An unemployed product manager, a Boston University computer science student, a former librarian and a man who hadn’t touched a computer in years gathered around the tables at the Cambridge Public Library on Monday evening.
They were among the participants, ages 20 to 68, at Cambridge Dev Lab, a free, twice-weekly coding meetup that began with three people in October 2024 and has grown into a community of aspiring programmers and technology professionals.
“We have people from all different walks of life. “It’s a really great community,” said Aaron Weddle, 32, a former librarian who has attended the meetups for nearly a year. Starting with “virtually non-existent” coding skills 11 months ago, Weddle now regularly assists newcomers with their exercises and is hunting for opportunities to break back into the information systems side of his former industry. Last month, the group incorporated as a Massachusetts nonprofit to be able to secure grant funding and take on bigger projects. This Saturday, it will launch its first eight-week coding boot camp, offering a fixed group of beginners more intensive instruction and the chance to complete projects for their résumés.
It all started when Maria Dolgareva, who moved to Cambridge about five years ago, decided to venture out and meet people after spending her first two years in the city working 60-hour weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was relatively new in the city, and I didn’t have an activity for myself or a place to go,” Dolgareva said.
Dolgareva has been a software developer at Amazon and has a master’s degree in applied physics and mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. She began teaching HTML, CSS and JavaScript, the three core languages of front-end web development, which involves building the parts of a website that users see and interact with. By May 2025, the meetups were drawing 10 to 15 people, prompting Dolgareva to develop a curriculum for beginners and experienced programmers alike. This spring, the group partnered with the library for the first time to offer a free, eight-week web development workshop. All 20 seats filled, with another 39 people on the waitlist.
The regular meetups continue to grow, too, drawing participants with vastly different levels of experience. Dolgareva said roughly a third are beginners working through the curriculum, another third are intermediate programmers pursuing their own projects, and the rest are experienced developers who offer guidance or simply come to spend time with the group. “We even added a computer literacy section to cover people who are not attracted to code, because a big part of it is community building, not just coding,” she said.
The reserved Dolgareva downplays her motivation for organizing the classes and paying out of pocket for participants’ pizza dinners week after week, but she smiles with satisfaction as she moves from table to table, helping beginners navigate snags in their code. “Sure, sure. It’s always nice to see when someone makes progress,” she said.
Dolgareva, who left her job at Amazon last September, is now focusing on directing the newly minted nonprofit. She hopes to turn Cambridge Dev Lab into her full-time job, secure a permanent space to accommodate more participants and eventually offer classes every evening.
Andrew Smith, 44, has attended the meetups regularly since this summer and now serves on the nonprofit’s board. The software engineer is currently designing a “Meetup Lite” app and also teaches music theory at Boston University. He said it’s satisfying to help others learn.
“The best sound I’ve ever heard in a classroom is not a note that a student sang or played. It’s ‘Oooh,’” Smith said. “It’s a recognition that the minds have met, right? This invisible connection that we can’t quite put our fingers on.”
Alex Brito, 33, came to his first meetup Monday hoping to get some career advice. A Cambridge native who graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology, Brito worked as a data engineer at State Street before being laid off in 2024.
In addition to meeting other experienced coders, he found himself helping a beginner named Julian work through a JavaScript exercise. “I came here in hopes to maybe get some information that can help me, but in the turn of events, I actually was the one that was able to help more people,” Brito said. He now intends to return to the meetings weekly.
With the proliferation of artificial intelligence in recent years, software developers have increasingly turned to tools like Claude to generate code rather than write every line by hand. While the technology has made some coding tasks more efficient, it has also prompted concerns that the once highly coveted skill will soon be made obsolete, particularly as entry-level software developers face an increasingly difficult job market.
Dolgareva, however, maintains that learning to code remains essential, even for developers who use AI. “You still need to understand the code to use AI,” she said. “You cannot go around with serious projects not knowing the code.”
Brito echoed that sentiment. He said AI can be a useful tool, but that any developers worth their salt still need to understand the code it generates. “What’s gonna happen when they hit a bug in the codebase?” he asked. “Who’s gonna review it?”
For Stephen Costigan, 37, the value of Cambridge Dev Lab extends beyond developing job skills.
After spending roughly 13 years homeless in Cambridge, Costigan found housing, got sober and enrolled at Bunker Hill Community College in 2024. He first came to Dev Lab about a year and a half ago after spotting a flyer on Massachusetts Avenue. “I figured if nothing else, I could certainly come do my homework here,” he said.
Costigan earned his associate’s degree in computer science this May and began pursuing his bachelor’s at Northeastern University earlier this month. He still uses the meetups for assignments and coding practice, but has also made friends, joining Dolgareva’s board game nights with his wife and seeing other participants outside the library.
As for what he hopes to do with his newly acquired coding skills after graduation, Costigan is still figuring that out. “Right now, currently, I’m just happy to be here, man,” he said.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.