Talks By The Firelight 2.3: A Promising Future
Having written the book Journey Through Space-Time: Un-clock the Secrets of Space at the tender age of eight when most children would have barely read any books, let alone those on complex concepts, Ashwat Prasanna has proven himself to be a young genius.
With his very first book reviewed by prominent figures within the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the responses being overwhelmingly positive, Ashwat showed a lot of promise. But this was just the beginning of his amazing journey.
As the youngest developer at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), he developed five different applications on the iOS platform and was a part of various respected programmes and talks.
Throughout this interview, his brilliance and intelligence, as well as his infectious enthusiasm towards technology shine through his words. Join us as we get an insight into the mind of this eleven-year-old tech enthusiast!
Q. What inspired you to start writing the book Journey Through Space-Time?
When I was in Grade 3, we had a practice test where students had time to express their views on anything. So, I shared my theories about electricity, atoms, and whatnot. As the discussion grew, some of my thoughts were written down, which my science teacher and my parents decided to publish as a book.
Q. What was it like to see your thoughts in a book in your hands? Were there any obstacles in the process?
Well, it’s hard to explain the feeling in words. It felt like I was on top of the world. There weren’t really any obstacles on the way. My book got reviewed by Dr. Ranganath, the Project Director of ISRO’s Satellite Centre, who then sent me a handwritten review.
Q. You were a part of the App Accelerator Programme by Apple. How did that help you in your interests?
My dad got me into the program. I had already written two apps by then and was working on my third one. I was going to take it to a tester. That’s when App Accelerator stepped in and they introduced me to coding and design experts. They helped me with debugging, testing, cleaning up my app and the design. I was really proud to present my app after that, at the press meet last April, as it had over a thousand downloads back then.
Q. How did you get into app development at such a young age?
I used to do a lot of Arduino projects when I was younger, for which you needed a design, then you had to do the wiring and then the coding. By the time it got to testing, it was almost a day or two whereas, with computer programming, it was like magic. I got to see my results instantly. Then I got into real-world applications, so I started learning Swift from YouTube since my parents aren’t really programmers and then I created my first app.
Q. What was your first app about?
It was a learning app for Math. Unlike other apps, it gives you tons of practice questions and allows you to learn it your way. The inspiration for this app came from a class test where a few students finished the test quicker and were asked to help the rest of the students.
Q. Is school restrictive in allowing you or other students in exploring such avenues of technology and science?
There isn’t really anything restrictive. Teachers give me Grade 8 and Grade 9 lessons with advanced Math and Science classes. I was also asked to teach two other classes on programming in Swift and Python in the ‘Hour of Code’ event.
Q. What was it like to meet Tim Cook? What was it like to attend WWDC?
That was the highlight of my WWDC trip. It was just so… I can’t explain it, it was all so overwhelming. Well, WWDC was very interesting and helped me learn a ton of things, such as ARKit for example, Machine Learning, etc. I was also the youngest developer over there. They gave me a pin that said ‘WWDC ’18 scholar’ which is one of the most treasured things I have.
Q. What are your plans for the future?
I’m going to be developing more apps in the future and learn more about ARKit, behind the scenes of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Throughout this interview, Ashwat exhibited an uncanny sense of clarity seldom seen in a boy his age. Brevity is a known indicator of brilliance, of which this promising whiz-kid has no shortage. While most engineering students in the country are slowly catching on to the cutting-edge terms in technology like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, a child almost half their age is already on his way to mastering these very concepts.
Ashwat and other gifted children like him reinforce the oft-invoked saying that children are indeed the future. It is better that we embrace this future and let it grow, undeterred by the boxes or conventions of society, to truly bring about change for the better.
We wish this amazing innovator the best of luck with all his future endeavours and encourage him to continue astounding us with his achievements.
This interview was taken in collaboration with Surya Sridhar, Kumaraguruparan R, Antony Terence and Abhishek Ramachandran.
