Competition.

Most looking forward to in 2020:

• More QA projects for increasing members in the QA track.
• To improve my English and hope my Algorithm rating can be increased steadily.

fajar.mln

Best things from 2019:
I was able to travel around the world! This year, I visited Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Yogyakarta, Singapore, Doha, New York City, and Houston. They were all related to Topcoder in some way. Seeing a lot of new people and spreading information about Topcoder as a new way to enjoy work and life is very satisfying. 

I was also able to attend the TCO19 Final where I saw all my lovely and friendly Topcoder community members plus the admins from around the world. After one year of communicating with them virtually in the forums, slack, and emails, meeting them in person became one of the best things to happen to me this year. I was also able to run our first-ever Design Bootcamp twice and see with my own eyes how it changes people’s lives. After they get the skills from Bootcamp and commit full time to Topcoder, they are able to enjoy their life more. Seeing this is one of the best things I experienced this year.

Most looking forward to in 2020:

• Pursuing trip winner ticket for TCO20 finals
• Initiate Topcoder Local Community 
• Doing more design education/Bootcamps for Topcoder members around the world
• Step up the game as a Topcoder Evangelist and recruit more designers to actively participate/engage in Topcoder 
• Attending TCO regionals as much as possible

Hi4sandy

Best things from 2019:
Meeting people while attending TCO regional events and TCO finals is the best thing of 2019.

TCO India regionals was the first regional event I attended this year. There I met with PereViki, mahestro, ravijune, starck181995, teevics and adroc. I also met with AparajitaSingh. She’s a Topcoder admin and from the same college and lives in the same city as me. It was a surprise for me to meet her for the first time during the TCO India regionals because I never met her during our college days.

In August I attended the TCO Japan regionals. There I met with PereViki, DaraK, Yoki, iamtong, and adroc. I also met with Topcoder admin Yoshito Sudo. More than a year ago I worked with him on a Topcoder project for Fujitsu. It was one of the best projects I have ever worked on. I worked on that project for about 5 months to build the entire frontend and backend integration. The kind of work experience I had while working with Yoshito Sudo and the copilot wendell was truly amazing. Visiting Japan, meeting people there, and learning about their culture is something that I’m always going to remember.

Then in November, it was time for the Topcoder Open Finals in Houston. This year we had a new event at the finals, the Topcoder Open Innovation Summit, where several clients from different companies attended. I got a chance to meet with some clients I had recently worked with and a client I’m currently working with. They all seemed very excited when I told them the way we are working on their projects and the cutting edge technologies we are using. One of the clients I work with also won an award at the Innovation Summit.

I enjoyed seeing again some of the members I met during regionals and dhruvit_r, phoenix103, Ariel and Jessie. We should have more MVP dinners with Jessie.

In 2019 I travelled a distance equivalent to 6.5 times around the world (my Google location service says this), met with many amazing people, a new college friend, a Buddhist monk in Nepal, Yoshito Sudo from Japan, and with my Topcoder team members. All this makes me feel that the world is really a small place.

Most looking forward to in 2020:

• Copiloting new and challenging projects 
• Being bold, italic, and never regular for getting new projects to copilot 🙂
• Travelling and meeting with even more people.
• Learning and experimenting with new things.

DARAK

Best things from 2019:
Being part of the Topcoder team and working more closely with Jessie, Harshit, and Nick (such passionate people!) to bring exciting new things to the community. It was also awesome working with Trevor on the new Topcoder site design and then transitioning that style to the community site. In the next year, we plan to make the entire site look consistent. Thank you Jessie and Trevor for the opportunity!

In addition, I really loved being part of TCO this year, from preparing the setup to meeting all the Topcoder friends and staff and especially for having the chance to help with the planning and managing of the UI Design Competition Final (thank you Adam!).

Last but not least, having the chance to meet amazing Topcoder people from all over the world: from getting to know the Topcoder team better in Connecticut to travelling to the Japan regional event and TCO19 in Houston, to meeting new members and hugging old time friends.

Most looking forward to in 2020:

• Improving several issues we are seeing on the design track to make things easier for newbies and veteran competitors
• Winning a ticket to TCO20
• Redesigning of the Topcoder community site to entirely match the topcoder.com look and feel and bring a better user experience

nick.castillo

Best things from 2019:
The completion of Thrive!  The community team came together with this idea as a group because there were so many interesting articles that were spread all over the Topcoder Universe and we wanted to gather them all in one spot. It was wonderful to see so many teams working together and the turnout of members to the challenges from design all the way through development.  We are far from calling Thrive complete however, so be on the lookout for more features in 2020.

Most looking forward to in 2020:

TCO obviously!  This is the big TCO20 so I’m excited to find out where we will be hosting in the new year.  I had so much fun emceeing the show this year and I hope to bring the same energy this time around!

hmehta

Best things from 2019:
All the new revamped regional events; the qualifications format and everything about them! I met so many members from around the world. Talking to them about their lives and things they need us to work on and seeing their love for Topcoder and immense support and gratitude to grow the community and making it better was the best part.

Thanks to Jessie and the member attendees for giving me a chance to be their host. Can’t wait to get back to replanning of Regional Events in 2020.

The maturing of the new marathon platform was something that will remain in my list for the best moments (there is still a long way to go!).

Also not to forget the moment of TCO19 that will always stay with me:

Whenever I look back at 2019, the most memorable moment has to be Petr and ecnerwal being in 4th and 5th positions, respectively, just 20 odd points apart after the coding phase of the Semi-Final 2. The moment the challenge phase began Petr did an unsuccessful challenge and fell down to 5th position. That moment of “ohhs” and, later, Petr showing us his heartbeat after that unsuccessful challenge was the highlight of TCO219.

Most looking forward to in 2020:

• TCO20 Regional Events – We are planning something super new and here to stay at Regionals.
• Topcoder Algorithm, Arena, is a big project and a big dream of mine. Billsedison and I are going to work on it this year and make it possible for the community to have a new arena after 20 years of using the old platform. Hopeful to have it ready asap.

kiril.kartunov

Best things from 2019:
The best thing from 2019 for me is being part of the Community Team at Topcoder. This was my first year with the team, moreover, it was one to remember as challenging, interesting and successful. Being with Topcoder allowed me to meet new people and work on interesting projects for which I am most thankful.

Creating Thrive from the ground up was the hardest and most challenging work I was involved in. I am happy to see it is born and growing!

Last but not least is the pleasure to have been present at TCO19. It was amazing to meet the team and the community in person. It feels like a community and team that cares for each other. Thank you!

Most looking forward to in 2020:

• I’m looking forward to working hard and putting in my full effort and dedication to achieving all work goals.
• I’m looking forward to entering into a year of good health, happiness, and prosperity.
• I’m looking forward to meeting friends again.