#CodingLabStudents: Isaac Khong, 12, Platinum Award Winner, HCIC 2022

August 11, 2023 Community

Meet our Coding Lab student, Isaac Khong – Platinum Award winner (the highest honour, awarded to the top 1.5% of participants) at the Hwa Chong Infocomm Challenge (HCIC) 2022.

You may remember him from our previous student feature together with his sister, Alicia Khong. He has previously won the Judge’s Choice – Social Impact Award in the International Coding Showcase 2020, and the Judge’s Choice – Most Innovative Award in the International Coding Showcase 2021.

Hello again, Isaac! Congratulations on winning the Platinum Award at the HCIC! How do you feel about your achievement?

Meet Isaac Khong, who has been with us at Coding Lab since a young age of 7!

I feel honoured yet humble to have received the Platinum Award at the HCIC. Coding has always been my favourite hobby which I enjoyed during my free time and winning a Platinum Award in a coding competition held across Primary schools in Singapore gave me the recognition for my efforts put into learning and practising coding.

I would like to thank my parents, teachers and friends for supporting me throughout this exciting journey!

How was your HCIC experience?

My HCIC experience was very fulfilling. The questions were challenging and it requires critical and creative thinking skills. Preparation for the HCIC was manageable. I enjoyed the opportunity to think-out-of-the box which gave me a lot of satisfaction.

What are you coding right now? Are there any exciting future coding projects or dream project that you want to mention?

I am coding a program to automate web browsing using Python’s selenium module. The computer will then be able to go through many web pages within a short duration and interact with the website. This saves time for the user.

Isaac has advanced from a young budding coder to an advanced, brilliant programmer at the level of 13-18 years old, with several competition wins under his belt!

Which school do you study at currently? How is adapting to life in Secondary school so far?

I am currently a student at Hwa Chong Institution. I applied for DSA through coding and I received two confirmed offers from Dunman High and River Valley High and, initially, a waitlist offer from Hwa Chong Institution.

Transitioning from Primary to Secondary school, the workload has increased significantly and yet there are many opportunities for independent work and collaborative projects, which I really enjoyed. I am very delighted to be admitted into HCI, as it offers me the unique opportunity to expand into the AI field, which I can see a lot of interesting developments in the near future like ChatGPT!

What do your friends or family say when they know that you can code?

I have taken a lot of inspiration from my dad whom I used to watch him code when I was a young. I got my first computer in Primary One and was learning Scratch. My sister who was two years younger was amazed at how one can program a computer. She is now on her path to be a young programmer at Coding Lab as well!

It was great catching up with Isaac again in this student feature and hearing updates on his progress in his coding journey! We are glad to have played a role in his growth over the years as well as his DSA journey. 😊

Here at Coding Lab, we take pride in taking our students’ aspirations seriously, as our mission is to nurture future leaders in technology and help our students reach their fullest potentials! We hope that Isaac’s journey and aspirations will motivate you to consider investing in your child’s education in coding!

Isaac Khong started attending P101 Scratch 1 class at Coding Lab when he was barely 7 years of age and advanced his way to our S200 Electives by the time he was 12. He was awarded the Platinum Award (the highest honour) at the Hwa Chong Infocomm Challenge (HCIC) 2022. He is 13 years old as of 2023 and is attending Hwa Chong Institution.

Our #CodingLabStudents series features 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!

(Written by Thinzar)