Nine-year-old Mumbai boy wins West Region National Design Championship for coding

Meghnaad Vijaykar, a nine-year-old Grade 4 student of Billabong High International School (BHIS) at Santacruz in Mumbai bagged top spot in the National Design Championship 2021 for coding in the junior category.

Students from all over India participated in this championship. Meghnaad participated from the West region.

Meghnaad achieved the top position for designing a code for a memory game using his Microbit V2 mini-computer. He is now eligible for the National Level championship, where the winners of all 4 regions will participate and compete with him, a BHIS statement said.

Meghnaad started learning coding at the beginning of the pandemic by watching YouTube videos. He increased his knowledge and levels of learning by himself. Upon coming to know about the National Design Championship 2021, he was very excited and chose to participate in the competition.

Elated on winning, Meghnaad said, "I am delighted to have won and to represent the west region. I love coding. At the event, the topic given to me was a memory game. I designed a code and used my Microbit V2 to bring the idea alive. I designed a simple yet very catchy memory game, where people had to remember a secret code in a flash of 5 seconds.”

He added: “The secret code had just 2 letters, A and B for the game. If someone gets it wrong, the microbit would flash across along with a sound, and the answer is right, it would flash a tick mark along with a different sound. In the jury round, I was asked many questions regarding my knowledge about coding this game. I would like to thank my parents and teachers including my principal for their continuous support, guidance and motivation, as a result of which I won this championship.”

Delighted with the student's achievement, Nikhat Azam, Principal, BHIS Santacruz said, "Our goal is to encourage children to find their north star- the thing they truly love and are passionate about. This is facilitated through constant encouragement when our Billabongers wish to explore different pursuits. We also have a dedicated 'genius hour' which is part of our curriculum that ensures our children spend 1 hour a week on their passion projects. This is something that large MNCs do, however we have started it in school itself. Children can take up any project and hone it over the year.”

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