The Programming Foundation is on a mission to make technology inclusive – YourStory

In 2018, during his college days, Subhajeet Mukherjee from Kolkata realised that a lot of students were being taught computer programming through drag and drop tools.

Moreover, at a time when data security is of utmost concern, Subhajeet wanted to keep the users anonymous, anddemocratise computer science education. This was in a bidtofosterpeople at the grassroot level, and create a self-sustaining community of developers worldwide.

Founded in February 2020 in Sunnyvale, California, The Programming Foundation (TPF) focuses on providing computer science education free-of-cost, without compromising data. Theodore Rolle, a Technical Account Manager with Google Cloud Professional Services Organization joined TPF as the Secretary and Technical advisor.

Subhajeet introducing TPF at talk event organized by Write the Docs at Linkedin San Francisco in early 2020

The 24-year-old aims to create a smarter general population through The Programming Foundation, and the operating system that hes developing. He has authored two books on operating systems and given talks at HackerDojo, ACM, SF Python, and LinkedIn.He previously served as the Data Support Engineer at The Pill Club and Community Support Specialist at BetterHelp.

In fact, the non-profit platform does not require the user to log in or create an account. The lessons can easily be accessed from their main portal without giving any details about the users whereabouts.

We have an integrated interface for Operating System, Programming and Logic. Under the Operating System, topics such as Unix, Vim and Kernel are covered. Furthermore, C, Python, and object-oriented programming make up the entire programming. Likewise, Binaries and Gates account for the Logic section, says Subhajeet.

TPF is based on written instructions, interactive examples and processes. It provides volunteers with hands-on experience working together as a team by developing free and open-source tools to improve the platform.

The target audience for TPF at the moment are those who are in or have recently graduated from college/university. The main regions they focus on are Northeast India, some Northern regions of India, regions in South East Asia and Africa, and Midwestern United States.

There are no great pre-requisites to join TPF classes. The general population needs to have a base level understanding of how computers work, Subhajeet says.

The classes are designed in such a way that the domains are laid out on the Learn page itself. The categories are divided into Operating Systems, Programming and Logic. Users can go into the operating system domain, learn the concepts behind it and interact with the interface. Furthermore, were shipping interactive versions of the Programming Languages into production very soon, he says.

TPF's interactive step by step Unix Learning experience

Learners can study these concepts by directly visiting the platform which is the primary method. They dont need to download anything as its all in there in the browser. After the end of each domain, theyre asked to answer a few questions on the domain to ensure impact.

TPF is also open to taking volunteers to work at the foundation, provided they have the basic requirements for the position. Weve over 30 volunteers from the US, India, South America and Europe. Many of them are part of the technology industry while others are new to technology.

As a non-profit, TPF relies primarily on donations and grants. However, Subhajeet shares that they were fortunate enough to receive the Google Ad Grants, along with a lot of other in-kind support from leading industry technology companies in the initial stages and along the way. This helped them scale fast and gain a steady user base.

Incidentally, getting donations and grants remains their biggest challenge as well. When The Programming Foundation was launched during the pandemic, we never thought we would be able to survive till the end of 2020, but we successfully entered 2021, he shares.

While the Foundation is enabling a number of people with free programming courses, there are still a number of areas in the world that dont have internet access. How does it empower them?

TPF wants to provide them with native experiences, and achieve a singular interface as The Programming Foundations Learn section.

A screengrab of The Programming Foundation's operating system that'll run on RISC-V to democratizethe education of operating systems.

TPF is prioritising accessibility so that people who are blind or differently abled can also use the platform and operating system in the future.

Inclusion is important to us. We need more women and people from the LGBTQ community to represent technology. These are long term goals, and we have a road-map for that. Weve started to encourage the usage of Gender Neutral pronouns such as they, and them at TPF. I believe this is the first step, shares Subhajeet.

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The Programming Foundation is on a mission to make technology inclusive - YourStory