Teen Robotics Champion Launches Free Coding Lab for Durban Youth
Teen Robotics Champion Launches Free Coding Lab for Durban Youth. A Grade 9 student from Reddam House Umhlanga has launched a free coding initiative to equip children from an underserved Durban community with practical technology skills, turning her international robotics success into an opportunity for others to learn.
Sinead Samputh, who has won two international robotics awards, established Baymin Labs to teach children aged nine to 13 coding and problem-solving through hands-on lessons. The youth-led initiative operates in collaboration with The Seed Fund, a non-profit organisation supporting families in Durban’s Malacca Road informal settlement community.
Samputh developed the initiative after winning her age category in Inspired Education Group’s global inter-school robotics competition, Inspired Builds. Her winning invention, Baymin, is a healthcare-assistant robot designed to make basic health screening more accessible.
The achievement prompted her to consider how she could use her skills to create opportunities for other young people.
She subsequently developed a six-week coding syllabus and secured R13,650 in corporate donations to purchase three Samsung tablets and protective cases. Through Baymin Labs, participants learn to use Scratch, a visual programming platform that enables beginners to create animations, stories and interactive projects.
Her first class consisted of nine Grade 3 and 4 pupils, many of whom had never encountered coding before. She has since expanded her teaching to older children, encouraging them to experiment, learn from mistakes and develop confidence in solving problems.
Samputh already volunteers at The Seed Fund’s homework club and runs the coding sessions on Saturdays while balancing her schoolwork, competitive sport and robotics projects.
Her robotics achievements have also continued. This year, she won her age category in the Inspired global robotics competition with Baymin Air, a prototype designed to monitor air quality and indicate environmental conditions potentially associated with the spread of airborne illness.
Looking ahead, Samputh hopes to extend Baymin Labs to other underserved communities. She also plans to establish Baymin Academy, a paid coding enrichment programme intended to help fund the free community initiative.
Through Baymin Labs, Samputh is extending her interest in technology beyond invention to developing coding skills among younger learners.
