These young ‘Codemasters’ are shaping up a powerful digital future

The class 9 students of Apeejay School – Panchsheel Park, Aaranya Vinit, Pranay Chopra, Neil Virmani, Lavitra Aggarwal and Gunvir Singh have formed a group called ‘Codemasters’ to collaborate efficiently on coding projects. These 14 year-olds have come up with numerous useful applications and computer programmes such as voice assistant for windows, face and eye detection app, Covid-19 dashboard, a YouTube video downloader and a dictionary app among others using Python, C and React JavaScript. We got in touch with Aaranya to talk more about their projects and the group’s grand future plans.

What’s the difference between machine learning and automation?

Automation describes a wide range of technologies that enables operations to be performed automatically without human intervention. It’s usually employed to substitute humans in the most menial or repetitive tasks. Therefore, in Automation machines replicate human tasks, but in Machine learning (ML) machines also replicate human thinking. ML is the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed.

How was the group formed?

Since we are from the same school, we knew each other pretty well and were aware of each other’s strengths. We were working in silos so one day we got tougher and decided to channel our energies. We have distributed the work based on strengths. I am the Lead Coder in the group, Pranay is the Ideator & Supervisor, Neil and Lavitra look after the designing while Gunvir is in-charge of Marketing and PR for the group. Working in a group polishes your own thinking and broadens your horizons. Your group members aren’t just fellow learners, they’re also your teachers.

How did you balance studies and coding?

We all understand that while coding is important, there can’t be any compromise on studies. Your first priority is to learn all you can from your classes. Hence, we start our coding-related work in the late evening hours, by that time we are through with our school work. I must thank our teachers and school principal for encouraging us to follow our passion and encouraging us to come up with exciting projects. It gives a huge boost to our confidence.  

How can you design a visually attractive app?  

The focus should be on giving a clutter-free experience to users and keep the design simple. If you add too much on your screen, you overload users with excessive information. Also, be consistent with colours and fonts.

Tell us about your future projects?        

We are working to build our own Linux Distribution (operating system) with the guidance of ‘Linux From Scratch’, a book written by Gerard Beekmans. It provides you with step-by-step instructions for building your own custom Linux system, entirely from source code. Right now, Linux is widely used for supercomputers, mainframe computers (high-performance computers with large amounts of memory and processors), and servers. However, due to various technical reasons Linux is not widely-used on personal computers. We are working to iron out all the flaws in Linux, so that it becomes even simpler and efficient than Windows. I am sure in a few months we will crack the code. 

Link to some of the projects made by ‘Codemasters’ 

1. Voice Assistant for windows
https://github.com/Codingmasters-YT/Voice-Assistant-For-Windows-Aaranya-Pranay-Neil-Vermani/blob/main/Voice%20Assistant%20For%20Windows%20.py

2. Face and eye detector
https://github.com/Codingmasters-YT/Face-and-Eye-Detector-Neil/blob/main/detect_face_video.py

3. Covid tracker
https://github.com/Codingmasters-YT/Covid-Tracker-React-Aaranya-vinit/tree/main/src

4. Youtube video downloader
https://github.com/Codingmasters-YT/Youtube-video-downloader-Aaranya-vinit/blob/main/Youtube-Video-download.py

5. Link shortener
https://github.com/Codingmasters-YT/link-shortner-by-neil-/blob/main/link%20shortener.py