We need smarter kids for a smart future
Artificial Intelligence (AI), increasing internet speed and evolving technology is making sure that we must foster our children in a much smarter way for the future. And on that line of smartness two things are going to be very important as part of the early stage learning process for our children, creative thinking to solve any problem & skill-based training. Our present is a part of our future and if we look carefully we will find many children doing some extraordinary inventions, discoveries or leading an inspiring life for all of us. These children are already setting an example for the kind of involvement of smartness our future is expecting. Let’s go through some of these amazing children for a better understanding.
Tanmay Bakshi — World’s Youngest IBM Watson Programmer.
Born in Delhi, Tanmay migrated to Canada in 2004 with his parents when he was just 1 year old. Father was a computer man so he was introduced to computer programing at an early age of five. Fully concentrating on developing mastery on coding Tanmay never went to school but started his own youtube channel at the age of seven. Soon his interest grew into a passion and later it became a skill which ultimately helped him to secure the position among the youngest developers building applications around IBM Watson’s Artificial intelligence platform. Till he was 14, he had already written a book, hosted a popular TEDtalk and became a speaker at IBM Watson summit which took him to many counties for public speaking. Currently, he is working in the health section using the neural network, a computer system modelled on the human brain.
Boyan Slat — Dutch inventor and entrepreneur who creates technological solutions to global problems.
United Nations Champion of the Earth 2014, Boyan Slat saw more plastic than fish in the ocean while he was enjoying a diving session in Greece in 2011, at the age of 16. The biggest problem that we have created as the best possible alternative to reduce cost-effective packaging, mobility solution & cheaper way of lifestyle is a product called plastic. The way we have polluted the marine world with plastic, it will take a few hundred years to do the cleanup, in other words, a humanly impossible task. But Boyan decided to take this matter very seriously and he came up with a unique solution. He devised a concept which will utilise the natural oceanic forces or current to passively collect and concentrate ocean plastic in such a way that it can be cleaned up in a few years time rather than few hundred years. After 4 years of survey expeditions, testing and many design emphases, on September 8, 2018, the world’s first ocean cleanup system was launched from San Francisco.
Ann Makosinski — Canadian student inventor of hollow flashlight.
On a CBC news interview, Ann Makosinski said ‘I’d take garbage and I’d glue them together and create inventions’. Today she is the inventor of hollow flashlight aka thermoelectric flashlight, which runs on the heat of the human hand. She also created a prototype called eDrink, a unique mug that transforms heat energy from your hot drink into an electric current to charge your phone. Glueing garbage together may have not worked at an early age but it gave her the idea and the confidence to come up with quick solutions. And this is exactly what we need in the future. She is already in the Time’s 30 Under 30 list for 2013 and also bagged the 2013 Google Science fair in the category of her age group.
Elif Bilgin — Inventor of eco friendly plastic from banana peels.
Inspired by Thomas Edison’s quote ‘‘I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work’, Elif also kept on trying till she got the way in which a banana peel can be made into a non-decaying bio-plastic for multiple uses. Her contribution towards an alternative solution for petroleum-based plastic was an after effect when she discovered the plastic pollution problem in her home town Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. Elif Bilgin from her early age was a curious child & her parents made sure that she never loses this ability. It was her curiosity that helped her to read books all by herself at an early age of four, which later laid the foundation for her invention.
The point we all must remember is that with invention we also need inspiration, with dedication we also need hard work, with theoretical knowledge we need its practicality. Every individual is important, but the thing that matters the most is the way how we are bringing them up for the future. All the above examples are just a handful. But we need more of this kind, with extraordinary skill sets, smart thinking, faster in taking actions and creative enough to come up with the most unique ideas & quick solutions. This is what our future is expecting from our upcoming generation. And as parents, we must make sure that we give enough window of freedom, encouragement & support to our children in what they are best at.
The above narrative research is a part of a study that the Witblox team has recently carried out just to show the importance of understanding the hidden interest in children and how that interest if nurtured well can become an inspiration for others. Such studies help the witblox team to design their future projects and challenge videos for their community which is spread across the country and abroad. Parents and society are equally responsible for the upbringing of a child. Under these circumstances, witblox acts as an extra window for developing creative thinking and problem-solving attitude in children through their do it yourself electronic projects and semi-advanced level of robotics.
Research Sources: Elif Bilgin website, yourstory.com, Wikipedia, BoyanSlat.com, forbes.com, CBC News, the kid should see this website.
