“Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe or you want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn” By Stephen Hawking Theoretical physicist, Cosmologist and Author.
~ Arunima
If we look around, we’ll come across the changes that have now become an integral part of our busy life. Gaining proficiency in different programming languages is the trend. The great demand for coding skills has forced youngsters to step into this field, as under new education policy coding languages are now mandatory from class 6th and onwards also there are new emerging technologies like robotics for kids that have shifted their interest towards the electronics field. So “what is coding?”. Here, the programmers work on a well designed set of instructions to achieve an executable block of codes which result in a particular outcome. It requires a strong logical and mathematical background in order to build codes and has a great impact on young minds, as it develops problem solving abilities, sharpens maths skills and helps in dealing with new softwares. Its great importance can’t be neglected as it has reduced the workload in IT, business, finance and accounts sector as computational skills and new softwares are used to conduct large scale projects in science research like LHC (Large Hadron Collider), satellite and in radar navigation systems. A wide variety of programming languages includes python for data science, machine language with applications of artificial intelligence required in various fields of engineering and computer sciences.
Increasing demands of technology and scientific methods has raised their job
opportunities in various engineering branches. There are tremendous possibilities in machine learning and data science, Telematics and in vocational courses like the Internet of Things (IOT) which includes detailed study in sensing, embedded systems, cloud computing, networking circuits communication, Networks and protocols. It’s a 3 yrs graduate course with applications in building smart cities, updating new application based smartphones and medical devices. It has great demand at present. Many companies hire candidates with these skills and experience. A data scientist’s salary in India is on an average around 908k per year. Nearly 90% of individuals apply for these courses abroad. This shows a decline in demand for subjects like arts, social studies, commerce, languages, music and many more, these are now deemed as obsolete courses. Public interest is shifting towards programming languages which creates a userfriendly interface e.g python.
Coding is further classified as functional, object oriented, scripting and logical. Apart from C and C++ it includes Pascal for industrial purposes, Fortran for scientific research, Java for networking, Perl, PHP etc. They are of great importance in mobile and web applications, in control system software of modern transportation systems and also in medical engineering while diagnosing serious health issues and providing proper treatments. As such numerous vacancies for these posts are available to them. Coding and new technologies are intensively used for security purposes and to save us from cyber crimes, hacked accounts etc. As upcoming softwares and new applications are easy to access therefore one should be well aware of these things.
There are many famous personalities who started their career in programming as a kid like William Henry Gates (13 yrs) who worked on class scheduling software and payroll programs. Similarly, Margaret Hamilton (33 yrs), developed Skylab, world’s first space station and also worked on inflight software (Apollo), Lunar lander and many such projects. One of the richest men and the cofounder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is also fascinated by programming languages (13 yrs). He had never been to college nor did he take his schooling seriously but still at a young age he developed his own programming language and games. A BritishAmerican computer scientist Stephen Wolfram developed Wolfram Mathematica which allows symbolic computation in mathematics, is famous for his research in computer science and physics. Steve Wozniak, another young coder and cofounder of Apple Inc is famous for his coding skills. Mark Zukerberg, whose father was a dentist is a cofounder, chairman and CEO of Facebook. There is a long list of these talented people who are self taught, self motivated and have creative minds such that their contributions in development of new software and programming languages have proved to be revolutionary in these fields. There are organizations such as ICode, BridgeLabz, Skill crush, Code academy, Google code University, Pi jam and many more which provide free online education in computer basics like the one ICode, best known for kids and for someone with no prior knowledge, they can start with these free courses. There is also Skillcrush for learning web designing techniques. Similarly Pijam, a non profit organization of Maharashtra, India aims at developing modern skills of science and technology. There are many accessible courses on Coursera, Udemy, edX that comprises short interesting video lectures, takes regular assessments and provides a certificate of completion. Hence one who is passionate in programming can access these.
The digitalised world is developing new softwares and modern programming skills with easy assembling and debugging of codes. This has upgraded our online made education platforms and reduced unemployment. New mobile applications like Tracking, Instant health checker, daily news snaps keep us up-to-date and have enabled us to conduct secured online transactions and data transfer.
Hence the basic knowledge of STEM subjects will surely reveal the unseen realities of our existence in future.
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