The strange culture of Brno, University of Technology.
The conference I went to was at Brno, University of Technology.. During the campus tour, I learned about their rubber duck culture..
Rubber duck debugging (rubberducking) is a method developed in software engineering to find errors in software. In this, the developer who wrote the code holds a rubber duck and describes the code line by line to that rubber duck. In that way, if there is any error in the code, it can be found. (Figure 1)
So at Brno, University of Technology, they use this rubberducking activity to encourage students to code, but in a slightly different way.
When they enter the campus, students are encouraged to buy a rubber duck. The duck that they buy can be shaped and decorated in any way they like. During the 3 or 4 years of learning, the student will be the one who will be asking about the code.
So, the rubber duck that has been with them for so many years should be released on their graduation day. Or, they should let the duck retire. This is done in a beautiful way. There is a pond in front of the faculty. It is made as a microchip shape.
So, these ducks are released into this pond filled with water. So, when they are released, they write the name of the student who was with them and release them.
So, when the students graduate and say goodbye to the rubber duck that was with them, these ducks are taken care of on campus. A separate place is set aside for it . The rubber ducks that have been debugging with the students for so many years are there. Even after the students are out, if they want, they can look at their duck.
This has become a culture on campus. That is why we encourage students to program on campus in this way. So this is a beautiful and strange culture I have seen….😊
