When 14-year-old Priya first walked into the Circuit Canvas weekend club, she was hesitant. She had never written a single line of code, didn't own a laptop, and believed that "tech was mostly for boys who liked video games."
Like many of our students from underserved backgrounds, the barrier wasn't a lack of intelligence or creativity, but a sheer lack of exposure and access. Fast forward six months, and Priya is standing on a stage presenting a fully functional React Native application to a panel of industry experts.
Identifying a Local Problem
Priya's journey began with a simple problem she noticed in her neighborhood: people were confused about what could and couldn't go into their recycling bins. Much of the local recycling was being contaminated by non-recyclable plastics.
Armed with this problem, she worked with our mentors during the After-School Coding program to map out a solution. She spent weeks wireframing ideas on paper before typing her first HTML tag.
The mentors at Circuit Canvas didn't give me the answers. They taught me how to ask the right questions to find the answers myself.
Building "SortIt"
Her application, called "SortIt", uses a simple, intuitive interface where users can snap a picture of an item. Using a basic image-recognition API we covered in week 10 of the syllabus, the app identifies the material and tells the user exactly which bin it belongs in according to local council guidelines.
Priya's project recently won first place at our Spring Hackathon. But more importantly than the trophy, she has discovered a newfound confidence. She now leads small peer-programming sessions and has her sights set on a university degree in Software Engineering.