Young Malaysian coders going the distance

When it comes to languages, we as Malaysians have a distinct advantage over many other countries in the world. Most of us can speak and write in at least two languages, regardless of what age or race we belong to. However, very few of us speak a language that is fast becoming a very important one in today’s interconnected world: computer code. That’s where StartupMalaysia.org comes in.

Over the weekend, over 550 enthusiastic participants attended D-Code, a coding bootcamp aiming to empower Malaysians with a new skill. Participants ranged from programmers, code dabblers, students and those with absolutely zero experience in coding. Their goal? To create a Google Chrome App or Extension using Javascript in less than three days.

You might think that it would be impossible to learn a new language and use it to create something in such a short amount of time. It turns out not to be the case, as 63 groups submitted their projects by Day 3 of the bootcamp. A team of programming experts from Silicon Valley flew down all the way here to guide, teach and inspire the group, and were very impressed with how fast everyone learned to read and write Javascript.

By the end of it all, 60 individuals from 16 teams were hand-picked to participate in the Global Startup Youth Program, a side event of the 4th Global Entrepreneurship Summit from 9 – 12 October 2013 where US President Barrack Obama is slated to attend.

Yahoo! Malaysia sat down with the top five teams (in no particular order) to learn how far they’ve come and how far they intend to go.

Overtask

OverTask is a Chrome extension that allows users to manage their tabs efficiently while surfing the internet. It groups your tabs by tasks, hence keeping you focused on what you are doing. By minimising distractions from other tabs (such as social media or funny picture sites), Overtask aims to improve productivity and maximise efficiency.

Although all three members are university students, they already have a registered startup called Betaas Solutions with products in the market, for instance an Imarah which provides tools for Muslims to stay connected with other Muslims and perform their Islamic way of life.

Amrul Amin Mokhtar wants to approach investors to get seed funding, to translate his ideas into actual applications.

Shiva Narrthine has a strong background in design, and aims to further improve her coding skills.

Ryan Swart is now looking at becoming a better programmer by improving his coding practices. He intends to take Overtask further, and enable it across more platforms.

Smart Home

Smart Home is a cross-platform wireless controller which enables the user to control home appliances wirelessly, via Google Chrome on a desktop or even on a mobile phone.

Team TTDM (Tan, Tan, Duane, Mah) members are all new to Javascript and only thought of the idea for Smart Home during the first day of the bootcamp. According to them, Malaysians aren’t very keen on making actual products and feel that too many start-ups are focusing on internet-based businesses only. That is why they’re making it their mission to cultivate a “maker” culture, and they are starting by making the source code for Smart Home available for free download on GitHub.

Eric and Leong Keit run Maketronics, a startup that helps people translate their ideas into actual, tangible products with the help of code, electronics and a even 3D printer.

Duane has a more personal mission in mind – to help his fellow Sabahans embrace technology with his upcoming web-hosting service named Tompinai, which means “brotherhood” in Kadazan.

Winnie is currently working on a brain-computer interface with a team of researchers, and intends to pursue a PhD in Biomedical Engineering.

CoRate

CoRate is a rating system to help readers set expectations on the quality of articles online. It does not depend on integration with any websites, hence ensuring that users get unbiased opinions from other users about the quality of articles that they are reading. Moving forward, they aim to provide publishers with user behaviour data to help them understand their readers better. More information is available on their website, www.CoRate.us

Heislyc Loh is a co-Director for the Founder Institute, Kuala Lumpur chapter. He intends to further enhance CoRate with his team, with high hopes of making it to Silicon Valley. At the same time, he is working on an e-commerce and mobile wallet project, which he’s keeping under wraps for now.

Steason Tee is a university student in banking and finance, and only started learning code at the bootcamp. He intends to start a tech company within the next year, as he is inspired by Mark Zuckerberg and other young technopreneurs who earned their first million in their twenties.

Yihang Ho (not in pic) started coding at the tender age of 13. He taught himself computer programming and now can claim to 6 years of experience despite still being in his teens.

SmartText

SmartText is a Chrome extension that enables users to easily bookmark text on a web page, as opposed to normal bookmarking where the browser only remembers the website URL. This extension aims to make it easy for users to go straight to the part of the webpage which they were originally interested in. For instance, the 12th paragraph in a Wikipedia article, or a code snippet in a programming website. Bookmarks are synced with the user’s Google profile, and users can send their bookmarks to another user, as long as both users have the extension installed.

SmartText was developed by Team Kilo. They intend to further polish the extension before releasing the code as open source for other developers to use and modify it for free.

Vin is a self-taught coder who runs a stealth startup with JC Tan. They aim to launch their startup in August this year with high hopes of scaling it up to the rest of Asia.

Sylvester is moving towards becoming a Solution Architect. He creates software in his free time and is currently looking for investors to bring his ideas to the next level.

Julian is a professional Java coder who calls himself a “Java ninja. He aims to found a startup some day, as he further solidifies his knowledge and experience in the IT field.

Jazz is an SAP programmer with self-taught web technologies. She aspires to grow to become a strong leader to lead her company in changing the world in the near future.

PinIt

PinIt is a chrome extension that allows people to share links directly with one another with a simple click of a button. This extension is targeted towards groups who work in separate locations and enables users to collaborate in a faster and easier way. PinIt is synced with the user’s Google contacts, and automatically sends a copy of the link via email to the recipient.

All group members are students in Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP). They plan to perfect the extension before trying to market it as a solution.

Wong Aun Chyi (not in pic) is a Business Information Systems student, majoring in Enterprise Systems. She aspires to set up her own IT consultancy business in the near future.

Guilherme is an ICT student from Mozambique, majoring in software engineering. He is an avid programmer who envisions himself designing computing platforms to solve problems, and one day hopes to run his own company.

Parvindran is also an ICT student who is fluent in various programming languages. He intends to study up to the PhD level before working for an IT company to gain experience, and one day lead his own IT business.

Muhammad Saifullah is an ICT student as well. He realizes that programming is an important need in today’s working world, and sacrificed his mid-semester break to attend the D-Code bootcamp. His next goal is to be a software engineer as he loves to solve challenges in programming.

Facilitators

D-Code bootcamp is organized by StartupMalaysia.org in partnership with Cradle Malaysia, facilitated by Silicon Valley professional coders Jonathan Baudanza, Amelia Arbisser, Jon Hayward and Marcus Holmes. The bootcamp was officially launched by Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, Secretary General of Treasury, Ministry of Finance.

For more information about future coding bootcamps, visit www.startupmalaysia.org.