City’s young tech buffs find role model in TIME’s Kid of the Year

Chennai

For 13-year-old Sai Samyukta, Rao’s success has lit a fire under her to work harder and receive similar, and perhaps greater, achievements. “When I see someone my age being recognised for something that I also have a passion in, I feel very motivated. Since the news, I’ve been working on my application that enforces social distancing between people to perfect it. I want to receive similar, if not more, honours like her,” said the resident of Siruseri. Samyukta is now more confident to set her sights on higher dreams, like developing spacecraft for research purposes to far-off planets like Pluto. To her, technical knowledge and coding should be used for development and scientific advancement for global growth.

C Parvesh decided to use his robotics and coding knowledge from a local robotics educational centre SP Robotics to help his ailing grandparents. “They were unable to reach for certain objects around the house. So I developed a robotic arm that can grab things for them, and is operated through the mobile phone. I want to use tech to help people like Gitanjali – like creating a humanoid that can help farmers with their fields,” said the 13-year-old resident of Adambakkam.

Rao, in her interview with actor and activist Angelina Jolie, said that her process was one of “Observe, brainstorm, research, build and communicate”. This sentiment is shared by city youths, who stress on the importance of collaboration and knowledge. “Every person my age should know how to code, and the basics of technology, because we are the generation that grew up with these things. If people know even the simple stuff, then we can all work together and create something that can help a lot of people. Technology is where the world is headed, after all,” said Samyukta.