Not Baby Steps, But Long Strides Towards Success — Contribution of Kids in Developing Software Related to Covid-19
Heard that quote, “Child is the father of man”? The recent news headlines prove it.
Albert Einstein had said that the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination. And who can defeat children in this?
Children with their vivid imagination can not only travel to lands of fantasy but can also outwit the grown-ups in putting creativity and technology to progressive use.
The recent pandemic has brought many changes in our lifestyles. Going to the theatre has changed to binge-watching Web series (of course with that bowl full of snacks) and the morning office routine has changed to work from home (with your kid’s football occasionally hitting you during the meeting).
But apart from all this, there’s a positive side to it. From spending time with family to getting ample time to rediscover long lost hobbies or learning new ones, this time of crisis has allowed people to discover their own selves.
And the younger generation too has followed the footprints and in fact, paved paths for themselves. Coding is the new trend. And using the same, many young students have developed various software related to this Covid-19 virus. Below we name a few young minds who have made coding a child’s play and are helping the society during this tough times.
1. The first in our list is Aryan Gulati, a 17 years old student, Aatmanirbhar Bharat Ideathon Winner.
He developed a web-based application called LungAI which can detect Covid-19 and other lung disorders within a few seconds, thus winning in the Sustainable Environment category of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Ideathon conducted by the HRD ministry. The app uses a combination of six machine learning-based detection models that work collectively to help in the detection of not only Covid-19 but 16 other lung problems. The website also provides information regarding treatment as well as locations of nearby hospitals, thus ensuring quick and contactless detection. (Read the full article at India Today here).
2. Then there’s Ananya Naik, a 10 years old student and 9 years old Vedant Abhyankar.
While Ananya developed two gaming apps called CORONA DODGE and KILL CORONA QUIZ, both of which aim to make children aware of the importance of outdoor hygiene during Covid-19, Vedant built a hand washing app and a lockdown game which conveys the importance of wearing masks, in a fun way. (Originally posted on TOI, read the full article here).
3. Next in the list are the two brothers from Ambala, Haryana — Kartik Tara and Vinayak Tara, who developed ventilators.
They have made a portable wooden ventilator. It has been programmed to work automatically, connected to a circuit and has been interfaced with an app on the mobile, thus enabling patients’ health to be monitored through it.
They have also developed sunglasses coded to maintain fixed distance using IR sensors. There’s a beep in those glasses if a person is closer than the specified distance, thus ensuring that social distancing norms are followed. (Originally published on India Today)
4. Shivam Mukherjee, a class 9 student of Amity International School has made it to this list by inventing a sanitization band called ‘Abhay’.
This band can be worn around the wrist and has a special mechanism via which it can sense when the user’s hand is near an object and automatically disinfects the object via UV light and alcohol-based spray. The band is computer-controlled and can be operated via an app. (Read more at India Today here)
5. Next comes Syu Kato, a 16 years old from the Japanese city of Hakodate.
He developed an app in just 10 days, called “Asiato” (Footprint) app which is available for free in both English and Japanese, helping people to recall their whereabouts. It uses only GPS data to record a user’s movements at one-minute intervals, but only within about a 32-foot range.
The idea is to stimulate users’ memories about where they were and who they saw, to help anyone exposed to COVID-19 track down others they may have infected without compromising their own privacy.
The data is stored only on the user’s own smartphone and isn’t uploaded to cloud storage hence isn’t accessible to governments or other third parties. (To read more about him and his achievements, visit CBS News here).
6. Last but not the least, we have Mihika Mishra and Arsh Sheikh.
Stimulated by the will to help underprivileged children and do something creative to engage them into fun activities which also teach them some values, these 15-year-olds created Explorexa, a platform that uses Zoom to host free 45-minute lessons for children aged 3 to 18. The lessons are child friendly and are taught by fellow students.
They used Wix to design a website for the same, choosing interfaces and tools, while learning from online tutorials. Read the full article here.
There’s a common link between all of them and that is their sheer determination and their willingness to do something for this society. They used the time judiciously to hone their coding skills and contribute towards the social wellbeing, thus learning many new things in this process. These skills are the byproducts of the key skill common to all of them — coding!
Have you ever wished to see your child achieving success while doing something he enjoys? This is now possible.
Learning to code helps them execute their imagination into real-world utilities. And as parents, it is our turn to help them discover their potentials and abilities and let them grow up learning these essential skills of the digital age.
