As Malaysia moves towards a digital and high tech nation, one of the important aspects is equipping the young generation for the future. For some of these youths, they saw everyday challenges as a motivation and opportunity to design creative solutions, especially to combat problems faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are three high tech kids who put their innovative skills to good use in helping the community in times of the pandemic.

1. Karan Singh, 11

While wearing face masks is now a new norm and part of our daily lives during this pandemic, it can get tricky for those who wear headscarves and turbans. A deaf and mute student, Karan Singh, 11, who saw his father struggled to wear his face mask comfortably over his turban, designed an extender to help make daily wear more comfortable.

Karan who is a student at Infinite Minds Academy which provides technology-related programmes for special needs children of all spectrum, started using his design skills to create a face mask extender utilising 3D printing.

From word of mouth, Karan’s extender gained popularity and with the help from his instructors at the academy, he has now received orders to custom-make the extender all the way from U.S and India

2. Jishnu Maruthamutu, 12, & Rakhael Tanabalan, 12

Primary school buddies and family friends, Jishnu Maruthamutu and Rakhael Tanabalan maybe 12-year-olds but they now have an online food platform to their name. In September 2020, they set up an online food portal that sells homemade Indian snacks, sweets and cakes as a way to help Jishnu’s aunt who was retrenched during the first Movement Control Order (MCO) in March last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the guidance from their parents and a little help from YouTube’s video, they researched about e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce to learn the tricks of the trade and explored other features to improve their website and photo taking to make the platform more engaging. The platform is now expanded to sell home bakes, fresh items and other specialties from various sellers. Learn more about them at Cookeasy.my.

3. The Spartans (11-16)

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the act of disposing used surgical face mask has created another environmental issue, causing litter problems on land and at sea when not discarded properly. The Spartans, a team consisting of five students aged between 11 to 16 years old came up with the idea to create an Internet of Things controlled disposal bin for face masks.

They recently competed in the Battle of the Ninjas, the final round of the annual competition for The Digital Ninja programme which is a leadership and digital maker skills enhancement initiative, which supports Malaysia’s best and brightest young digital innovators from 11-17, aims to solve a variety of global challenges.

Their winning innovation also comes equipped with the MySejahtera app to aid contact tracing of mask disposers, a UV light sanitising system and gamification mechanism that encourage users to reuse the bin.

The team, consisting of five students aged between 11 to 16, are:

• Eimaiyan A/L Kaliyappan, 11 (SJKT Ladang Wellesley, Kedah)
• Julian Siah, 13 (SMK Damansara Utama, Selangor)
• Wong Jin Tim, 15 (SMK Damansara Jaya, Selangor)
• Calvin Khoo Zhen Chen, 15 (SMJKC Phor Tay, Pulau Pinang)
• Nurul Alisa Hairul, 16 (SMK Taman Megah Ria, Johor)

Do you know any inspiring high tech kids who are solving problems with their creative innovations? Let us know!