Venkatesh Dempo and Viraj Marathe make Goa proud by winning the Google Code To Learn Contest
Goa has no dearth of talent when it comes to the younger generation. Recently, two young boys won the National level ‘Google Code To Learn Contest 2021,’ where Venkatesh Dempo was declared the winner for his app ‘Tourism De Goa’ and Viraj Marathe’s app ‘Covi companion’ was among the shortlisted 10 apps.
Venkatesh is a sixth standard student of Sharada Mandir School and says that the idea of the app came up when Goa saw a drop in tourist activity due to the pandemic. To make it easier for tourists, Venkatesh designed the mobile application using MIT App Inventor. It has a wide variety of features which guides a tourist to different areas such as temples, museums, beaches, hotels and has information about Goan culture and cuisines.
Venkatesh says, “Goa is the tourism capital of India and many tourists visit this beautiful place every year.” He plans to improvise on the app by making a couple of modifications and then launch it on Playstore.
Venkatesh developed an interest in coding around two years ago when he attended a workshop with his friend, where he was introduced to robotics and coding – this compelled him to take it up.
Venkatesh attributes his success to Ashwin Labs of Robo Fun Lab, where through an online course, he learnt to build apps and used that knowledge to work on ‘Tourism De Goa.’ He says that the exposure to the competition on a national level helped him learn new codes, use new extensions and overcome bugs.
Venkatesh has plans of becoming an engineer from IIT and wants to open his own company to teach children for free. His YouTube channel Dempo Robotics Academy Goa displays his work.
The app ‘Covi companion’ was developed by Viraj Marathe, a sixth standard student from Dr K B Hedgewar Vidyamandir, Sakhali, using the MIT app inventor. Viraj approached his parents who are both doctors to learn more about covid and treatment of the virus. He explains that the app helps patients who have tested positive for covid to keep a check on their parameters during the isolation/quarantine period of 15 days. The App has inbuilt features like Daily check, Pedometer, Covid-19 info, Cowin info, and a graph that helps the doctor and patient keep track of the progress.
Viraj says that the advantage of the app is that it is user friendly and allows the patient to share data with the doctor remotely. It took around ten days to finish working on the app and Viraj adds that he has built apps in the past and created websites in the last few years.
Apart from coding, Viraj spends his time writing, playing music, photography and playing badminton and plans on getting into a career in programming.
This is a feat that has made Goa proud. This is not the first achievement by these two students. LegoGoa students have emerged victorious in such types of competitions where they compete with the best talent in the country.
The group has been steadily making a name for themselves not only in India but even at global competitions like the annual World Robotics Olympiad, National level championship. This is only the beginning of their success and achievements
