Andrei Covaci is a young coder from Romania who was the runner-up in the 2017 pan-European Future Makers Awards competition (10-13 years old category ). Andrei impressed the judges with his CO2 monitor that monitors air quality in classrooms and increases students’ academic performance.
Andrei, your project is very impressive – how did you come up with the idea?
The idea of developing the CO2 monitor came when my dad and I were trying to find a meaningful project that I could work on in my local CoderDojo. I was reading that high levels of CO2 in classrooms is a real issue that can impact students concentration levels and grades. This was a perfect project. It might not have immediate results but in the long term I believe it will have a positive impact.
What advice would you give to young people your age?
If I could give advice to other kids it would be to try and think like the people you want to help. This can be difficult when you are a kid but you can always ask for help from your parents or other coders. Also, I would tell them: Trust yourself because any idea could be a great one!
Liberty Global launched the pan-European Future Makers Awards in partnership with CoderDojo during the 2017 Europe Code Week, aiming to stimulate young people to use their coding superpowers to come up with projects that could solve social issues in their communities.