Decoding Coding Labs With Ian Lam

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Coding is no longer merely a pastime of geeky hobbyists; in recent years it has fast become an extremely valuable skill-set in various communities and industries. Websites, smartphone apps and game consoles all work because of code, a virtual soup comprising a vast multitude of machine languages which are employed to deliver precise instructions on how functions and displays are implemented. Without Mark Zuckerberg's crazy passion for coding since he was a kid, we probably wouldn't have Facebook today. If Bill Gates hadn't gotten his hands dirty by learning to debug the operating system of the local PDP-10 timeshare as a teen, the world would still probably be fawning over typewriters and chalkboards instead of efficient computer operating systems.

On 1 September 2014, the British government made it compulsory for coding basics to be taught to all children (between the ages of 5 and 15) in school as part of the rolling-out of a new computer-science learning initiative. Even our own Singapore Prime Minister sat down to write a Sudoku solver in C++ (okay it was later revealed to have been written in C, but that's besides the point). Coding is the future, nothing more, nothing less.

Enter Coding Labs. Founded by Ian Lam and Kong Yu Jian, this Singaporean start-up strives to impart the knowledge of coding to youths in a technological landscape where the demand for competent programmers far outstrips its supply. Young as it is, Coding Labs has garnered a fair bit of positive attention in local circles, even being featured by the Singapore Management University (SMU) and Vulcan Post. By a stroke of luck, we managed to get in touch with Ian himself, who was most generous in granting us this opportunity to obtain greater insights about the establishment-the pretty and not so pretty, the victories and challenges experienced, as well as ambition(s) for the coming years.

QN: Good day Ian, allow me to first express my gratitude to you for obliging to this interview. Why Coding Labs? Any specific event/instance in life which spurred you to jump into the business of grooming programmers?

ANS: Yujian and I have participated in coding competitions called hackathons before with Yujian being more actively involved in that scene. We noticed that there is an increasing trend of younger programmers signing up but there is still a lack of schools providing formal programming education. We wanted to do something for this industry and hence Coding Labs started.

QN: What developmental speed bumps did Coding Labs hit, and how did you overcome them? Any "memorable" one which had a particularly significant take-away lesson? Anything you would have done totally differently in hindsight?

ANS: We had a tough time having to find the best place to conduct our lessons. Fortunately one of our teachers interned at a coding company before and allowed us to use it during the weekends. Apart from that, we had to scale down our curriculum to make our lessons approachable for kids. The whole process helped us in reaffirming our passion for teaching and we wouldn’t have done it any other way.

QN: Teaching kids to code-now that's one seriously burgeoning industry. Other competitors such as Coding Indonesia and Saturday Kids have joined the market of late-how do you seek to differentiate yourselves from the rest of the pack?

ANS: We believe in practical applications of code and one of our strong points is that our teachers are both well connected as well as proven in the industry. Our teachers have won coding competitions as well as worked on large scale projects for corporate companies and hence have the experience that comes with real world application. In addition, we are well networked with computer science professors as well as coding companies which allows us to organise events such as coding competitions in the future. Our students should expect not just to learn the theoretical approach to coding but have the pride of programming their own applications.

QN: On the other hand, some may argue that online setups such as Code Academy and Khan Academy (which are completely free btw) are already good sources of self education for coding amateurs . So why even pay to attend coding courses?

ANS: We feel that while these courses are beneficial, they should serve as a complementary source of learning. We do know of successful programmers who have learned solely from these resources alone. However, to get the fullest potential out of the child, it takes a teacher to guide and mentor a beginner coder.

QN: Let's talk a bit about your classes; how many are held per year in all on average? What are the class sizes like? How do you handle instances of students signing up when the slots are completely filled?

ANS: Our class size holds around 10 kids and we currently only have 2 slots available every Saturday. There is one class in the morning and another in the afternoon. We would have to place students on our waiting list for the start of the next course as it can be disruptive and unfair to the other students who have already advanced in the current course cycle. Our courses are weekly and lasts for around 20 weeks on average.

QN: Then again, we noticed a section of the online application (to enrol at Coding Labs that is) requires the applicant to state his/her level of proficiency in the area of programming. How does that reconcile with the other rationale of yours which only accepts learners who are aged 13-17 years old?

ANS: As there are some schools who already offer programming courses, we seek to complement their learning by offering more advanced courses. Kids who have already undertaken our beginner courses often will opt for our more advanced courses developing them into proficient programmers. In this way, our filtering system helps us find the best programme suitable for each child.

Full interview at Decoding Coding Labs With Ian Lam


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