My Start In Coding

So far, I've had two significant instances where I had the chance to dive into coding and witness my growth firsthand. During class selections, I was thrilled to learn that my high school offered about two classes with opportunities to learn how to code. Both were math classes with integrated computing and robotics components and being someone who always loved tinkering with computers, I eagerly jumped at the chance to enroll.

Between learning about math principles, we delved into the basics of computer programming using a program called ChIDE. With this program, we learned to use the C/Ch/C++ languages to code and make our programs.

We began with the generic "Hello World" and started working on coding-based puzzles. As time went on, we progressed to more complex puzzles and started working with LinkBots—clunky machines that, at times, were annoying to work with. Writing scripts to command these LinkBots opened up a whole new world of possibilities, and I found myself quickly catching on and having a lot of fun with the coding process.

Eventually, our teachers presented us with the exciting opportunity to participate in the annual C-STEM RoboPlay competition at UC Davis. During my first year, I hesitated to join as I was feeling unsure of myself. However, as the competition got closer my teacher convinced me to join as an alternate team member. As it turned out, my teacher didn't list me as an alternate at all and sent me out to be part of the main competition.

The competition is divided into four parts, with two dedicated to coding and two for presenting and running our code in front of judges. We were all given a handbook with different challenges that we could complete for points. Each challenge had a main goal and smaller goals that could be achieved which all would award points. "Penalties" were also possible if you did something that the challenge specifically said you couldn't do.

The competition last year made me realize how much fun the whole event was despite being unable to get a high ranking with my team. Be that as it may, I was determined to do better in the competition that happened this past Saturday. The event had a racing theme and the challenges were harder as we were now in a higher division. We had a blast working and we even found a way to "game" the competition. We noticed that some of the challenges would tell you that you're not allowed to do something but still not take away points for doing it. We only took advantage of this for a couple of challenges since we thought it was funny. By the end of the event, my team still managed to place 3rd place which was exhilarating to experience.

We later realized that one of our decisions cost us first place. During our second judging period, two of our team members went away to display some of our codes. One of them was a code worth about 40 points that I had written myself. Unfortunately, my team members decided to try out a different, untested code. Time ran out, and we never had a chance to use my code. The teams placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place were all within 5 points of each other.

Despite the setback, I remain grateful that we still reached the podium. Coding so far has been such an enriching experience. It can be an extremely frustrating thing to see my code not working but when I take the time to do some rubber duck debugging, I can usually find the issue and fix it. After struggling with a code for hours or days, the feeling of accomplishment you get once you're done is amazing. Looking forward, I'm excited to keep practicing coding as I plan to join my school's robotics club. I can't wait to see where my journey takes me from here.

P.S. If you don't know what rubber duck debugging is, then rubberduckdebugging.com can explain it simply.