Dominic Darby, from St. Catherine, Jamaica, was only 11-years old when he emerged as the grand winner of the XPRIZE Connect Code Games competition in 2021 after beating 3,000 competitors from different parts of the world.
His winning entry, entitled “How To Fall,” was made using MIT’s Scratch coding software and featured a game character traversing through several levels while avoiding various obstacles.
Despite being partly self-taught, Darby’s exceptional coding skills were honed through a summer program he attended at the University of the West Indies when he was just six years old.
His success in the competition earned him the “Best in Class” award and a cash prize of $1,000 in the Junior Division. His victory marked a significant milestone in his coding journey, which he pursued alongside his other passions such as playing Minecraft and Roblox, chess, and tennis.
Despite being a relatively young player in the global technology industry, Africa has made significant progress in recent years in developing innovative solutions that tackle regional and global challenges.
Some of the continent’s achievements include creating affordable healthcare solutions, developing renewable energy sources, and designing effective agriculture solutions.
While Africa still has a long way to go in terms of fully harnessing the immense potential of its people and resources, stories like Darby’s provide inspiration and motivation for people of African roots to pursue their passions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
