Although the media has given Ivanka Trump all the attention, a 13 year old boy stole the show at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017. Hamish Finlayson is the youngest entrepreneur attending the GES.
He is a talented app developer from Australia and has successfully launched five apps. This child prodigy has autism, which is a serious development disorder impairing the ability to communicate or interact. Despite having autism this has not stopped Hamish from achieving, at such a young age.
Hamish said, “I have developed five apps, four of them are about the environment.” The Class 7 student from Queensland has developed four environmental friendly apps and another helping people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD.)
“I was taught about coding in Grade 3 and I was instantly hooked, as I could make my own games and make what I want,” he further added.
Hamish developed his first app LitterbugSmash at the age of just 10. This app is a multi channel educational tool raising awareness about protecting the oceans and saving turtles.
The whizkid was quoted saying, “The idea for the app came from a competition where you have to use technology like coding and robotics to solve real life problems. From there, I got (the) space to expand and grow. I got the attention of the previous U.S. Ambassador John Berry, and from there it was GES 2016.”
The autism app Hamish developed is called TripleT&ASD to help people afflicted with the disorder. He explained, “It has day to day tips to help those with autism and also for other people to know about the disorder.”
This is Hamish’s second Global Entrepreneurship Summit. He was part of the 2016 GES held at Silicon Valley. There’s no stopping Hamish and his brilliant mind. He is working on his sixth app which is a virtual reality game. The game aims at teaching children and adults about living with autism and social skills to help make life easier.
“I would like to work in the Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) space, and then maybe create mixed reality, which is a combination of both. I definitely want to improve my apps,” Hamish explained.
Hamish is excited to be in India and is keen to learn from the GES entrepreneurs. He also said he would love to learn more about the country and its ecosystem.
The boy has strong values and hopes his apps can someday change the world for the better. But he strongly believes education comes first and saving the world later.
