Tag Archives: young developers

DevKids: An inside look at the kids of DevFest

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After Aaron Ma, an 11-year-old DevFest speaker, recently gave his tips on coding, people kept asking us, “so what are the other kids of DevFest working on?” In response, we want to show you how these incredible kids, or DevKids as we call them, are spreading their ideas at DevFest events around the world.


Below you will find the stories of DevKids from Morocco to Toronto, who have spoken on topics ranging from robotics to augmented reality. We hope you enjoy!
Ider, an 11-year-old developer from Morocco

Ider, an 11-year-old developer from Morocco, has a passion for Python and is not afraid to use it. With an incredibly advanced understanding of machine learning and augmented reality, he was asked to speak at DevFest Agadir on what the future holds for kids interested in programming.

Ider’s presentation was titled, The Talk of The Next Generation and focused on how kids can find their passion for computer science and start building the future they one day hope to call reality. 


Selin, a 13-year-old developer from Istanbul

Selin, a 13-year-old developer from Istanbul who was named the European Digital Girl of the Year by AdaAwards, joined the DevFest family last season. Recently, at a DevFest event in Istanbul, she told the story of how she became fascinated with robotics through a presentation titled, My Journey of Building Robots. With a passion for Python, Java, and Ruby, she explained how she is using her skills to build a robotic guide dog for the blind. She hopes that with the help of technology, she can open up a new, more accessible world for those with disabilities.






Radostin, a 13-year-old programmer from Bulgaria

Radostin, a 13-year-old programmer from Bulgaria, joined the DevFest family last season as a speaker and is now a core member of the DevFest Organizing Team. Recently, he created an app for the team that gathers feedback on different DevFest events. 

Previously, he gave a talk at DevFest Sofia on how he built an app that teaches people to play chess on Google Assistant. The young developer also spoke of how his aunt introduced him to coding and how watching her program inspired him to learn Java, Kotlin, C #, Python, Dart, and C ++.  He ended his presentation recounting long nights, spent watching YouTube videos, in search of anything he could get his hands on to learn. Radostin has inspired his DevFest family to believe they can learn anything, anywhere, at anytime. 




Artash (12-years-old) and Arushi (9-years-old), are a brother-sister programing team from Canada

Artash (12-years-old) and Arushi (9-years-old), are a brother-sister programing team from Canada. At DevFest Toronto, they showcased their very-own facial recognition robot that uses Machine Learning to Detect Facial Emotions. Their presentation was complete with live demonstrations where their robot analyzed fellow DevFest speakers and gave physical responses to their emotions. The two up-and-coming programmers also described how they went about creating their own ML algorithm to build the robot. 

What inspired them to start such a project? Space travel. Artash and Arushi believe that as astronauts embark on longer space missions, it’s important to build tools that can monitor their mental health. One day, they hope their robot will accompany astronauts on the first trip to Mars.





Inspired by these awesome kids? Want to share your own ideas with a welcoming community? Then find a DevFest near you, at devfest.withgoogle.com.

Let the Kids Play: A young DevFest speaker and a DevFest organizer talk tech

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As over 400 community-led DevFest events continue to take place around the world, something is becoming clear: kids are taking over. We’re not kidding. Many young students are taking the stage this season to speak on topics ranging from machine learning to robotics, and people are loving it.

At the same time, these kids and the GDG (Google Developers Groups) community organizers of local DevFests are becoming great friends. We saw this recently at a DevFest in San Francisco, where Vikram Tiwari, a GDG Lead, and 11-year-old Aaron Ma, the youngest speaker at the event, had a great conversation on programming. 

We wanted to let you in on their conversation, so we asked Vikram to answer a few questions on coding, and then asked Aaron to respond to his answers. Check out their conversation below! 

What is your favorite language to code in? 



Vikram: I would have to say JavaScript - it used to be the language no one cared about, and then suddenly node.js changed the whole landscape. Nowadays, you can’t escape js, it’s everywhere from browsers to IoT and now even Machine Learning. The best part about using js is the flexibility it gives you. For example, it’s easy to make mistakes in js, but then if you want to prototype quickly, it doesn’t hold you back. And of course, you can’t forget about the vibrant node.js ecosystem, which is always striving for ease of use and speed. 


11-year-old Aaron Ma

Aaron: Open source is definitely the move! Especially open source competitions because they’re super exciting, let me see where I need to improve, and let me test if I’ve mastered a field of study. I also like to contribute or create my own open-source projects so I can grow as an open-source minded developer. Right now, I am the youngest contributor to Google’s TensorFlow, so to all the other kids out there reading this...come join me!




Do you like jumping right into coding or thinking through every line before you write?  


Vikram Tiwari, GDG lead
Vikram: I do like to think about the problem beforehand. However, if the problem has already been distilled down, then I like to get right to execution. In this case, I generally start with writing a bunch of pseudo functions, mocking the inputs and outputs of those functions, connecting them together, and then finally writing the actual logic. This approach generally helps me with context switching in a sense that I can stop working on that specific problem at any point and pick it back up from the same position when I get back to it.



11-year-old Aaron Ma

Aaron: I like how you think! ?If someone has already implemented the problem and packaged it, I would try to get right to the deployment process. But if no one has implemented the problem, I would first start with writing some pseudocode, and then slowly convert the pseudocode into actual code that works.








What is your favorite part of the DevFest community?


Vikram Tiwari, GDG lead

Vikram: That DevFest is a home for all developers, from all walks of life, with all kinds of ideas. Yes, this family loves building your tech skills, but it also loves helping you breakthrough any social barriers you may face. From feeling more comfortable around people to feeling more confident with your code, this community wants to help you do it all.





11-year-old Aaron Ma
Aaron: We are a DevFamily! ❤️I couldn’t agree more. My favorite part about DevFest is how this community can inspire. We, as DevFest developers, have the chance to change how we all think about CS every time we get together. From students like myself to long time experts, there is such an open and positive exchange of ideas taking place here - it’s so exciting and always makes me smile. ?





Want to join a conversation like this one? Respond to the questions yourself with the #DevFest or find a DevFest near you, at devfest.withgoogle.com.