Hacker Champs

TISB Grade 6 student, Dhyan, was part of a teams that won second place in the OakCodefest, where him and his team mates were the youngest in the competition. About a month later Dhyan participated with a new team in the TISB hackathon and won there as well. We contacted Dhyan to hear more about the apps that him and his team mates have designed, as well as his ideas about hackathons and why they are so important.

Coding is important because you can create whatever you want with it. You are taken to a different world and the possibilities of what you can make are endless – Dhyan, Grade 6

It all started when Dhyan’s friend, Sharv, asked him to team up for the an upcoming hackathon. Dhyan though it would be a great idea and asked if his friend, Pranay, could join the team. The three team mates participated together in the Oak Codefest that took place online in the month of January. During the event the team decided to create an app that blocks all sites on a device, with only a few exceptions. “We all get distracted in classes, especially in online classes”, says Dhyan while explaining how the team came up with the idea for the app.

The team came up with the app ‘In The Zone’ that has an OTP system, which is the most secure lock apart from fingerprints. “We believe this project can help others, worldwide, since we have not found a permanent solution yet to COVID as of now”, says Dhyan whose team wants to integrate it with online learning softwares, such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, WebEx and hopefully make it known around the world and help preventing distractions during classes. The app was well received by the judges, and the team – also being the youngest team – got awarded second place.

Fast forward to the TISB Hacks hackathon about a month later, where Dhyan decided to participate together with a couple of new team mates – Akshita and Akshaj. “We saw other people participating in many hackathons and we saw that they were able to make so many apps and devices that could have a great impact on society”, says Dhyan and explains that this made him inspired to participate in the TISB Hacks – adding that it helped that it was hosted by TISB. 

“We think hackathons are important because they allow everyone to make  great products to help society today”, says Dhyan who together with his team developed an app called ‘GenZ’. The app assists and helps parents in rural areas to take care of their children’s health, giving them information on upcoming vaccines, nutritional guidelines, nutritional profiles of foods by scanning them, simple home remedies and even a clinics finder. “We think this means that we can help make an impact on the world”, says Dhyan and concludes by expressing his belief in these hackathons and the ideas that come out of them can make real changes.

To see a video of Dhyan and his teams app, visit the YouTube channel.