It is true when people say that a child’s creativity knows no bounds. Time and again, children surprise us by thinking out of the box. While in the past, lack of proper means to bring these ‘ideas’ to life could have been a big challenge, things are different today. Thanks to the internet and the vast reservoir of online resources like WhiteHat Jr., turning these ideas into ‘reality’ is not a distant dream anymore.
One of the ways that many children are expressing their creativity is through coding. Making apps. One look at some of these apps, their originality and use-cases, and you would be hard-pressed to know that someone so young thought about it. Set out to make it. And then, made it. It is all true.
Here are five apps that prove age is no bar when it comes to sheer genius.
Ambulance Whizz
Ambulance Whizz is made by 8-year-old Brinda Darshan Jain from Bengaluru with a ‘vision’ to help ambulance drivers quickly navigate their way through busy and crowded metro city roads. Coming from a family of doctors, it would seem like second nature for Brinda to be ‘eventually’ interested in the profession. But, at such a young age? Well, that is something else.
The app that Brinda has developed is designed to act as a bridge between ambulance drivers and the traffic police, with the driver being able to select the type of emergency, including pregnancy, heart-related and accident, among others. Then, the driver would have to update their location before they begin the journey. This information would be received by the Traffic Control Management Centre, where the personnel would be able to help the driver in a better manner, including by creation of a fast-track corridor to get the ambulance to reach their destination without having to go through the normal traffic.
Jishnu’s light bag
Another example of innovation comes from a 16-year-old Assamese boy named Jishnu Baruah. Watching children struggle while going to school due to their heavy bags gave Jishnu the idea to create ‘Jishnu’s light bag’. The app is designed to act as a medium between teachers and students, with a special focus on the weight of the school bag. With the help of the app, students can set their bags according to a timetable which a teacher can update at any time.
The teacher would be able to see the estimated weight of a school bag based on the day’s timetable, along with an animation depicting the discomfort level of students in case the bag is highly overweight. With these calculations, the teacher would be able to adjust the timetable so that students do not have to carry a very heavy backpack to school.
Parent.ely
Within modern nuclear families, the demanding schedules of both parents often entails children being left alone to fend for themselves. This made 12-year-old Arush think, even more so during the pandemic. Then he came up with an app that could serve as a virtual parent for kids who may find themselves on their own.
Here is how Arush described his app while speaking to Financial Express Online: I believe Parent.ely has brought a completely new concept to the world of apps: a virtual parent. Parent.ely’s virtual parent is an AI system which acts just like a real-life parent, doing things that an actual parent can do. For example, the app’s virtual parent can talk to the child and give the child advice. The app aims to mimic a real-life parent. First, the child can customize the look of their virtual parent. They can select features such as, eyes, hair, skin tone, mouth and clothes. Moreover, the app completely transforms according to the details of the child. For example, the advice that the children receive varies according to the age of the child and the aesthetics change according to the gender.
If the virtual parent isn’t able to assist the child, then the app also redirects them to a free online counselling website where the child can book a free session with a professional. Functions such as chat bots, local databases, linking YouTube videos and much more made Parent.ely possible.
Talking about the inspiration behind the app, Arush said: The idea behind my app comes mainly from my cousin, as his father is in the Indian Army and is often posted far away from him for several months. Since his mother is also busy with work and household chores, he feels extremely lonely at times and has nobody left to talk to. The problem of children lacking parental support is increasing these days due to nuclear families, children with divorced or separated parents, or children with parents who are working in healthcare, military, government, etc and are therefore unavailable. Many children, even with both parents, don’t feel comfortable talking to their parents about issues such as bullying, depression, or peer pressure and I believe that my app has the potential to help children tackle such issues.
Angel Investor Kid$
US-based Ivana O’Dea is only 9 years old and has already started looking at ways to provide other children a platform to raise funds for their ideas. Wanting to run for Congress later in life, she looks at every problem with a mind to solve problems.
With her very unique app, she has created a platform for children to pitch their ideas directly to Angel Investors who might be interested in helping them bring their ideas to life.
Frogger
14-year-old Aaron Soekiatno from California has created an app that lets people avoid standing in queues by hiring others to stand in their place. With the app, called Frogger, users can hire ‘Froggers’ (the name he has given to people who sign up to stand in queues for others) based on their location. The data of Froggers is sorted on the basis of hourly charges as well as distance for the users’ convenience. Moreover, people wanting to earn extra income can also register themselves as Froggers on the app.
