Curiosity, coding and kids

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein, whose theories would transform our understanding of the universe, credited his success not to his undeniable genius, but to his curiosity. What an empowering statement about human potential. We may not have off-the-scale IQs, but we all have the capacity to be curious. 

At SAS, we encourage our employees to follow their curiosity. It’s what drove Jared Petersen, who leads our text analytics and cognitive computing development teams, to analyze his own MRI after a life-threatening health issue. His team is now applying AI to medical imaging to improve disease treatment. Curiosity pushed Ed Summers, SAS Director of Accessibility, to explore how sound could convey charts and graphs to the visually impaired. His team’s work is opening opportunities in data science and analytics to students and people who may never have considered such careers.

My own curiosity inspired me to pursue computer science after seeing an IBM Selectric typewriter typing by itself. I had to know how it worked. I enrolled in the only computer course NC State offered at the time, and that led to my future in software.

The curiosity of children can change the world

As a father and grandfather, I have fielded hundreds of questions from my kids and grandkids over the years. As any parent knows, those questions can be strange, insightful, funny, touching…but all of them come from a bottomless well of curiosity.

Many of the SAS efforts to support education tap into that curiosity. From Curriculum Pathways to GatherIQ to free options for learning SAS, we offer ways for young people to interact with and learn about the technology driving the world forward.

SAS was one of the founding companies of the Computing in the Core coalition, which evolved into the computer science advocacy group, Code.org. Each year SAS participates in Code.org’s Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code.

This year, we are partnering with Sphero on a virtual coding challenge to inspire students to improve the world through technology. The #ShowWithCode2020 challenge gives students a platform to showcase their coding skills in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Participants create an obstacle course that highlights actions that directly support one of the 17 goals. The course may include images, labels or description of ways individuals can help, such as planting a tree, taking shorter showers, reducing plastic bottle use, etc. They use CodeSnaps to write code, which navigates a Sphero robot through the course.

The #ShowWithCode2020 challenge is underway and runs through Computer Science Education Week, which ends Dec. 13. Teachers, homeschooling parents and anyone who wants to introduce students to coding and the UN’s goals should check out this blog for more information.

Computer programming jobs are growing at two times the national average -- but there aren’t enough graduates to fill these jobs. These jobs span industry, non-profits and the public sector. A person with a desire to help humanity can find a career to match that passion. But they have to start somewhere…

Let’s encourage students to be passionately curious. They might just change the world.

UPDATE: February 2021

The #ShowWithCode2020 challenge concluded with the culmination of Computer Science Education Week, ending Dec. 13. The winning entry from Stephanie Savoie's 1st Grade Class at Northwoods Elementary School in Cary, NC, was an excellent demonstration of how CodeSnaps can be used to introduce students to coding and the UN’s goals.