Coding Lab Student Feature: Ian, 14, Hwa Chong Institution

Ian, 1st from left in programming class

Introducing Silver Plus, an app for the elderly created by our very own Ian, 14. The idea which was conceived and designed entirely by Ian, was to enable our elderly to engage with each other, make new friends, and even play games across their mobile phones. Let's take a deeper look at the process:Hi Ian! Could you share with us What gave you the idea for this app?I came up with the idea on my own. I came up with the idea for an app to engage the elderly as the suggested theme for school projects this year was on giving back to the community. I wanted to match this theme with my love for technology. I ran the idea by both my school mentor as well as Teacher Yong Ning and they pointed me to what was technically feasible.

I came up with the idea for an app to engage the elderly as the suggested theme for school projects this year was on giving back to the community. I wanted to match this theme with my love for technology.

Onboarding the senior

Step 2: Connecting with family and friends (matched by interest area)

Step 3: Engaging family and friends (Constant updates and posts)

What were some considerations you had to factor in when making this app?The considerations were 1) skill sets needed to code the app; 2) actual usefulness and 3) whether it will be better than those currently available.What were some challenges you faced when developing the app?I needed to learn Django and some of the app functions, such as checking for contact details, needed database skills. I also had only a short period of time to learn all the skills I needed as there was a dateline for the project. I supplemented what I had learned in coding class with googling online for specific information to make my app.How did your Coding Lab mentors guide you for this project?

Not only were my mentors at Coding Lab very helpful in giving me feedback on my ideas during the design stage, but they also helped me to focus on learning the core programming languages needed for this project. Also, Teacher Ranald patiently advised me when I ran into difficulties debugging my codes and shared some of his expert knowledge on chat interface programming with me. 

What advice would you give to young coders who are new to coding?

Take time to plan your design and ask for other people’s opinions on the design. When coding, make sure you do your documentation so that you will not get confused and lost as the number of lines of code increases.

Ian, 14, is a student at Hwa Chong Institution. He started off with our basic Python (S101) course in 2017 and has since progressed to S121 and C++ programming.