Coding Lab won First Prize at the 2024 MIT AI & Education Summit!
Our brilliant #CodingLabStudents at MIT, together with our dedicated educators and supportive family!
Our Coding Lab students from Singapore students do the country proud at the prestigious MIT AI & Education Summit 2024, held from July 24 - July 26 in Cambridge, MA. by clinching top prizes!
The Summit, hosted by the MIT RAISE Initiative, brought together 400 attendees from over 30 countries, featuring expert speakers, AI workshops, and the highly anticipated Global AI Hackathon challenge.
We are beyond thrilled to announce that our amazing students, aged 10 to 14, from various primary and secondary schools, clinched various prizes despite being the youngest participants at the Summit:
🏆 1st Prize, Poster Presentation
🏆 1st Prize, “Hack the Climate” Hackathon (Beginner Category)
🏆 2nd Place, “Hack the Climate” Hackathon (Beginner Category)
🏆 Finalists, “Hack the Climate” Hackathon (Advanced Category)
Double First Prize Wins!
Five girls, aged 11-12, from different primary schools in Singapore, formed a team known as the 3ACTs. Together, they clinched top honors in two categories, demonstrating their exceptional skills and innovative thinking.
Team 3ACTs (L-R: Trinity, Chloe, Audrey, Alicia and Amelia), 1st Prize winners of the Poster Presentation with Jeff Freilich from the MIT team!
Team 3ACTs receiving their 1st Prize award for “Hack the Climate”!
Videos of the students receiving their awards on stage at MIT
“That was the most productive, inspiring and best week I had ever experienced. It introduced me to new pathways I hadn’t realised was within my reach before, and taught me that I could do so much more.”
Team 3ACTs:
Alicia Khong Kai En (11, Radin Mas Primary School)
Amelia Yap Min Xi (11, Methodist Girls' School)
Audrey Foo Zi Rui (11, Methodist Girls' School)
Chloe Tan Ying En (12, Singapore Chinese Girls' School)
Trinity Han Jie Xin (11, Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School)
2nd Place, “Hack the Climate” Hackathon (Beginner Open Category)
Another team, the “Climate Change Makers”, comprising 3 individuals aged 10-13, earned 2nd place with their app "Rewear." This innovative app focuses on reducing textile waste in the Singaporean context by creating a community-sharing app for school uniforms across the country.
Team Climate Change Makers (L-R: Harmony, Aqil, Jaslyn) creating a memento on stage after receiving their 2nd Prize award!
Team Climate Change Makers:
Aqil Zainal Abidin (10, Pathlight School)
Moe Yu Phyu Sin (Harmony) (10, United World College of South East Asia UWCSEA - Dover)
Soh Li Xin Jaslyn (13, CHIJ St. Joseph's Convent)
Finalist, “Hack the Climate” Hackathon (Advanced Open Category)
Team kite (Clockwise, Bottom Left: Isaac, Theodore, Elizabeth, Kiefer) working hard on their app, GreenCheck, at the Student Centre study rooms that are exclusively available to MIT students and alumni - getting a taste of what it’s like to really study at MIT!
Team Kite also competed in the global hackathon, challenging themselves by entering under the Advanced Category. We are extremely proud of their hard work and efforts in the face of fierce competition as our students, who were some of the youngest delegates at the summit, were up against teams including adults and older students from all over the world.
Their app, greenCheck, advocates for mindful and conscious recycling of various items inspired by the recycling procedures in Korea so that all users, including foreigners, are incentivised to recycle according to some of the world’s best standards of recycling. The app provides a comprehensive checklist based on pre-recycling treatment the user needs to carry out based on an AI model that recognises the type of recyclable in question, such as tetra packs and plastic utensils . The app also visualises the reduced carbon footprint based on the user’s actions to recycle mindfully, with a projected impact of reducing the carbon footprint by over 50% over the long term.
Team Kite
Elizabeth Wong Tian Ling (11, Methodist Girls’ School)
Fok Kai Zhe Kiefer (13, Bendemeer Secondary School)
Isaac Khong Jun Wen (14, Hwa Chong Institution)
Theodore Lim Pin Chao (11, Nanyang Primary School)
“We are incredibly proud of all our teams and their remarkable accomplishments. Their dedication, creativity, and hard work have truly paid off on this international stage. We are also grateful to the schools, teachers and parents for their support, which has been instrumental in our students’ success.”
All students underwent intensive training on App Inventor and dedicated countless hours to the hackathon. Their presentations were not only passionate and heartfelt but also reflected their deep interest in AI, App Inventor, and their potential for global change. Our students showcased their talent on a global stage among leading experts and innovators and highlighted Singapore’s commitment to educational innovation. 🌍💡
Meeting leading experts from MIT
Meeting leading experts and innovators from the App Inventor Foundation and the MIT RAISE team was a humbling experience for our students' journey, and they were honoured to have the chance to learn from such incredible mentors. Looking ahead, our students are committed to further develop their apps and projects. They are excited to take their projects one step further by conducting trial runs in their respective schools and communities in Singapore.
Students getting a demonstration of a micro:bit controlled robot dog shown by David Kim, Software Developer from MIT App Inventor.
L-R (Clockwise): Candice Wang, Co-Founder of Coding Lab with Mark Friedman, Yong Ning, Co-Founder of Coding Lab with Professor Abelson, Elizabeth and Jaslyn with Natalie Lao, Mark Friedman questioning the girls at the poster booth, the poster girls with Jeff Freilich from MIT Media Lab.
Here are just some of the amazing people we met from the MIT Team:
Hal Abelson, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), creator of the MIT App Inventor platform
Jeff Freilich, Program Lead of AI Literacy at the MIT Media Lab
Mark Friedman, Co-Founder and Board Officer of the App Inventor Foundation
Natasha Jacques, Senior Research Scientist at Google
David Kim, Software Developer at App Inventor
Enjoying the trip to Cambridge, MA
Visiting the Stata Center and hearing about various MIT student hacks!
While we are dedicated to learning from the best at the Summit, we also want our students to enjoy themselves while visiting Cambridge!
From whale watching and enjoying the local cuisine to touring the MIT Campus, visiting the Stata Center (with exhibits of various MIT student hacks, like turning the Building 20 into a Tetris game!), posing in front of the great dome of MIT, catching splendid views of the Charles River, watching the resident hares run by and even entering the study rooms exclusively for MIT students and alumni, we all had an enjoyable and unforgettable experience!
If your child didn’t join us this time, do check out the books we brought back from the MIT COOP - we’ve got official guides, study cards, cheatsheets, MIT pranks and hacks - all on display at our campuses for students to enjoy!
Our #CodingLabStudents, staff and family members off for a memorable whale watching experience!
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the MIT RAISE team, parents, students, and to everyone who supported us in making this year's event a success. Also a huge thank you to the students' schools, principals and teachers who have greatly supported them on this incredible journey.
Congratulations once again to all our students on their outstanding achievements! 👏 Their journey to this achievement was truly inspiring, and we are incredibly proud of their dedication and drive to make a difference in today's tech world. 🏆
Want to step onto the global stage? Start preparing for it through our MIT-inspired, award-winning curriculum for ages 7 to 18.
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Read Next: Young Coders bring glory to Singapore at the MIT App Inventor Summit 2019, USA
(Written by Thinzar)