Read Transcript
00:20
Hello everyone and welcome to the Pypodcats
yes
00:23
for our Hidden Figures of Python
00:27
series today our guest is Mona Obedoza
00:31
and if this is your first time you're
00:33
listening to the
00:34
Pypodcats
00:35
you're probably wondering what the
00:37
PyPodcats are we are highlighting the voices
00:39
of underrepresented group members in the
00:41
Python community we have a code of conduct
00:44
which is the PSF the Python Software
00:46
Foundation code of conduct and we follow it
00:49
to help our interactions and keep Python
00:53
positive successful and growing community
00:55
and I am Tereza
00:58
I am based in Hamburg
01:00
and with us we have our other co-host
01:03
Georgi based in
01:04
Hi everyone my name is Georgi and I'm
01:07
coming from
01:09
I'm not coming from I'm based
01:11
I'm based in Amsterdam I'm coming from my
01:14
mother's womb but I'm based in the
01:17
Netherlands
01:21
so
01:23
we are in a mood today because both Georgi
01:25
and I are in
01:28
there's public holidays around here both in
01:30
Germany and Netherlands so it's a free day
01:32
it's sunny outside we're not used to this weather
01:34
so it gets to our head
01:38
so Mona would you like to do a little quick
01:42
introduction
01:43
about who you are
01:45
yes absolutely hello everyone my name is
01:47
Mona Obedoza I'm a high school student from
01:49
the Philippines and I study at Stanford
01:51
online high school I really love to code
01:53
I'm an inspiring artificial intelligence
01:55
engineer and because of that my advocacy is
01:57
also teaching other kids how to code and
01:59
to this end i'm also a student ambassador
02:01
for women in AI I'm the co-leader of the
02:03
Girls can Code club at my school and I'm
02:05
the founder of the Purposeful Mochii which is
02:07
a little organization I started locally
02:09
that holds workshops and hackathons to
02:10
teach kids how to code
02:11
That's very interesting Mona because I
02:14
remember I saw you the first time when you
02:18
attended one of the events
02:20
in Python Philippines and that triggered me
02:23
like whoa this girl and this young age has
02:26
started coding and knowing way more than
02:29
what I know already so I was totally
02:31
impressed to be honest and (thank you) I was like one
02:34
day I'm just gonna
02:36
approach and know a little bit more about
02:38
this little Mona here so how do you started
02:41
learning how to code and doing all the
02:44
programming
02:45
I started learning how to code around the
02:47
time I graduated from kinder I was maybe
02:49
around five years old my mom was a software
02:50
engineer at the time and so
02:52
he downloaded this app and it was like the
02:54
simple logic based game where like you
02:56
instruct a dinosaur to move in a certain
02:58
way and follow and like
03:00
use that to complete certain puzzles and it
03:01
was meant to teach me the basics of coding
03:03
and logic and that kind of thing and I was
03:05
just absolutely obsessed with it I
03:07
just played it for a very long time I think I
03:09
finished it in like one night and because
03:11
of that she let me move on to more advanced
03:13
programming languages such as
03:15
well I started blockbase fielding languages
03:16
like Tynker and then Scratch and then
03:18
because I couldn't get enough of that
03:19
either I eventually in around third grade
03:21
I moved on to
03:23
do text based programming with Python of
03:25
being my very first text based programming
03:27
language
03:27
after that I started learning more things
03:29
like HTML, CSS, Javascript, some mobile app
03:32
development with App Inventor and recently
03:34
I started taking classes at my school also
03:36
and because of that I also learned C++ and Java
03:38
Holy Moly
03:40
yeah so you know a lot of programming
03:43
languages which one is your favorite?
03:45
I think Python is definitely the one that's
03:47
closest to my heart as I said it's one of
03:49
the very first ones that I ever tried and
03:51
I remember that when I was a kid it
03:54
was really my favorite programming language to
03:55
do I would always try to make different
03:57
games with it and I had this little Python
03:58
book of games that I would always use
04:01
and even today when
04:03
when I work on some projects I always use
04:05
Python for Data Science, Artificial
04:07
Intelligence because it just has so many
04:09
libraries that are very well documented and
04:11
make it very easy to get started with all
04:12
of those things and even
04:14
when I teach kids how to code I think
04:16
Python is a really great language to get
04:17
started with because it's not too complex
04:19
you don't need to remember brackets and
04:21
that kind of thing in this kind of like
04:23
it's very simple and easy to pick up and
04:25
it's a really good way to bridge the gap
04:27
between block based programming and early
04:29
logic puzzles and data programming
04:30
languages as well wait a second because I just wrote down
04:33
here something because of your first
04:35
game being with dinosaurs do you also have
04:38
a special
04:40
affinity towards dinosaurs?
04:42
Actually I am very scared of dinosaurs I
04:45
refused to watch dinosaur movies it
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scares me a lot but it's just that in that
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particular game it was
04:51
a very cute little chirpy dinosaur and so I
04:53
just loved it a lot
04:54
But then in real life dinosaurs scare me
04:58
yeah I mean it's just birds that are still
05:01
around us right I mean the other ones are
05:03
all dead
05:04
it's very unnerving
05:04
so you're safe
05:06
and actually Tereza is reviving them
05:09
oh my gosh
05:11
yeah I'm just putting them on paintings
05:12
it's fine it's made up dinosaur so it's
05:15
it's fine cute perfect
I hope I hope it stays that way
05:19
so
05:20
just curious like why do you like Python
05:23
more is it really because of like the
05:26
language or are you drawn to the community
05:29
or what's the reason why you actually
05:32
prefer Python
05:33
it's really a little bit of both language
05:35
is honestly just so great it's really a
05:37
great way to get started with
05:38
programming in general get started with
05:40
fundamentals before having to worry about
05:42
complicated syntax and that kind of thing
05:43
and it also
05:45
makes really easy to get started with more
05:47
complicated topics like Data Science, AI and
05:48
alike but at the same time I also really
05:51
love the Python community I think the
05:52
Python community is really where I
05:54
started my whole journey I remember you
05:56
mentioned that you saw me at
05:58
an event several years ago here in Python
06:00
Philippines and
06:01
ithatwas probably
06:02
actually that was my very first speaking
06:03
engagement i remember i just joined the
06:05
Python tech conference because I loved
06:07
programming in Python I wanted to learn more
06:09
more and I found out that
06:11
they were having
06:12
lightning talks and so I decided you know
06:13
why not I might as well let's just see where
06:15
that takes me
06:17
and so yeah that was my very first speaking
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engagement and even though I was only
06:20
around perhaps 10 years old or something
06:22
like that at the time they were all very
06:24
supportive of me I was so nervous to be
06:25
speaking in front of such a big crowd for the
06:27
very first time but they were all so
06:29
supportive and so engaged in my
06:30
presentation and they really made me feel
06:32
welcomed and appreciated and yeah clearly
06:34
what gave me the confidence to try other
06:36
speaking opportunities, try signing up for
06:38
summer camps schools and that kind of thing
06:40
where I could learn how to code
06:42
and improve my coding skills as well and
06:44
get more involved with the tech community
06:46
that's really cool
06:47
so you mentioned you got involved also in
06:49
the Python community what do you do in the
06:51
Python community currently
06:53
Generally I still do some speaking
06:55
engagements I think I've been invited to a
06:56
few speaking engagements in the past like
06:59
I've done a talk at the PyLadiesCon also at
07:01
the most recent PyCon and generally I speak
07:04
about my advocacy which is teaching kids
07:06
how to code
07:07
and I also and I also speak about my
07:10
organization the Purposeful Mochii which
07:11
does exactly that and I speak about some of
07:13
the AI projects I do as well
07:15
so tell us a little bit more about how you
07:17
teach younger people to code like the kids or
07:21
because
07:22
it passed our
07:23
our level you see so we are in the
07:26
adulthood so you
07:28
are still like in between you know I mean
07:30
so I'm really interested on
07:33
actually teach the kids code
07:36
right well I started the Purposeful Mochii
07:38
when I was pretty young and it was just
07:39
kind of like doing little coding workshops
07:41
for my friends because
07:42
we didn't really have coding lessons at my
07:44
school at the time because we were very
07:45
young and so I decided it would be fun to
07:47
just teach my friends how to code and so we
07:48
had little gatherings and coffee shops and
07:50
that kind of thing but eventually I decided
07:52
to take that further I started doing
07:53
workshops with larger groups of people I
07:55
didn't know and also younger age groups as
07:57
well and then most recently I partnered
07:59
with Accenture Philippines for the Breaking
08:01
Barriers Building Bridges Hackathon for
08:03
Girls here in the Philippines where
08:04
basically girls of
08:07
any level of experience with coding really
08:09
can come join in teams of around three or
08:11
four and
08:12
start learning how to solve problems using code
08:14
I think that hackathons are really my
08:16
preferred way of teaching kids how to code
08:18
because well first of all it's very
08:20
important more important than just learning
08:22
how to code it's also important to learn
08:23
how to use technology to solve problems and
08:25
that's exactly what hackathons are all
08:26
about you pick a problem and make a project
08:28
to try and solve it
08:30
second I also think that this improves this
08:32
increases their confidence a lot because when
08:33
you join a hackathon and you make a project
08:35
that can solve a real world problem
08:37
at the very end you're able to take a step back
08:39
and think wow I was able to create all
08:40
of this stuff I think it really improves
08:42
their confidence a lot and I think
08:44
and so that's generally what the Purposeful
08:46
Mochii has been focusing on its efforts on
08:47
lately doing hackathons and things like
08:49
that where kids can get started with coding
08:51
and find out all of the amazing things that
08:53
technology can do / Are you doing this all
08:54
alone or do you have other people helping you out?
08:57
I have some people helping me out so I have
08:59
this one I have this one friend who helps
09:01
me out with the Purposeful Mochii as well
09:03
and we just collaborate sometimes in teaching
09:06
workshops and in reaching more kids
09:08
and aside from that I also partnered with
09:10
tech companies such as Accenture like I
09:12
mentioned and also with the Python
09:14
community sometimes
09:15
and to seek more support
you know that's at another level
09:19
because you are actually getting the
09:21
companies involved
09:23
at your age like how do you actually
09:24
approach them?
09:26
well actually
09:28
well I think it just
09:30
it all started really when I just had that first
09:32
experience at the Python tech conference
09:34
and I started making connections meeting
09:36
new people and then because of that I
09:37
started being invited to more and more
09:39
things and because of that I ended up just
09:41
meeting more and more people who I'm able
09:42
to reach out to whenever I have an event
09:45
Like I get to reach out to them and ask hey
09:46
do you want to be a guest speaker for this
09:47
event and help inspire these kids and that
09:49
sort of thing so it's really just all about
09:51
all of the
09:53
conferences that I like going to and
09:54
speaking at and making connections through there
09:56
interesting
09:58
to be honest because I do have kids too and
10:00
a lot of young people some of them they
10:03
feel like coding is not cool
10:06
so it's not easy to trigger them to pick up
10:09
this because
10:11
it
10:11
gives them a perception that it's actually
10:13
hard or like it seems to be that the
10:16
learning curve is higher than other things
10:19
so how do you actually make it
10:21
accessible or make it interesting to
10:23
younger people to learn how code
10:26
I can absolutely
10:27
relate to that most of the time when I was
10:29
really young
10:30
and
10:31
a lot of the people i would talk to would
10:32
think that coding was really hard and
10:34
then coding and math and science and
10:36
especially girls they would really think
10:38
that it was really difficult and that's why
10:40
in my workshops usually I get started with
10:43
very simple things like block based coding
10:45
languages starting with Scratch for desktop
10:48
and game development they're thunkable for
10:49
mobile development to teach them that it's
10:51
really not that scary at all it's just
10:53
doing some logic and putting stuff
10:55
together and eventually you're going to end
10:57
up with this project and you're going to be
10:59
like wow how did I
11:00
do all of this it actually wasn't
11:01
that tough after all
11:03
and I think there's a misconception that
11:05
programming is all very technical stuff
11:07
algorithms match etc it's like wow I don't
11:10
want to have all these particles swimming
11:11
around in my head
11:13
but in actuality the programming is all
11:15
about you know logic creative thinking and
11:16
that sort of thing and that's why through
11:18
hackathons and workshops and that kind of
11:20
thing where i get started with very simple
11:22
programming languages and games and stuff
11:24
to begin with I hope to instill that
11:27
impression that coding is actually
11:28
something that can be fun yeah but I think
11:31
that misconception came out also from
11:33
larger companies who had the whole phase of
11:36
job interviews being algorithm cracking
11:39
so
11:40
you have to know all the algorithms by
11:42
heart and everything and that it was like
11:44
the only way to get through the door
11:46
and think that it's something that
11:48
there's a whole generation affected by that
11:50
thinking although they go in the job and
11:52
then they don't apply any of the algorithms
11:55
so that's very true yeah
11:57
but in reality the real job does not really
12:00
encompass what the interview goes through
12:04
it's true it's true I mean for you perhaps
12:07
not a level yet but I'm pretty sure you'll
12:09
be hired by some big company soon but I think
12:13
that's kind of like what Tereza has
12:15
mentioned is a very interesting issue here
12:18
that in the tech industry they tend to over
12:22
test
12:23
yeah
12:24
it's just
12:26
testing on a different aspect that is then
12:28
not really connected to the world and also
12:32
nowadays we have so so many technologies
12:35
and so many aids you don't really need to
12:38
learn exactly like what to do
12:40
yeah and it's probably exactly how Mona is designing her
12:43
courses in the end is like putting things
12:45
together and getting something done
12:46
yep absolutely that's why
12:48
I like doing hackathon so that they can
12:50
actually experience what it's actually like
12:51
to program a project instead of just
12:53
programming like a simple like some kind of
12:55
mathematical thing they actually program a
12:57
project that has a practical use and so you
12:59
get to experience all the stuff where
13:01
you're trying to come up with you're trying
13:02
to come up with creative solutions and you
13:05
end up like spending a lot of time
13:07
debugging but also spending a lot of time
13:08
designing things, ideating, brainstorming and
13:10
that sort of thing and all of the things
13:11
that make that make coding a technology button
13:13
are your courses then also available
13:16
online for like kids all over the world or
13:19
going to be available online?
13:22
well so far
13:23
I haven't done anything about releasing
13:25
courses myself with the Purposeful Mochii
13:26
although we do do some workshops and
13:28
they're mostly live workshop but as far as coding
13:31
courses go I remember that when I was young
13:32
I did a few things on Khan Academy I think
13:34
and also generally what helped me a lot was
13:36
getting programming books I had this book
13:38
of like how to make
13:39
several like I don't know around 40 like
13:41
simple sketch games and I would follow it
13:42
and I would make a lot of Scatch games and
13:44
then I had one also with Python and it
13:46
taught me how to make
13:47
If Conditions for example by making choose
13:49
your own adventure games or how to do
13:51
For Loops by doing alien invasion games so that
13:53
kind of thing and that's really what got me
13:54
interested in
13:55
coding
13:57
so games is the key
no dinosaur yeah and not dinosaurs I just
14:01
I just didn't get any dinosaurs sorry
14:04
okay but I just realized there is one instance in
14:06
which I like dinosaurs which is like the Chrome
14:08
dinosaur game you know the one where you keep on
14:09
hitting space bars and there's no internet
14:12
Google
14:15
I understand that you started coding like
14:18
really young you mentioned once to me like
14:21
five years old
yeah she mentioned like
yes I think I said that
14:23
so does looking young and being smaller
14:26
help people interact with you do you feel
14:28
intimidated sometimes if like people who
14:32
try to like you know older people start to
14:34
talk to you or things like that about the
14:36
knowledge and
or at you
14:38
yeah exactly
14:39
actually there are really pros and cons to being into being
14:42
small and cute
14:44
when I go to tech conferences
14:46
well
14:47
sometimes I feel really nervous like when I
14:48
am about to go up in front like oh my gosh
14:50
all of these people have so much more
14:51
experience than me they're so much older
14:53
than me what could I possibly teach them
14:55
but that's why I guess I'm just so grateful
14:57
that communities here are just super
14:59
supportive like the Python community for
15:00
example
15:02
they never look down at me or anything like
15:04
that they've always supported me and
15:06
invited me
15:07
to speak at the tech conferences and help
15:10
me out whenever I have a big event going on
15:12
and also being young also makes it easier
15:14
for me to talk to kids I guess especially
15:16
when I teach workshops and when I hold
15:18
hackathons I guess it helps me relate to
15:20
them more and come up with activities that
15:22
they would find fun and at the same time it
15:24
feels like being young kind of inspires
15:26
them if I can do all of these things then
15:28
so can they I guess
15:30
have you experienced being taught in the
15:32
more traditional way coding did anybody try
15:35
to teach you coding and he's like here's a
15:37
programming book let's go through it page
15:39
by page or that's right
15:42
20 programs and then you know how to code style
15:46
I got most of my coding lessons at Stanford
15:49
online high school where I currently study
15:50
and it's honestly that's actually part of
15:52
what made coding so fun for me too
15:55
the way that they approached teaching is
15:57
really cool and even when they do have to
15:58
teach fundamental things like algorithms
16:01
like the math behind it like the hardware
16:02
behind it they do it in such a way where it's
16:04
easy for me to understand what's going on
16:06
by drawing it out on the screen and showing
16:08
it step by step and it really just makes me
16:10
realize that in the end all of it is just
16:12
about logic that's really the most
16:13
important part developing that logic and
16:15
critical thinking skills after you've done
16:16
that it's easy to pick up any language
16:18
regardless of the syntax and it's easy to
16:20
understand the algorithms and all of that
16:21
so it's really all about building that
16:22
strong foundation
16:24
have you actually tried different
16:26
educational
16:27
books and like some of them actually kind
16:30
of like you couldn't get it and like when
16:32
it's exactly the same thing that you would
16:34
like to learn say for example maybe when
16:37
you just started to learn like machine
16:39
learning like other books that seem to
16:41
speak to you more than others or like
16:45
apps or anything seems to work better than the others
16:48
I think when I got started in machine
16:50
learning I used this website called Machine
16:52
Learning for kids and the way it works is
16:53
that it actually explains machine learning
16:55
to me in a very easy way because the way it
16:57
works is that
16:58
you come up with categories called buckets
17:00
and then you put in examples in each
17:02
category and then after that you can deploy
17:04
it to a Scratch game or a Python game or
17:05
something like that and so I just had so
17:07
much fun with it when I was a kid after
17:08
school I would sit down
17:09
and I would go to that site all the time and try out
17:11
all the different worksheets that they have
17:13
and all the different programming projects
17:14
that they have
17:16
and so yeah I think it was really those
17:17
kinds of online resources
17:19
that really spoke to me a lot when I
17:21
was growing up at the same time receiving a
17:23
formal education in programming was also
17:25
really helpful for me because
17:27
you know I went online to learn all of the
17:29
practical things about coding but at the
17:31
same time it was also
17:32
really important for me to go to school and learn
17:34
of the fundamentals going on behind it
17:37
maybe about that so I mean
17:40
you seem to have like your education is
17:41
like it's not just home you're not going
17:44
it's not very traditional in a sense like
17:46
you're going to school in a physical school
17:48
and probably the
17:50
I guess the online aspect of it was
17:53
triggered by Covid or would that have been
17:55
something that you would have planned
17:57
before the pandemic to
17:59
study on
17:59
I actually go to an online school with
18:01
students from all around the world so I go
18:03
to Stanford Online High school and it's
18:04
based in the US but we have
18:06
folks from
18:07
just here in Asia we have folks from Europe
18:09
and different time zones and all of that
18:10
and so that's why
18:12
all of us are online and it was like
18:14
that even before the pandemic but I only
18:16
applied here after the pandemic and yeah we
18:18
really have a
18:20
different way of learning stuff and that's
18:21
why I'm also able to learn coding at such a
18:23
young age but then
18:25
over here coding isn't part of the basic
18:27
education curriculum yet and that's why
18:28
it's part of my advocacy to make it part of
18:30
that curriculum and you know expose kids
18:32
to coding at the early young age and
18:34
of the opportunities that they don't have
18:36
yeah so cool how do you what do you do
18:39
as part of your advocacy
18:40
movement do you go like also getting
18:43
involved in politics with politicians or
18:47
because this is
18:48
sorry I mean
18:49
the future of Mona
18:51
like if you go to a normal school and you
18:54
say hey I want you to do something they're
18:55
gonna be like ah you have to write I don't
18:57
know how many forms, convince I don't know
18:59
how many people and all the children in the
19:02
school have to sign and all their parents
19:05
and their grandparents so
19:07
I think that's kind of how it was when I
19:09
wanted to change something in my school
19:11
no that's totally true though and that's
what do you do?
19:13
why I partner with tech companies to make
19:14
things like I'm making various Building
19:16
Bridges Hackathons I partner with
19:18
Accenture and that's why it's easier it's easier it's
19:20
easier to reach
19:21
more schools and you know to teach more kids
19:23
how to code
19:24
actually I've done some things with the
19:25
government for like
19:27
the DICT the Department of Information
19:30
Communications Technology once invited me
19:32
to do a little talk on Artificial
19:33
Intelligence for some of these students so it's
19:35
really hard finding to see how they're
19:38
implementing technology education already
19:41
on some government level I guess but
19:43
not part of the curriculum and that's why I
19:45
do have some personal projects in order to
19:47
make coding more accessible to kids and my
19:48
own and one of these projects actually is
19:50
this thing that I've been doing lately
19:51
called Mochii Ball Basic Algorithm earning
19:53
language and basically its goal is to
19:55
bridge digital divide and how public school
19:57
students learn how to code and the way it
19:59
works is that instead of using a computer
20:01
to write their code each student is given a
20:04
piece of paper where they can write down
20:05
where they can write down
20:07
their program basically and then after that
20:08
the teacher will just scan it and upload it
20:10
onto one computer and run it and that way
20:12
students will be able to see it come to life on
20:14
the digital screen but at the same time it's not
20:15
the case that you need 40 computers for one
20:18
classroom you actually only need one for
20:20
the teacher and all of the students will
20:21
write it down on paper so
20:23
you get that whole thing where you get to
20:25
see the code in action on your computer and get to
20:27
think wow that's really cool and also go
20:29
through the debugging process but at the
20:30
same time it doesn't require that much
20:32
technical infrastructure making it more
20:34
accessible through public schools and rural
20:35
communities
20:37
hmm that's very interesting because that
20:39
actually solved the problem of having like
20:41
multiple laptops available in each
20:43
classroom so it kind of save cost
20:46
when I learned programming in school we had
20:49
programming class and we were learning
20:51
Pascal on whiteboards blackboards actually
20:53
back then but it was like you never knew
20:55
what was gonna happen if it was working or
20:57
not so you only relied on the teacher so
21:00
yeah and then I think that's cool with
21:01
Mona's project
yes I think that's really something that I
21:03
wanted to emphasize a lot with Mochii Ball
21:05
because in traditional unplugged
21:07
programming exercises where you write down
21:08
stuff on paper usually you're not able to
21:10
see the output but then when I taught
21:12
Mochii Ball at the
21:13
local public school I think the moment when
21:15
the magic happened for those kids was
21:16
really when
21:18
I uploaded the code onto the computer and
21:19
they were able to watch it run and they
21:20
were all like wow that's so cool and I
21:22
think that's really one of the most
21:24
important moments in fair gaming when you
21:26
actually get something to work when you
21:27
actually see that Hello World printed for
21:29
the first time or you see something moving
21:30
on your screen for the first time and it's
21:32
like wow that's just so awesome you know
21:34
and it motivates people to like try it out
yeah
21:37
yeah because I think
21:39
a lot of the developers spend a lot of time
21:43
getting that to happen
21:46
the success has to happen
21:49
so that's called debugging
21:53
I hope that wouldn't demotivate a lot of
21:56
young people because it's just a daily part
21:59
of life
22:02
the debugging actually the debugging is
22:03
actually one of the fun parts because even
22:05
though it's super frustrating when you
22:06
can't get it to work it's always so relieving
22:08
when you finally see wow this area
22:10
was solved now it's a different error
22:12
that means I'm making progress and after
22:16
that one it's finally they finally actually
22:18
worked it's just like oh my gosh I can sleep now
22:20
that's so so true I guess it happens to
22:23
every one of us it's like sometimes it
22:26
sounds just so easy and then sometimes it
22:29
just takes for hours and days you just
22:32
couldn't figure out what went wrong and then you just keep
22:34
tgoing back over and over and
22:36
over again the day you actually found out
22:39
what happened it was like wait what
22:45
why didn't I see that?
22:47
it's usually useful to sleep on it
22:50
yeah recently my friend was working on his
22:53
computer science project and
22:55
he was at it for like several hours only to
22:57
realize that the problem was that he used
22:58
two equal signs instead of one equal sign
oh
23:04
right
23:05
sometimes two doesn't mean that it will be
23:08
extra sure
23:12
so I was just interested because you
23:14
mentioned about this project and I also
23:17
heard about your project TEDDY so you seem
23:19
to have a lot of projects going on
oh yes absolutely
23:22
I would like to touch a little bit more, ask
23:24
a little bit more about project TEDDY but
23:26
before that can I ask how many projects are you
23:28
currently holding right now like
well
23:31
I think I do a different I do a
23:33
different project every year because I like
23:35
joining tech competitions every year and
23:37
whenever there's a prompt and I have to
23:38
solve a problem for something it always
23:40
gets me thinking about how I can adjust it
23:42
and I end up having a new project every
23:44
year but I think the ones that are
23:45
like currently ongoing and that I'm currently
23:47
like well we actually made it past the prototype
23:49
stage in the recent years and I'm working
23:50
to take it further are TEDDY the Text Based
23:52
Early Stress Detector for Youth which
23:54
uses artificial intelligence to assess
23:56
whether a student might have a mental
23:57
health concern and Mochii Ball the one I
23:59
was just talking about a while ago that's
24:01
aimed to help bridge the digital divide and
24:03
help public school students in learning how to code
24:05
I love this idea totally
24:07
yeah so now
24:08
so now tell us more about TEDDY
24:11
yes absolutely so TEDDY it's short for the
24:14
Text Based Early Distress Detector for
24:15
Youth and the way that it works is that you
24:17
upload an essay schools will upload an essay
24:20
written by a student and then it's going to
24:21
go through it line by line and use
24:23
artificial intelligence to determine
24:24
whether the student might be at risk for
24:27
depression or self destructive thoughts and
24:28
that kind of thing so that school
24:29
counselors will be able to approach
24:32
students accordingly and so i guess
24:34
and yeah I guess the way that it works is
24:36
that it's able to help connect students who
24:38
are in need with counselors and help
24:40
counselors figure out which students they should
24:42
they should reach out to and that way
24:44
hopefully
24:45
prevent mental health concerns from
24:47
escalating
24:48
how did you come up with the idea
24:50
I know a couple of people in my community
24:52
with mental health concerns who opened up
24:54
to me about it and I guess that really
24:56
inspired me to try and connect
24:58
them with the appropriate with the help
25:00
that they need
25:01
in order to get through that I guess and I guess the
25:03
main problem with that is that
25:05
when people have mental health concerns
25:07
it's always it's always really challenging to try and
25:08
reach out to the appropriate support and so
25:10
with TEDDY I hope to make it so that it's
25:13
easier for counselors to figure out which
25:14
students to reach out to and to
25:16
help give them the support that they need
25:18
but then students need to actively opt in
25:21
for their data to be processed right to say
25:24
like I want in case there's something that I need
25:26
yep absolutely
25:28
and that's why we've been trying to work
25:30
closely with schools
25:31
in order to work on those privacy concerns
25:33
and that sort of thing
25:35
when applying TEDDY
25:37
right
25:38
I don't know much about the educational
25:40
system in the Philippines but do you have
25:43
like a counselor in every school or are they
25:49
set like you have to go by for appointment
25:52
or things like that for schools
25:55
yes we do have counselor for every school
25:56
and the problem really is that for one
25:59
counselor there are like hundreds of
26:00
students
26:01
who
26:02
they have to worry about and like
26:04
if they have to read the reflection papers
26:06
for example
26:08
by like several hundred students they're
26:09
probably going to miss a few who really
26:11
need help and
26:12
that's what TEDDY is for it's to
26:14
accelerate that process kind of using
26:16
artificial intelligence and basically show
26:18
which students
26:19
seem to be in most dire need of
26:21
support of course that's still up to the counselor's
26:23
judgment in the end because human judgment
26:24
is of course really important
26:26
in these kinds of situations especially
26:28
when actually talking to the student that's
26:31
where the counselors really come in but
26:32
with TEDDY hopefully it will make it a lot easier
26:36
to identify which students need help
26:38
Have you actually tested this pilot yet or
26:41
Yep we have tested it at my school we
26:43
surveyed a bunch of people and had them
26:45
write some essays and then
26:47
after that what we did is that we ran them through
26:50
TEDDY and then put the results there and
26:51
then we also asked the counselors like
26:59
to verify whether TEEDY was accurate or not
27:01
and it was actually really accurate even
27:02
some essays that look like they were just
27:04
about regular innocent topics like
27:06
superheroes or that kind of thing
27:08
and it didn't look like there was any
27:09
concern at all TEDDY was able to catch a
27:10
concern and the counselor confirmed that
27:15
so it proves that it's actually a very
27:17
accurate technology
27:18
did you ever have the situation where a
27:20
student is flagged
27:21
maybe having
27:22
some struggles but then the student denies
27:25
having the struggles like they do not want
27:28
to be labeled like that is that also
27:31
something happening
27:32
I'm actually not sure we weren't able to
27:35
take TEDDY that far in my school yet and
27:37
that's why and that's why we've also been
27:39
looking for more schools that we can
27:40
partner with in our day to get TEDDY out
27:42
there and try out these kinds of situations
27:44
have you ever thought of like expanding
27:46
this project like worldwide to other
27:48
schools around the world ?
27:49
yes absolutely the team that worked on
27:51
TEDDY or other students in my school a lot
27:53
of them are actually the rest of them are
27:54
from the US and so they've also been trying
27:57
it out in schools in the US and like
27:59
schools that they're aware of in the us and
28:01
we'll see where it takes us
28:02
so what's the hurdles that you have to
28:06
jump for this project right now?
28:09
the main thing is finding a school that's
28:11
willing to work with us I guess
28:13
that's why it's actually good that I'm
28:14
able to bring up TEDDY during this podcast
28:16
because hopefully
28:18
if anyone is interested in reaching out and
28:19
then trying to pilot TEDDY in their school
28:23
or in our community or in our community
28:24
TEDDY is available at teddy-technovation.streamlit.app
28:26
teddy-technovation.streamlit.app and so if you want to
28:28
go check it out and then leave us a message
28:30
if you would be interested in piloting it
28:32
and exploring it further
28:32
is there a specific age group like for
28:35
TEDDY or any
28:37
any schools like
28:39
universities
28:40
high schools primary schools everything is
28:43
applicable ?
28:44
theoretically
28:45
we're hoping to expand it to everyone not
28:47
just schools but also workplaces as well
28:49
but right now we're mostly focusing on high
28:51
school students because actually though
28:52
that's kind of data that we collected and we're
28:54
working with
28:55
maybe it would work out also for the
28:56
PyLadies community
28:59
maybe
hmm
29:00
yeah
29:01
it could be like it could run as a PyLadies
29:03
workshop and then everybody writes a short
29:05
essay and then sees it in action
29:08
okay this is
29:11
and then you're like
29:13
I don't know what the labels that are
29:14
coming out of
29:16
surprise
29:19
99 percent
29:23
everybody's depressed
29:27
everybody's struggling everybody's getting
29:29
a burn off yeah
29:30
tech world so I think
29:32
yeah interesting for grown ups it's
29:34
quite
29:37
different data set yeah
29:39
I think that there is actually a big issue
29:42
related to mental health especially for the
29:44
tech industry
29:46
workers
29:47
which is
29:48
developers and programmers included so it's
29:51
something that unlike health
29:53
like physical health problems it's really hard to
29:57
identify
yeah that's absolutely true with
29:59
physical health problems if you were
30:00
stabbed at something and you're bleeding
30:02
everyone will be able to see it but then
30:03
with mental health problems even if you're
30:05
you know even if it's if it's really reach to the
30:07
crucial point already it's really it's really
30:09
tough for other people to identify
30:11
I'm loving TEDDY so we should have this tag
Thank you
30:14
line called I'm loving TEDDY
30:17
but I don't think it's just the tech
30:19
community I think it's everywhere
30:21
there's a lot of domains are facing changes
30:25
way faster than before and people are
30:28
getting you
30:30
know they feel unstable about their job
30:32
insecure about their job situation and that
30:34
affects them and everything
yeah yeah
30:36
I guess in our generation right
30:38
now it seems to be better than like 20
30:41
years ago because it's almost unheard of
30:43
mental health it's like no
yeah it didn't exist 20 years ago right no
30:46
no no
30:47
everybody was healthy
30:48
yeah everyone's healthy and like say what's
30:51
wrong you just have to bite and
30:55
get through this problem that's all
30:57
man up
30:59
man up or like
31:01
get over it
31:03
yeah get over it like
31:04
get yourself together don't be so sensitive
31:06
Georgi
31:07
yeah
31:10
another thing that I wanted to ask before
31:12
that was that your learning
31:14
journey
31:15
because you did mention before that
31:18
your mother is also a software engineer so
31:23
does that actually help you or does she
31:25
actually like specifically gave you
31:28
games that's related to coding or you just self
31:32
picked it up and like get more interested
31:35
in programming you know what I mean
31:37
oh yeah well she helped me out a lot really
31:38
she was the one who decided to teach me
31:40
coding when I was really young and she
31:42
found this app and then she gave it to me
31:44
and she also supported me all throughout my
31:45
journey when i expressed interest in it she
31:47
gave me books and that kind of thing she
31:48
connected me with opportunities
31:50
like hey there's this competition here that
31:52
you might want to try or this summer camp
31:53
that you might want to apply to and so all that
31:55
aside she's also really been my inspiration
31:56
all throughout i guess and
31:59
she's really my real model in life honestly
32:02
she also took me a few programming
32:03
fundamentals
32:04
and also and other STEM stuff when I
32:07
was growing up I remember
32:09
yeah i remember we would usually sit down
32:11
and then she would teach me some things I
32:12
remember she was showing me when I was
32:14
really young how recursion worked and
32:15
writing down on a piece of paper so I
32:17
could follow along and so yeah she was really
32:20
because of that I really had the support
32:22
to learn more about programming and
32:23
technology and that's really what inspired
32:25
me to try and give that same kind of
32:27
support to other kids who don't necessarily
32:29
have that kind of background
32:30
does she encourage you to do other things like other
32:32
hobbies or
32:34
like let you go let loose and just like try
32:38
everything Mona
32:40
yeah she does encourage me well she
32:42
encourages me not to stress so much about school and
32:45
extracurriculars and that kind of thing and
32:46
to play video games, reading books and do
32:48
other and you know
32:50
just also have fun with my life and that
32:52
kind of thing programming is definitely
32:54
very fun but she also encourages me to let
32:56
loose and de-stress a lot
32:59
do you have any hobbies other than
33:01
well
33:03
than programming and learning
33:06
in school
33:07
which I guess for some people is not a
33:10
hobby but anyways
33:14
well let's see my hobbies I like reading
33:16
fantasy books lately I've been getting into
33:18
Brandon Sanderson's work and the Cosmere
33:20
Universe and the Stormlight Archive
33:22
I've been a really big fan of this lately
33:24
I've also been into I'm also watching
33:26
Anime, reading manga
33:28
and also listening to rock music and baking
33:30
chocolate chip cookies for my family
33:33
so maybe on our
33:34
podcast we can
33:36
share also for the first time a recipe do
33:38
you have a special recipe for the chocolate
33:40
chip cookies? is it like a recipe?
33:41
oh yes I do have a recipe
33:42
oh my god okay cool
33:44
I don't know how to describe it
33:46
I don't know how to describe it on
33:47
audio though I think it's just in a book
33:48
no no you you will send it to us you will
33:49
send it to us we just put it on the web
oh yes I will send it to you guys
send it to us and we post it on our website
33:53
posted yes exactly it's going to be the
33:55
Mona Obedoza Chocolate Chip cookies
33:57
wow
33:58
all right
33:59
I truly believe that women should
34:02
name things more often after themselves
34:05
absolutely
you know
34:07
exactly so there we go but I'm just saying
34:09
more women should do it
absolutely
34:12
so Georgi I know Georgi should also
34:15
use like for for example on tweet on
34:18
Twitter I think Georgi is really famous
34:20
for espresso with orange juice and that's
oh wow
34:24
yes if you go on her twitter you will see
34:26
that she's having she's posting different
34:28
pictures of that almost daily
I just posted one today
34:31
exactly so I
34:33
I tried to imagine what espresso
34:34
with orange juice tastes like
34:36
there you go there you go
34:39
well it's actually really easy, very easy so
34:43
you need fresh orange juice so you have a
34:45
glass of fresh orange juice and then you
34:47
just order a double espresso and you just
34:51
pour on top over it slowly and then you'll
34:54
get this double layer like the top layer of
34:57
the espresso and the bottom layer orange juice
35:00
so when you use a straw to drink you
35:03
actually pops down it has a combo of
35:05
espresso and orange juice it's the best for
35:09
the morning because you don't want to be
35:11
awake and you want to be alive so that's
35:13
that's my secret and I'm
35:16
and I heard that in order
yes but I'm not allowed to drink
35:18
you're not allowed to drink coffee yet?
35:20
yes i'm not allowed to drink coffee yet unfortunately
35:22
if i were i would try this instantly
35:24
but you can have decaf
35:27
espresso
35:27
oh yes okay I will try decaf espresso
35:30
orange juice so it's the next thing on my
35:32
on my drink agenda
35:34
and I think that the secret to having this
35:37
layered effect because it's not really
35:39
putting slowly might still not cut it
35:41
because it's also temperature wise they
35:43
have to be
35:43
is to pour with a spoon like you have a
35:47
teaspoon and then you pour it in the spoon
35:49
and that breaks down the gravity and stuff so
35:53
there goes
35:54
I usually prefer those
35:57
orange juice that has like fresh freshly
36:01
squeezed so you have the sap
36:03
so with the sap that's weight so when you
36:05
pour over it will just lays down
36:08
easy yeah there you go
36:09
there you go
36:11
so Mona what are some of your goals in the
36:13
future it feels like you have a lot of
36:15
intention in your life compared to at least
36:17
if I remember when I was your age
36:19
I don't remember what I wanted back then
36:22
but it feels like you really know what you want so
36:26
where are you going next what are you gonna do
36:28
well right now I'm in 10th grade in a
36:30
couple of years I hope to go
36:32
to university abroad I'm aiming for like to
36:34
get into like Stanford or MIT or that kind
36:38
a school abroad and learn more about
36:39
programming and technology so that I can go
36:41
back here and then teach more kids how to code
36:44
and all the things and share all things that I've learned I guess
36:46
and I guess
36:48
another another goal of mine is to pilot Mochii Ball
36:51
in more schools so I'm currently
36:53
I'm currently working with a tech company to
36:54
pilot it with some schools locally but
36:56
we're just getting started and I hope
36:58
and I also have to mention it here and
37:00
if anyone wants to try it out in
37:02
your own school or community you can also
37:03
reach out to me because we're really trying to
37:05
spread Mochii Ball and pilot it this
37:08
year so that's another more immediate goal
37:10
of mine to get this Mochii Ball to get
37:12
programming technology integrated in the
37:13
basic education curriculum by making it
37:15
more accessible to kids and also more fun
37:18
hmm right so our podcast is listened to by
37:22
a huge Python community
37:24
so if you other than this
37:26
project
37:27
that you mentioned if you have any other
37:30
help that you need I'm pretty sure they
37:32
will help out just tell us, tell us
37:38
what you need
wow thank you so much
37:40
thank you and I guess there is just one
37:42
more thing aside from Mochii Ball and TEDDY
37:44
as I mentioned I partnered with Accenture to
37:46
hold the Breaking Barriers Building
37:48
Bridges Hackathon for girls and teach more
37:50
girls how to code and how to work on their
37:51
own projects to use technology to solve
37:53
problems
37:54
and if anyone knows a school in the
37:57
Philippines or even abroad we can try to
37:58
extend abroad too that would be really fun
38:00
if anyone knows a school who might be
38:02
interested in sending a team to join this
38:03
hackathon then do let me know as well
38:06
and yeah that would be
38:07
that would be really awesome
38:08
when is the hackathon?
38:10
it's held every February to march every year
38:13
okay
38:14
so it's for next year now
38:15
yep it'll be for next year
38:17
so there's plenty of time for people to plan
38:20
yes absolutely maybe you can even be guest speakers at the next
38:24
hackathon I think you guys would be really
38:25
inspirational
38:27
we can even get all the PyPodcats hosts
38:32
all four the combo
38:35
mega combo
38:36
yes that would be fun
38:38
thank you so much Mona I see that we
38:42
we come to the end of this
38:45
podcast here in
38:46
podcat's
38:47
podcast
38:48
so
38:50
is there anything else that you would like
38:52
to address to our listeners here before we
38:56
end this podcast
38:58
There's something I can think of right now so all I
39:00
guess I just wanted to say is thank you so much
39:03
it's really been such an honor to be here
39:04
and it's been super fun talking to you guys
39:06
and so thank
39:07
you for the invitation
39:08
yeah thank you for joining us
39:10
yeah thank you for joining us and we hope
thank you
39:13
to see you soon somewhere around the
39:15
community I'm sure
39:17
it will be real soon
39:19
yep
yes absolutely
39:21
thank you everybody for listening and see
39:24
you next time bye
39:26
bye everyone thank you so much
We interviewed Mona Obedoza from The Philippines to hear about her inspiring journey.
Mona started learning to program when she was about five years old, first using block-based programming language like Scratch, and she then advanced to text-based programming languages like Python, C#, and Java.
Even though she knows various programming languages, Python remains her favorite, not only for the programming language itself, but because of the Python community. Her first public speaking engagement was in the Python Philippines when she was 10 years old, and the support from the Python community has encouraged her to continue. She has now spoken at many Python events and conferences, including at PyLadiesCon 2023.
Mona has been teaching other kids to code through workshops and hackathons. Being young makes her in the best position to connect with other kids.
Mona created Project TEDDY, an AI powered-program that helps school counsellors detects signs of distress in students, so that the counsellors could reach out to the students in time and prevent mental health concerns from escalating.
Mona was encouraged by her mom since young to pursue tech and coding. Even though she is still in highschool, she has big dreams and aspires to study abroad in the future.
Be sure to listen to the episode to learn all about Mona’s inspiring story!
Topic discussed
- Introductions
- Python Philippines
- Learning to code after kindergarten.
- Learning Block-based programming like Scratch, then text-based programming like Python, C#, Java.
- Her favorite programming language.
- Using Python for data science, AI, teaching workshops to kids.
- Dinosaurs
- Speaking at Python Philippines at 10 years old
- Teaching and encouraging other kids to code, conducting workshops, and hackathons
- What inspires her to start teaching other kids to code
- How being young is an advantage to her
- Project TEDDY: Text-Based Early Distress Detector for Youth
- Her aspirations to speak at more Python conferences
- How her mom encouraged and supported her with programming and technology
- Other hobbies
- Her goals for the future, going to school abroad
Links from the show
- Purposeful Mochii: https://www.facebook.com/purposefulmochii/
- PyLadiesCon: https://conference.pyladies.com
- Project TEDDY talk at PyLadiesCon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB7xxXHH-mo
Get to know Mona Obedoza
Mona Obedoza is a Filipino high schooler and aspiring AI engineer who advocates teaching kids how to code through her roles as a student ambassador for Women in AI PH, co-leader of her school's Girls Can Code club, and founder of The Purposeful Mochii. In her free time, she enjoys watching anime, reading manga and fantasy novels, and baking cookies.
Your hosts
Host
Entrepreuneur, community leader and designer. Fellow member and Director of PSF. Also serve in the D&I Workgroup and honored with the PSF Community Service Award in December 2020.
Host
Before data leadership coaching, she has worked for over 15 years in Data Science, Data Engineering, Product Management and training teams in such roles. She is the co-organizer of PyLadies Hamburg. She is part of the Python Software Foundation Code of Conduct and Diversity & Inclusion working groups. She has been awarded the Python Software Foundation 2021 Q1 community service award. She is also part of the DISC Steering Committee team and a Data Visualisation Ambassador for Observable.
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