My Journey with Coding/Programming

My journey with coding began in 6th grade. Through WhiteHat Jr., I learned how to code. It was basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but at the time it gave me the foundation that would later help me succeed in programming.

Throughout 6th grade, I coded non-stop. I enjoyed that feeling when I could run the code and it would work, and I hated the feeling when the program didn’t work. But that allowed me to persevere and embrace the mental challenges that coding gave me.

Throughout 7th grade, I started migrating from block coding to actual web pages. I built simple websites. For instance, one web page had multiple pictures of different people along with a biography about each of them. All of that was hard-coded into the website.

Come 8th grade, my coding stayed stagnant. I wasn’t doing too much coding because I became really interested in what I was doing in school. At the time, I was in a program called Soundings, where you were able to do a research project on anything you wanted. That engrossed me, and I spent all my time working on it. For reference, my project was on the evolution of neurotechnology throughout the ages and the origins of these inventions. At the time, I thought I wanted to be a doctor.

Come 9th grade, I found my love for coding reignited. During the summer before 9th grade, I made a website for my grandparents’ paint shop. That sparked my HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills again, and along the way I learned about newer methods of website development such as full-stack development, Next.js, and React. Pretty cool stuff.

During this time, I also found AI to be incredibly interesting. It sounded like a field that merged both of my interests: programming and the dream I had as a little kid of talking to a robot and having it do whatever I said. AI fulfilled both of those interests.

After doing a bit of research on AI during the first few months of 9th grade, I started to understand it much more, and I realized that Python was a very important skill. So through Harvard’s CS50P, I learned Python, and along the way I also completed CS50X to make sure I understood the fundamental computer science concepts that were necessary. Once I had done that, I continued taking multiple open-source AI courses to feed my curiosity, and eventually, by February, I had built a very strong foundation in AI.

I then reached out to a professor at Ursinus College, where he guided me on a project and taught me how to build larger AI projects. Alongside that, I was experimenting with AI, especially neural networks and deep learning, because I found those topics extremely interesting.

Eventually, during the summer, I reached out to a professor at Penn State, and together we worked on a paper in satisfiability Boolean algorithms. That was when I believe my understanding of AI increased tenfold. Reading multiple research papers for the literature review and abstract gave me a much deeper understanding than I expected, and then actually implementing the ideas from those papers taught me so much more than any course or project ever could.

Fast forward to February of 10th grade, I decided I wanted to make an impact in my community with AI. I created Summit Intelligent Systems so that I could provide very low-cost AI solutions to local businesses.

Through that experience, I separated two different parts of development. Tools like ChatGPT and Codex were helping build the visual side of applications, but I focused on coding the server side, the backend, the things that actually make everything work. I found coding the backend taught me so much about security, databases, APIs, and building reliable systems.

Fast forward to today, and I’m still building my company and creating real products that are going to help real people.

My biggest advice for coding is that you must have the fundamentals down very well. Many people emphasize watching one YouTube video and then immediately building a huge project. That method can actually be very detrimental. In reality, you should watch a couple of courses and reinforce those concepts again and again. Along the way, you should be building tiny projects, not massive ones like a lot of people emphasize. Start small, always. Then eventually, as you get better, your projects can get bigger and bigger.

See you later.

Agastya