He may additionally be seven years old. However, Venkat Patnaik is reaching positive feats to go away, you spellbound and wishing you probably did more with your life. The Class II student has already secured a gap for himself inside the developer’s membership by developing an app known as Reward Management System based totally on behavioral control psychotherapy and is used to teach youngsters to analyze the right behavior.
“The app helps children set dreams,” the younger developer tells us. “Once they entire the aim, they’re rewarded with points. This motivates them to engage in favored behavior, ultimately making them more accountable.”
Suppose Venkat is making it less complicated to reward appropriate behavior. In that case, 10-yr-vintage Shrey Shah has taken it upon himself to help college students and teachers stay connected, even outside the lecture room. Slackio (inspired by the Slack app) connects teachers, dads and moms, and students in step with the standard and subjects. Using the app, “the students can clarify their doubts,” Shrey explains, “and teachers can proportion homework/challenge hyperlink with the students who can then collaborate to work in the direction of completing it.”
Venkat and Shrey’s coding revel is also being emulated with the aid of several others. For instance, seven-yr-antique Hirranya Rajani, whose app enables one to research signal language and talk with hearing-impaired human beings. And thirteen-yr-antique Shaurya Sharma has created the Bombay International School (BIS) Chatbot to help the college network.
Whoever said coding is not for children has possibly not met this bunch of young tech wizards. And all of this has been made feasible by WhiteHat Jr., an online platform that teaches youngsters how to code. “WhiteHat Jr.’s platform is certainly thrilling. When I began coding, it became difficult to apprehend the manner. However, my instructor has honestly affected people with me. She helped me recognize the stairs to create the app,” quips Hirranya, including, “I wish to invent something within the destiny to help my brother as well.”
Creators and no longer consumers of generation
By 2020, AI and robotics will impact around 800 million jobs. Any position that doesn’t involve Advent might be computerized. In the face of these adjustments, it becomes vital to tweak the instructional curriculum for children so that they emerge as creators instead of just customers of the era. Mumbai-based WhiteHat Jr., founded in November 2018 with the aid of former Discovery Networks CEO Karan Bajaj, pursues to make this feasible. The startup makes a specialty of kids aged between six and 14 years and permits them to analyze coding online in one-on-one lecture rooms from anywhere globally.
“As a father of daughters, I accept as true within the incredible electricity of early life getting to know, and I desired to harness the creativity that most 5- or six-12 months-olds have,” says Karan Bajaj, who has had a hit stint in the beyond with brands together with P&G, BCG, and Kraft Foods, besides leading houses like Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, and Discovery Kids in South Asia. “We desired to create surroundings wherein kids are harnessing their remarkable innovative electricity to create merchandise which can be marketplace-geared up,” he adds.
Interestingly, the name ‘WhiteHat’ is inspired using the hacking network, wherein “white hat” hackers consider ethical laptop hackers who assist organizations in picking out vulnerable links in their laptop structures. And because Karan and his crew are concentrated on youngsters, they added the suffix ‘Jr .’ “Broadly, we’re trying to encourage youngsters who can use their coding abilities constructively to help create things on the way to make the arena a better location,” adds the Founder.
Building a 100-member-robust team
Although WhiteHat Jr. Turned formed in November 2018 and the organization’s installation shop in March 2019, the edtech startup has grown significantly in less than a year. It is close to a hundred-humans-robust crew these days. “We have students enrolling now not best from the metro cities, however additionally from Tier II and III cities like Balangir in Odisha, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, and lots of extra,” explains the edtech entrepreneur, including that the primary few signups have been in basic terms through phrase of mouth. They have even seen several natural tractions for their guides.
WhiteHat’s direction curriculum, preserving the audience in thoughts, is quite honest. Designed to allow premiere innovative expression, it’s divided into three classes – Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced – in which youngsters learn common sense, structure, and algorithms to finally layout animations and apps. Even the rate shape is split in keeping with the types, starting from Rs 625 to Rs 750 according to class. The first trial’s magnificence, however, is freed from rate.
Unlocking the coder in every youngster
In April this yr, WhiteHat Jr raised $1.Three million in seed funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India. Following the seed spherical, the web coding platform raised another round, securing $10 million in Series A funding led by way of present buyers Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India, and additionally joined in by using Own Ventures.
Since its inception, the online platform has also onboarded over 500 instructors and registered a 100 percent month-on-month student and sales increase. What turned into just an idea up until a few months lower back has begun materializing into a considerable commercial enterprise prospect. If Founder Karan Bajaj’s words are any indication, their top attention is on growing purchaser cognizance, except scaling their reach and enhancing the tech platform.
The demanding situations for WhiteHat, says Karan, is nothing extraordinary from what different startups face. But at the same time, he is brief to observe that they don’t have any direct competition in this area. “Other edtech gamers attention on STEM as a curriculum and connect to youngsters from extraordinary age businesses. However, WhiteHat Jr. Is the handiest corporation to teach coding to kids between six and 14 years of age in a live 1:1 online schoolroom,” he provides. And if that’s not motivation enough, the Founder cites many achievement memories that have popped out of WhiteHat to date. “The notable apps that those young kids are creating with the assist of our platform is what keeps us going,” he provides.
