Dhanush Eashwar, 18, of Bothell, Washington, began coding when he was 7. One of his most recent projects was Finger Dance, an app—created just for Apple’s Swift Student Challenge—that uses machine learning and augmented reality to help beginners learn American Sign Language (A.S.L.). He was one of the challenge winners.
Q: Where did the idea for the app come from?
A: I’ve taken A.S.L. for three years. I’m fascinated by the amount of nuance that it has. There are many different tools to learn spoken languages, but the resources to learn visual languages are very limited.
Q: Why do you like computer science?
A: The entire purpose of writing code is to solve real-world issues and to help other people. It’s like the most empathetic subject in a certain way.
Q: What project are you working on now?
A: If there’s someone who speaks English and someone who speaks A.S.L., it’s difficult, right?
My idea is to create a Google Translate-like tool for visual languages.
Q: Any advice for teens who want to help others with technology?
A: Try to identify problems in your day-to-day life and you’ll notice that millions of people are facing the same problems as you. Then work backward to figure out what you need to learn to find a solution.