A 15-year-old Nigerian girl’s coding skills are changing the technology sector in her country.
Tomisin Ogunnubi is the creator of My Locator, an app that helps locate missing children. She created the app in 2016 and it has been downloaded over 1000 times since it hit Google Play, according to BBC.
My Locator uses Google Maps to track users as they move from location to the next. Users can add numbers to the app that will receive the user’s location in the event of an emergency.
“It also has a functionality where when you click on an alert button. It sends a text message and makes a phone call, that’s if you’ve enabled it in your settings, to a particular number that you’ve designated to it,” said Ogunnubi.
“It could be an emergency number or it could be a family member’s number. It’s basically your choice. So in case of an emergency, when you need an urgent response, it sends your current address to that number so somebody can easily locate where you are.”
The teen learned how to code when she was 12 and wanted to create something useful.
“But it was me then as my 12-year-old self thinking, ‘Oh I’ve just learned how to create applications. How about I use what I have learned to create something that can be useful to me and other people?'” she said.
Ogunnubi’s skills have inspired those around her and a curriculum change for her school, according to her teacher Kofoworola Cole.
“It gave us more courage to be able to start from junior students, normally we focused on seniors. But when Tomisin was able to achieve that, we knew that, yes, there are talents in the junior school,” said Cole.
This is just the start for Ogunnubi, but she is keeping her plans for future apps under wraps, for now.
“I feel great after developing the app; though not a professional app, but I have other things agitating my mind to work on. I prefer to keep them to myself for now, because things change and develop over time,” she told Tech Economy.
Liking this content? Check these out:
More Women And Minority Students Are Taking AP Computer Science Classes Than Ever
