A fifth-grader, Samaira Mehta, has designed board games that can help children learn to code and AI. Working to eliminate gender bias in the field of engineering, Samaira Mehta has also been featured in ‘real-life power puff girls’ videos. She has already started working with Microsoft and Google.
Samaira Mehta was just six years old when her father Rakesh Mehta, an IIT-Delhi alumnus based in the United States, started teaching her coding. With no more than one hour a day’s practice, Samaira released a board game for children to learn to code called CodderBunnyz. Now at 10, she has recently come up with seemingly the world’s first board game to learn to code with AI called CoderMindz with help of her brother – Aadit (7 years). Samaira Mehta has picked up many computer languages including Java and Python and is now teaching programming to her brother. Through her board games, she has decided to guide one billion children.
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“It all started with a prank that my dad played on me when I was six which involved coding. I developed an interest in it and started spending one hour each day learning to code. I wanted to create something and spread my love for coding with other children in a fun-filled and non-digital way. Since almost every parent keeps on telling their child to get off screens – be it laptop or mobile or tab – I wanted to design a non-digital game and hence invented my first board game – CodderBunnyz. It teaches children basic concepts of coding including sequencing, debugging, and problem-solving,” Samaira Mehta told.
The board games have earned her a revenue worth $1,00,000 over the years, most of which she is spending on developing newer products. Apart from being a CEO at CoderBunnyz, this small wonder often deliberate talks and hosts workshops. During one of her workshops at Google, Samaira Mehta told that senior staff from the tech-giant offered her to work with them once she grows up. Microsoft is also impressed by her and featured her as one of the key speakers at the recent SVF event where she talked about gender bias in engineering.