Interview with Praxium in 2019

Originally posted on https://medium.com/praxium/providing-education-through-games-one-byte-at-a-time-a-conversation-with-melvin-zhang-8d647b199dce

Providing Education through Games — One Byte at a Time. A conversation with Melvin Zhang by Lim Mengyu

The team at Praxium sat down with Dr Melvin Zhang, an avid programmer and previous CTO of Cosmiqo. He is currently in the midst of embarking on a new career that uses his skills in programming and IT solutions with Solve Education!, a non-profit organization that focuses on delivering education to everyone around the globe.

Q: Hi Melvin! Tell us a little about yourself. What’s new in your life?

I am starting a new job in December! We will be targeting kids around the world who don’t have a chance to go to school. That’s about 200 million children, when it was last recorded by the UN in 2017. There’s a lot of potential [in these children] that is not fully discovered, because they have to work to support their families, or because they live in a rural area where there are no schools.

Q: Wow, that is a huge problem that you will be involved in solving. But where do you come in?

We are trying to increase access to education through mobile applications. My work is in developing the app, called Dawn of Civilisation. For a lot of these kids who are working, one of the first big purchases they buy with their salaries is a phone, because they use social media like Facebook to connect with their friends. So, using phones will be an easy way to increase access to education, but we are trying to make the process more ‘game-ified’. For many of us, after a long day at work, we wouldn’t really be interested in formal studying, even if it is using a phone. We make the application a more ‘game-ified’ experience, so these children can play some indie games and learn at the same time!

Q: What does this app teach children, and how does it work?

The two things we are trying to teach using the app are English, and later on Math. We are focusing on English for the time being because we realised that a lot of the information that is available is only in English. Learning English is important especially for children in other countries where English is not their main language, because they are indirectly limited by what they can access. This could affect the kind of jobs they find. The idea of learning with a mobile app is exciting partly also because we have a chance to customize it to the individual learner. For example, what kinds of questions can be presented, and in what order so that the user can learn the most in the limited amount of time? For example, some users may know the meaning of certain words, and some may not.

Q: That seems like a more flexible style of learning! Are there any reports so far that compare this sort of mobile app learning to traditional classroom learning?

Yup, we compared the app with classroom teaching, and we are trying to see how the app can also supplement classroom learning and at the same time help those who don’t attend classes. In fact, we are now trying to pivot the app to be a tool that teachers can use in class. I think that the app is more fun than traditional classroom learning (laughs), so perhaps the English teachers can use this to supplement their lessons. Then, there will be a broader audience for the app. Another benefit of the app is the fact that it is so scalable. Rather than waiting to build schools to address inequality, which takes a long time, app users can immediately start learning, as long as they have internet access.

Q: We hope that you’ll be able to find great fulfilment in your new job! What was your previous job like, though?

My previous job was in consulting with Cosmiqo. So I look at different businesses, and find out how I can improve their operations. With my previous job, I got to work from home. We have a task list on an online platform. Every day, I will open up the page and see all the things I’m supposed to do. I will try to finish two or three tasks in a day. We will have a call once a week, and we discuss what we need to do for the next week. It’s very flexible, because there are only two of us in that company.

Q: That is very different from what you’re going to be doing in the future!

(laughs) It is! I thought I wanted to do more for other people, and I was inspired by the founder of Solve Education!. She was previously working in the hotel industry in this area called revenue management, and learnt how to maximise profits for companies. She wanted to use her skills to help the less fortunate gain access to a better life, instead of focusing on earning profits for big companies. That’s similar to what I experienced in consulting, because only big companies can afford to hire consultants in the first place. So although we do the consulting jobs well, the overall benefit does not have a wide reach.

Q: You believe very strongly in equality and the accessibility of education as a means of social levelling, and it shows in the work that you are pursuing!

Yes, I believe in that very much. I mean, you have to agreewith the cause of your work. Actually, in the second week of December, I will be travelling to Indonesia to meet up with the development team of the app. Hopefully, I will be able to see the beneficiaries and app users as well, and carry out user studies and experiments that help improve the app. Right now, one of the troubles we are facing is the decrease in app activity after one month of using it. It’s quite common in mobile applications; people just try it for a while and then stop. This is especially important because our users only use the app for a few minutes every day, and that is not enoughtime to learn English. It’s a problem that I’m hoping to solve, by making the app engaging enough so that users will go back to it to learn English.

Q: We would also like to hear about your career as a programmer. What made you want to study computer science? As a young teenager, did you already know that you wanted to be in this career?

Sort of, I think I kind of knew by the time I was in secondary school. My dad is an influence. He was actually a Chinese teacher, but he is very technically-inclined. He was one of the few Chinese teachers who would use technology to prepare his lessons, even back in the day when we had to install Chinese plug-ins in order to type mandarin. It wasn’t easy, because there was no internet readily available then. But he figured it out! He’s a very progressive person, and that inspired me. I also studied computer science instead of computer engineering because hardware can fail (laughs). There is always the issue of unreliability, and things break down. We deal with it every day — phones can spoil, and we have to buy a new phone. I also think that there are still so many things we can do with computer science, and there are so many problems we can’t solve yet.

Q: Actually, many people are unclear about the differences between computer science and computer engineering. Could you perhaps elaborate on the differences between the two?

There are many layers in creating technology that range from hardware to software — there are the circuits, and then there are the computers, phones, and software. So it depends on which layers you’re focusing on: in computer science, you focus more on the software. In computer engineering, you focus more on the hardware. There are different concerns in each discipline. But there is still a common middle ground where both disciplines learn the same thing. For example, in building a pacemaker, computer engineering may be more relevant in controlling how it works. There is still a portion of programming needed, but it is smaller. Computer engineers would also need to worry about the kinds of battery to be used, if it is rechargeable or plugged in. On the other hand, the actual layout of the circuits would be designed by an electrical engineer, even closer to the hardware. As a hirer, I can hire someone from either computer engineering or computer science; the difference is not too big to me.

Q: What other things do you think people should know about being a programmer?

I think many people think that software work is a lot of typing. Programming is not necessarily typing; it could be thinking about what the pieces you need are, and what they should be like. It can be more like the big picture, like design. It can be quite complex! For example, I had a project in the warehouse of a factory. There are many moving pieces we consider in their operations: sensors on the manufacturing line, backend processes, equipment. We have to think about how these interact and design the whole flow. The other part that a lot of people don’t talk about is also reading. So, in my previous company, they emphasize reading each other’s work. It could be anything: a document, piece of programme, presentation, so we can generate some feedback. Then, you’ll also know what others are doing.

Q: Thank you for your time! Finally, is there any advice you would like to give to those hoping to pursue a career in this industry?

Keep an open eye for opportunities. You may want to read a lot to know what’s happening in the world, because you’ll never know when you’ll find something that you’re really passionate about. I read news a lot more on my job now than I did in the past. I think you can also look beyond Singapore in this sector. An example can be open source work, especially now that a lot of development is done in the public where anyone can participate regardless of where you are. In this way, you won’t be limited by what companies you can find locally. The simplest way could be to look at the applications that you use. For example, if you use Firefox, you don’t necessarily have to write code for them. You could contribute by reporting bugs to their bug tracker, or help to edit some documents that explain how certain technological features work on their site. You could also offer to draw logos; anything that you feel you can improve upon, you can contribute. Also: exercise more! (laughs) I would also say it’s never too late to start something.