A Bootcamp on native application development using flutter was organized due to the massive requests received from the IEEE CS members during the general meeting held in July 2020. The Bootcamp took place online from August 23 to August 26, 2020. The goal of this Bootcamp was to provide hands-on training on developing native applications in both Windows and Mac OS platforms so that the members can kick start their freelancing careers in midst of the lockdown caused by COVID-19. No prior knowledge in Flutter or app development was needed to attend this Bootcamp. The use of the GitHub repository and Google developer account was also shown during the Bootcamp. At the end of the Bootcamp, a competition was organized to help the participants showcase their newfound knowledge and skills.
The Bootcamp was instructed by MD. AL Imran Sefat, experienced Flutter and lead IOS developer at Hishabee Business Manager and coordinated by Ratul Bin Tajul, a software engineer at Meshtocks and lead android engineer at Catch Food.
The Bootcamp was broken down into 4 sessions, each with its unique contents.
In the first session the attendees were able to understand the basis of Flutter App Development, Installation of the IDE and Flutter, Dart a programming language to develop a flutter app, the basis of a beautiful user-friendly app, project structure breakdown to the simplest level, why designs are important, analysis of some UI designs, styling the app components, etc.
The second session guided the attendees to turn their app idea into a reality where they learnt how to make an app with complex design, managing different screens, data models, managing and defining states etc. The attendees also learnt how to make their own calculator app on this session.
The third session showed how the attendees could manage different screens and data model to show screens, routing through the app screens, pass simple and custom Class type objects, when and how to use conditional rendering and details of how one can expand their app to multiple screens without making their life difficult with the help of GitHub. The attendees also learnt how to design a Note app.
The final session taught what APIs are, why they are important in day to day life and how to work with them in apps. The attendees understood how to handle API calls, how to manage the state of the app when the data is loading, or received or did not even load in their app. The attendees also built a News app from scratch using an API in this session.
By the end of the Bootcamp, each attendee had made their first three applications: A calculator app, a note app and a new app. A small amount of fee was charged from IEEE members from other institutions to allocate fund for prize money which was awarded after the competition. No registration fee was charged from the members of IEEE Brac University Student Branch. Following are the winners of the competition.
| Winner | Ikramul Hasan for his “Let’s Note” Application |
| First Runner Up | Raiyan Bin Mohsin for his “Flutter Clock” Application |
| Second Runner Up | MD. Fahmidul Islam Dipro for his “Big Mart” Application |
Each placeholder was awarded a $25 USD gift card which they could use to buy their Google Developer Accounts in order to place their applications into Google Store.