Meet the Dubai boy who has been coding since he was just 8
Miraan Rai, now in Grade 7, is a certified game developer who runs his own tech-start up
Dubai: A Dubai boy has been coding since the age of eight years. Miraan Rai, now 13, has developed eight Android apps and an iOS app. The list includes the free app Braille (with over 1,000 downloads) for the visually impaired to solve basic Maths problems.
Miraan, a Grade 7 student at Kings’ Al Barsha School in Dubai has always been academically inclined. “My passion is computer coding and robotics. I am primarily a self-taught coder, in addition to being a certified online game developer,” he said.
He said his parents are in talk with schools in less affordable countries to use this free app for their visually impaired students. Miraan added that he has also developed a car pool app.
“The app is called School Pool for all schools in Dubai to ease congestion and pollution on the roads as well as increase productivity of parents who pick and drop their children to school every day.”
He added: “The app has been developed to ease traffic congestion on the road. This will also benefit parents with multiple children attending school everyday as school buses can be very expensive, not to mention the lengthy routes that can be few hours of commute for some students.”
Miraan said he has presented the app to the Roads and Transport Authority.
‘Unipreneur’
Miraan, who runs his own tech-startup called AM Innomates, recently participated at a youth innovation event - Gitex Youth Unipreneur - titled ‘The Next Fantastic 50 Competition’.
He competed against 49 other school children from the UAE by pitching a product called ‘AM Kard’ that he developed. Miraan took fourth place in the competition and was given a cash prize at Gitex.
“AM Kard is also being promoted by DubaiNEXT, the first official government online crowdfunding platform for startups in the UAE. They have launched my fund-raising campaign which is now live.”
In his spare time, Miraan plays cricket. He is also an avid skier and has been playing squash since he was six years old.
Miraan belongs to a family of four. He has a younger brother Rohail, who is 10, and is also studying at Kings’ Al Barsha. His father Shivaz is a CFA Charter Holder and CEO of a private digital company in Dubai. His mother Mandira is a published author.