Hi. My name is Aariz Rahman. I am currently a fifth grader who goes to a school named Georges Vanier Elementary. I live with my family in Vancouver, British Columbia. I immigrated to Canada from Bangladesh at the age of four. Recently, I turned eleven. I enjoy astronomy, paleontology, playing games, spending time with my little siblings and going outside when I’m not coding.

Like any other kid I also have a creative mind. However, my dad thinks I have a little bit of extra creativity in me but I doubt his thought. Maybe, he thinks that because at the age of four, I used to observe the outdoor infrastructures then remodel them using tracks and blocks. Some of the things I built were helicopters, cars, ships, planes, railways, structures, and even rockets. Two years later, when I turned six, my dad requested me to make use of my creativity to build things that would help people and which I could share with the world. So, he introduced me to a tool called Scratch.

Scratch is a block-based visual programming language platform developed by MIT, where I started learning coding and logic. It is a drag and drop coding site that teaches you how to code by letting you explore, create, and share creations with the Scratch community. Even now, I still recommend it to any kid who wants to learn the basics and logic of programming. After I understood the basics, I wanted to start coding using a general purpose programming language, however, I didn’t know where to start. Coincidentally, I was looking through the courses in Khan Academy, a learning platform for academic studies, where I found a course that taught Javascript, HTML, and CSS. Once I finished that course, I was equipped with the right tools to learn any programming language. Later on I became interested in making games especially for iOS, and that was how I found out Apple's programming language: Swift.

I recently published my first app. The app is named Connect 4 : Multiplayer, a take on the classical board-game Connect 4. You can play with a buddy on the same device, an AI agent, or someone over the Internet. The features also include a leaderboard, sound effects, a history page, and a color blind mode. It was my most complex endeavor and also my first project to actually go to the app store.

The story began almost a year ago. My dad had an interview at a really good company, however, when he came home, I asked him how the interview went. He said, “It went pretty well. I started off good, but there was an algorithmic question regarding the connect 4 board game that I couldn’t finish in time.” That sparked an idea in my mind because I played that game in my school, so I wrote an algorithm for that problem and started building a command line interface game. Once I finished, my dad advised me to make a GUI. One thing led to another and I eventually built Connect 4 : Multiplayer.

Over the years, my family has always supported me. They encouraged me when I lost hope and helped me when I was stuck. When my little brother and sister would play my games, it would make me happy and motivate me to make my games better. My mom was the main person I counted on. She was always excited to hear progress and couldn’t wait until I published it. I just wanted to give a shout out to them for that reason.