An AppDev approach to scale

About the talk

Alex and Hiren share their experiences and ideas of building and scaling the award-winning MyCiTi app, which helps users in Cape Town use public transit. Alex and Hiren will walk you through the challenges they faced, such as hacking NFC, overcoming twitter API limits and preparing the solution for scale.

About the speakers

Hiren Patel

Hiren is a software developer writing web apps and web clients powered by the Google Cloud Platform. Formerly a systems administrator in the linux/unix area for ten years, he transitioned to a developer role, until moving onto using Google App Engine as his platform of choice.

Hiren enjoys working with both web and android. He spends the majority of his time using python on Google App Engine, but also closely follows innovations in the rapidly changing cloud space, including Google Compute Engine and Google Container Engine.

Hiren has run the Google Developer Group of Cape Town for several years, inspiring the local community to use technology, and trying to help local non-profit organisations along the way.

Hiren lives in Cape Town, South Africa, where he enjoys the beautiful coast and the mountains, and hikes around the area regularly.

Alex Koller

Alex is an Android developer devoted to understanding the bigger picture behind the software he builds. He has led the development of some of South Africa’s most successful apps (22seven, MyCiTi Cape Town and BitX Bitcoin Wallet). When he’s not coding or conceptualising, there is a good chance he will be talking to others about Android development.

Before focusing on Android development, Alex co-founded and was involved in various startups after studying Computer Science at Rhodes University. He now lives in Cape Town and can usually be found climbing a mountain.