#CodingLabStudents: Alicia Khong, 12, MIT AI & Education Summit 1st Prize Winner

December 19, 2024 Community - Thinzar

Alicia speaking at the Women’s Forum Singapore 2024!

Meet Alicia, an inspiring young coder whose dedication to STEM has earned her a Direct School Admission (DSA) offer to her preferred schools and won her various awards in both the local and global stage - the 1st Prize in the prestigious MIT AI & Education Summit, and the Silver Award in the International Coding Showcase 2023!

Starting her journey in coding out of curiosity at the age of 7, Alicia’s passion has evolved into a creative pursuit that allows her to explore new ideas and make a difference.

From coding impactful projects to advocating for environmental change through her games, Alicia exemplifies the resilience, creativity, and critical thinking skills that coding brings. Here, she shares her journey and advice for young learners preparing for DSA or just beginning their coding adventures.

Congratulations on receiving your DSA offers! How do you feel about this achievement?

I am thankful that Coding Lab has supported my growth in STEM. I feel happy that my efforts and resilience paid off.

I am very excited to have the opportunity to be selected by my preferred schools, and I even get to contribute to my new school with my hobbies in coding, robotics and innovation.

What was your DSA preparation like?

It takes some planning to decide on the talent areas and my school choices.

I believe that resilience and commitments to continue learning and improving is required. Small wins and new experiences along the way do keep me motivated.

Do you have any tips for students preparing for DSA?

We should try to be flexible, adaptable and creative in exploring our interests, talent areas and school options.

It helps to identify our strengths and demonstrate how we can excel in the talent area with relevance.

How did you first get started with coding?

I saw my father and brother using their computers to draw, do maths and make games. I asked them how it worked. They told me they used coding, which got me interested. My father then created a Scratch account for me to get started on the basic coding language. I then started to create different projects on Scratch, and that over time got me interested in other programming languages, like Python and Micro:bit.

Alicia hard at work with her coding projects!

What do you enjoy about coding, and how has it impacted your life?

I like coding because coding is a language that gives me the power to be creative but logical.

I enjoy putting codes together, debugging to see final results and solving problems in the codes. Coding has helped me to develop my critical thinking and made me persevere to overcome challenges.

How did you get started at Coding Lab?

My parents decided to find a coding school for me as I became increasingly interested in coding after my self learning from reading books. My parents did some research findings and discovered Coding Lab, so they asked me if I was keen to attend classes there. I like my lessons as they are enjoyable and mind-stimulating, the teachers give students the independence to do the codes and get to the solution in different ways. I would like to thank Teacher Lakshmi, Teacher Yinxuan, Teacher Hovan, and Teacher Thinzar for all their support and their guidance

What challenges did you face while learning to code, and how did you overcome them?

While coding, I faced difficulties trying to debug my code. However, I overcame the challenges by researching possible suggestions and answers on Google and ChatGPT and even asking for help from my brother, my father, and my teachers. It is very important to stay confident and resilient to keep trying and it is also very satisfying when you eventually manage to find a solution after lots of trials and errors.

Why do you think learning to code is important?

I feel that learning coding is important, as Coding has become a new language to open up many opportunities into the future. Technology is advancing quickly and we need to learn coding to problem solve, understand new technologies and contribute to making the world a better place. For example, our recent team project “Trash to Treasure” uses coding to create an app to promote 3R - Reuse, Reduce and Recycle.

Do you have a favourite project you'd like to share with us? Why is it your favourite?

My favourite project is “Fish Life” as I feel that “Fish Life” can make a positive impact in our society. Fish Life project is very meaningful to let us experience how a fish faces difficulties in surviving in polluted water. We can then empathise with fish and the marine lives to actively protect our environment. By showing how marine lives are harmed by our actions, we can encourage everyone to stop polluting the water, make our world cleaner and delay the onset of global warming.

I coded my Fish Life project on Python. The project allows users to choose their own decisions. Users can have fun while learning how to prevent water pollution. I hope the game can inspire more people to protect the water environment for future generations.

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What are you currently coding? Do you have any exciting or dream projects you'd like to mention?

I would like to create a choose your own adventure project so that the users can make their own choices along the way to pass through many obstacles and stay in and win the game eventually. This will form the basis for me to integrate my passions in coding and reading, by creating my own game with my own storyline, most likely in Greek or Roman mythology themes, which are my favourite reading topics.

How do your family and friends react when they find out you know how to code?

To my family, I am continuing our family tradition of coding. My father and my brother have been very supportive in guiding me and challenging me in coding and robotics.

For my friends, they are amazed to see my coding profile on the internet, and they entrust me to work on the part of the school's multi-disciplinary project works (MDPW) that involves coding.

Did you know?

Alicia has previously been featured on news channels like Lianhao Zaobao, Channel 8, and Capital 958, and has another blog with her brother, Isaac! Read more about her amazing accomplishments and coding journey!

Aside from coding, what are your hobbies? What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Here is Alicia with her brother, Isaac!

I am passionate about the environment, coding, music and imagination. Hence, I enjoy hiking, reading, drawing and listening to music.

What are your future aspirations? What do you want to be when you grow up?

I aspire to become an author on Sci-fi fictions that inspire us to learn from the past and embrace the future with positive values to love our environment.

Do you have any advice for other young people learning to code?

I would encourage all of us to be resilient and creative.

When we start to learn coding, it may be quite difficult and challenging, but if we keep trying and learning, we will succeed and even find a new way of creating our projects and ideas.

We can start by learning simple programming with blocks, from Scratch to Micro:Bit to App Inventor, before moving to Python. Our coding interests can also expand into robotics programming languages like Spike Prime and Lego Mindstorms.

Alicia’s journey in coding is a true reflection of the impact that passion, perseverance, and family support can have. With a clear vision to use her skills for positive change and an impressive portfolio of projects, Alicia is a role model for young coders everywhere.

Her advice to stay resilient, start small, and build up to more complex projects shows her commitment to inspiring others. We’re excited to see where her coding journey will lead, as she continues to learn, create, and leave a positive mark on her school and community.

Our #CodingLabStudents blogs feature our ambitious students and their ongoing coding journeys – be it the budding coder or advanced Python Pro, we appreciate each and every single one’s efforts as they progress to greater heights. 🌱

Coding Lab offers an award-winning curriculum specially for ages 5 to 18 – check out our courses to begin your own coding journey today!