Looking for feedbacks and suggestions!
Question:
Tell us more about ONE or TWO activities listed above that are most important to you. Please explain the role you played and what you learned in the process. You will be asked for a reference who can speak to your response. (Maximum 2100 characters)
Response:
One of the most important projects I worked on is my three-year project, PlayTouchless - an application that allows people with arm disabilities to enjoy board games using their voice. I came up with the idea in grade 9, inspired by my passion in board games, and my cousin who had a paralyzed arm. Although at that time I had no programming experience, I wanted to make this idea work.
I started by teaching myself how to program an app and utilize game engines through online resources. As the sole creator of the app, I was responsible for every aspect of PlayTouchless, from coding to designing UIs to modelling assets, which sometimes led to overwhelming challenges. Two months after I began, I finished the first iteration of PlayTouchless. It was rushed and contained a handful of bugs that I could not fix in time, as I was eager to present it at a science fair.
Turned out, the fair was unsuccessful. And this "failure," at first, discouraged me, making me want to give up on this project. But as I reflected on the incredible growth that I experienced in just 2 months, and the skills I gained along the way, I realized the immense potential of the project and the room I had for self-improvement if only I had more time.
So, after the fair, I asked my friend who had more knowledge in app development to help find solutions for the bugs in my app. And for the following three years, I constantly improved PlayTouchless, by adding features such as a multiplayer mode, and a colorblind-friendly mode. Finally, my efforts were paid off when I received the "BC Game Developers Award" of 2023 for my project.
Although I am proud of the award, what makes this project so important to me are the lessons I learned in the process of developing it, beyond just coding. Firstly, I learned to accept help from other, as asking my friend to solve technical issues in my app led to more efficient solutions than I could have achieved by myself. Secondly, I learned to embrace failure as an inevitable part of growth, understanding that success requires persisting through adversities.
Question:
Tell us more about ONE or TWO activities listed above that are most important to you. Please explain the role you played and what you learned in the process. You will be asked for a reference who can speak to your response. (Maximum 2100 characters)
Response:
One of the most important projects I worked on is my three-year project, PlayTouchless - an application that allows people with arm disabilities to enjoy board games using their voice. I came up with the idea in grade 9, inspired by my passion in board games, and my cousin who had a paralyzed arm. Although at that time I had no programming experience, I wanted to make this idea work.
I started by teaching myself how to program an app and utilize game engines through online resources. As the sole creator of the app, I was responsible for every aspect of PlayTouchless, from coding to designing UIs to modelling assets, which sometimes led to overwhelming challenges. Two months after I began, I finished the first iteration of PlayTouchless. It was rushed and contained a handful of bugs that I could not fix in time, as I was eager to present it at a science fair.
Turned out, the fair was unsuccessful. And this "failure," at first, discouraged me, making me want to give up on this project. But as I reflected on the incredible growth that I experienced in just 2 months, and the skills I gained along the way, I realized the immense potential of the project and the room I had for self-improvement if only I had more time.
So, after the fair, I asked my friend who had more knowledge in app development to help find solutions for the bugs in my app. And for the following three years, I constantly improved PlayTouchless, by adding features such as a multiplayer mode, and a colorblind-friendly mode. Finally, my efforts were paid off when I received the "BC Game Developers Award" of 2023 for my project.
Although I am proud of the award, what makes this project so important to me are the lessons I learned in the process of developing it, beyond just coding. Firstly, I learned to accept help from other, as asking my friend to solve technical issues in my app led to more efficient solutions than I could have achieved by myself. Secondly, I learned to embrace failure as an inevitable part of growth, understanding that success requires persisting through adversities.
