Today, you’re going to know about Shedrack Akintayo and his amazing Voting Push app that he is currently developing.

(He kicked off his software development career in 2017 and has been able to familiarize himself with  JavaScript, React Native, React, Python, Express, Firebase, MongoDB.)

He built the app using MongoDB, Express, Angular 2 and Node.js.

Here is the interview.

Interview with Shedrack Akintayo

Please, I would like you to briefly tell us about yourself like your full name, hobbies, nationality, education etc.

Good Day, My Name is Shedrack Akintayo but most people call me Sheddy Nathan, I’m a Nigerian and a Student of Mechatronics Engineering in Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, Am also a software developer. My hobbies are singing, playing football, and watching movies.

Can you mention how many programming languages you have learned and what inspired you to venture into the world of programming?

So far, I know JavaScript(Vanilla JS, ReactJS, Angularjs) and Python.

What inspired me to go into programming is the fact that I wanted to build something like Facebook that time I was just about 12-13 years old, had no idea it was going to lead me into programming full time.

So I tried to learn a little bit of HTML and CSS but I stopped Halfway. Not until 2017 February 2nd I met a guy called Segun Olumide in my school as at that time I was just a fresher.

He told me about learning to program and I told him I knew a little HTML and CSS, he said I should take it seriously and also he told me about the opportunities I’ll get if I am a programmer.

So I took it seriously and today I’ve learnt Python and JavaScript and am really comfortable with the languages. If it wasn’t for Segun Olumide I would probably have given up my dreams.

Can you tell us what you have done so far in programming and the challenges you had?

I have built a couple of web applications and have studied different language syntaxes. I’ve also spoken at a Hackathon and held a tech event in my school.

Challenges I’ve faced are time to work on new projects because of school work and squashing those deadly bugs but with God’s strength, I am scaling through.

Google has been my best friend and resource.

I recently hooked up with Sugar Labs a Company in the US that builds educational software for kids and teens, I should start contributing to their open source projects by January 2018.

What were your challenges when you started to learn programming and how did you overcome them?

My main challenges when I started programming were still bugs and understanding Javascript.

It wasn’t really easy, I’d sleep very late solving and understanding the errors and bugs.

The way I overcame them was not giving up and seeking answers from professionals, Also like I said Google was my best friend it helped me a lot. I also ask questions from online forums like freeCodeCamp, StackOverflow e.t.c.

How do you find the time to host and speak at tech events, work on some coding projects and study as a student?

Finding time is really not easy, but I drafted a timetable,  from 8 am – 7 pm I go to school do assignments and read 7 pm – 12 am I work on code and sleep by 12:30, and wake up by 7:30.

And for speaking at events and hosting events it all happens on Saturdays so am mostly free within that time.

Can you tell us about your Vote push application?

Vote-push is a 21st-century voting app.

It was built to solve the problem of holding intra school elections, Association elections and any other election.

It was built by me and my friend Mileba Micheal with MongoDB, Angular2, Nodejs and Express.

We had issues at first because none of us had ever worked with MongoDB before but we had help and read the documentation and watched videos till we got a hang of it.

Screenshot of Vote Push App

With Nigeria General Elections coming up soon, can your Vote Push app be used on a large scale to conduct the election for INEC?

Hehehe,

I can’t say much on that, but I believe with enough lines of code and logic and enough hands on deck because only me can’t maintain an app that would serve about 170million people, We can scale to conducting a nationwide election for INEC.

What are the features of your Vote Push app(What does a user expect to see)?

• Secured voting,
• User-friendly environment
• Easy to work with and understand
• Real-time calculation of vote leaders.

Is it easy for someone to learn how to use the app as a back-end user?

Yes obviously, if you were versed in how backend technologies work you should be able to understand how to use the app.

I am also planning on developing some sort of backend API for backend users.

Have you tried to see if your app can be hacked?

I’ve not really tried but with the security feature I’ve put in place, it would require some sort of expert hacker and a lot of tools to break into the app, which would have given me enough time to block incoming attacks.

Will your app be free?

Of course,

I am a big fan of open source so it would be free for mini-elections, but when it happens to go national level it wouldn’t be free.

When will your app be available for use and do you intend monetizing it?

I can’t really say as we still have a lot to improve on, I don’t plan on monetizing it. I am a strong believer in open source technology.

How can someone contribute to your app?

All the person has to do is head over to https://github.com/hacktivist123/VotePush everything he/she needs to contribute is there.

Will there be a desktop version of your voting app?

For now No, but if the community wants a desktop version, who are we not to build one.

How fast is your voting app for the people voting and those collecting the result of the vote?

it’s really fast, No waste of time but it depends on your internet connection but the app is lightweight so it should be perfect at normal internet speed.

Will there be an option for those carrying out the poll to hide the result of the vote?

Yes there will be in version 2.0

Shedrack Akintayo, what other projects are you working on and what’s your plan this year?

OK, I’m  working on a lot this year.

I’m building an app where you can review schools before applying there, for a hackathon with my team. I’m also working on a platform you can also employ the services of ninja coders online and it is called Ninjago.

I’m planning on working for a tech company soon, speak at more events, organize events, spread the gospel of contributing to open source and encourage more people to take up programming.

I’m planning and hoping to visit San Francisco and attend Django conference Europe in Frankfurt Germany. I want to get better technically and solve more algorithms.

Thanks so much Shedrack Akintayo for your time and we wish you all the best.

Thank you for having me, it’s a really big deal for me.

How to contact Shedrack Akintayo

If you want to work personally with Shedrack or you want to follow him up, here is his contact below.

Twitter: @sheddy_Nathan

Facebook: Sheddy Nathan Akintayo

Phone Number: +2348167926942

Github: hacktivist123

You can read how Shedrack Akintayo kicked off his software development career in 2017 here.

Photos of Shedrack Akintayo

A picture of Shedrack Akintayo and some friends at Google Developer Conference Lagos

Shedrack Akintayo with a friend at Google World Usability day Lagos

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