14-year-old develops coding program for youth

Thobeka Ngema|Published 7 minutes ago

At just 14 years old, Sinead Samputh is proving that technology and community service can go hand in hand.

A Grade 9 learner at Reddam House Umhlanga, Sinead has bridged the worlds of robotics and grassroots education, channelling her award-winning technical prowess into empowering the next generation of young innovators.

Her passion for technology began at an early age, and she has completed more than 200 hours of coding training and continues to develop her robotics skills. 

Sinead founded BAYMIN LABS, a free, youth-led coding initiative for children aged nine to 13. Working alongside The Seed Fund, a non-profit organisation supporting families in Durban’s Malacca Road informal settlement community, she is introducing children to coding.

This project stemmed from Sinead’s triumph in Inspired Builds, the Inspired Education Group’s global inter-school robotics contest, where she took first place in her age group with BAYMIN, a healthcare-assistant robot intended to increase access to basic health screening.

“A solution can change a moment. The ability to solve can change a life. What I really wanted to do wasn’t just to solve problems for other people, but to give young people the ability and skills to create their own solutions,” Sinead said. 

Building on her previous success, Sinead won her age category in the Inspired global robotics competition with BAYMIN AIR, an influenza-inspired prototype that uses sensors and LED indicators to monitor air quality and display environmental risk levels for settings like schools and hospitals.

After designing a six-week coding curriculum, she raised R13 650 from corporate donors to buy three Samsung tablets and protective cases.

Building on her work as a homework club volunteer with The Seed Fund, she partnered with the organisation to teach local children Scratch, a visual programming language used to build animations, stories, and interactive projects.

She started with nine Grade 3 and 4 pupils, many without knowledge of coding. She has now started teaching older children, and helps them develop the confidence to experiment, make mistakes and find their own solutions.

Sinead said she will keep moving the younger children into advanced classes, and thereafter, she will move to high school, which will be the same community she is with, with The Seed Fund. 

“It would go on to the older grades, and I think they would have more of an impact because from there, obviously when they’re older, they’ll have more opportunities,” Sinead said. 

Sinead runs BAYMIN LABS on Saturdays and hopes to extend the programme to other underserved communities and eventually establish BAYMIN Academy, a paid coding enrichment programme that would help fund the free community initiative.

“I don’t want to win if winning means leaving others behind. The greatest journey is the one where we rise, learn and change the world together,” Sinead said. 

She hopes to combine medicine and coding to become a neurosurgeon, but also a biomedical engineer.

Sinead’s mother, Joanna Samputh, said she was extremely proud of what Sinead has achieved and plans. She said that what began as a simple school community service requirement evolved into a profound passion for teaching coding to children. 

“It was amazing to see how she transitioned from what was initially the plan, and to getting to that point where she took or came to that decision by herself,” Samputh said. 

“It is a bit scary, because she does now have many, many big plans for the future in terms of what direction she’s going in with this.” 

Reddam House Umhlanga head of college Shelley Peringuey said she was proud of Sinead, saying she uses every opportunity to uplift those less fortunate than her and is always looking for opportunities to make her passion for robotics and coding serve a greater purpose. 

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