My late father, Akber Hameer, had co-founded a Computer and IT company in Dar es Salaam, back in the 80s. As a result, I had the privilege of growing up around computers. One of the things I really enjoyed as a young teenager was learning how to program codes using programming languages. The first language I was exposed to was QBASIC, followed by PASCAL. I recall once coding a program to help the user solve simultaneous equations. When I went to university, before entering medical school, I learned C++ as well. Needless to say, I enjoyed programming very much. Having left the subject for a very long time, I have recently begun learning the programming language Python (yes, learning continues lifelong folks!)
My younger brother, who is an Emergency Medicine specialist in the USA taught himself JAVA and ended up creating his own scheduling software which is used by several hospitals in North America. The scheduling software has also incorporated Artificial Intelligence (AI).
What’s my point? Programming, or more generally Computer Science, is something young students (and adults) should consider learning. Why? Because,
- Programming is fun and enjoyable
- The applications are practically infinite depending on your imagination and creativity
- You don’t need a degree in Computer Science (although that would definitely be cool!). You can learn programming for free from online resources such as Khan Academy!
