SAP CodeJam – Bogota Colombia – A day of rain and SAP HANA

SAP HANA at the hands of university students in beautiful Bogota Colombia.  Yesterday I had the opportunity to host SAP CodeJam in Universidad del Rosario in Bogota Colombia an event attended by over 30 students and faculty from this university as well as from Universidad Nacional.

I got a new title in SAP “Professor”,  this was my name and YES it was weird but I liked it.  However, what I enjoyed the most was the enthusiasm shown by faculty and specially university students.   I learned that most of them were pursuing a career in Business Administration and were learning the challenges of Business in IT.   They understood the core business of SAP but knew very little of SAP technology platforms such us SAP HANA.   That little experience in development platforms did not stop them, short after a brief introduction to SAP HANA all started creating tables in HANA writing example SQL code and understanding the differences between an Attribute View, Analytical View and even a Calculation View.  Everyone at different speeds but all interested and engaged.

A classroom setting with faculty in on-board did not stop the casual environment of collaboration and networking intended in a CodeJam.   We were able to break the classroom feel and encourage the SAP CodeJam idea….. “Signup, use the tools, as questions, help each other and most important have fun while learning SAP HANA”.  Due to Firewall issues at the university participants could not use the university laptops or their own to connect to the SAP HANA AMAZON instances.  The 30 day trial came to the rescue.  Cloudshare and SAP SCN got 30 new registrations yesterday.  It worked, a bit slow at times but everyone certainly now understands Clouds services and have experienced SAP HANA first hand. 

Finally the reception, food and all logistics were well organized… my thanks to Juliana Amezquita for the all the good work.   The approach of SAP CodeJam is right on-target, influence young professionals to use our SAP technology and understand it while they do it.

Here is a picture of the campus — only GOOD can come with this view from the classrooms.