In the digital economy where almost every company is a software company, coding is the new language of technology every child should master. Harris Chan, a former Microsoft Engineer, is committed to make a difference with his Hong Kong based education start-up — Cobo Academy.
Digital transformation is upon the world and Cobo Academy, a Hong Kong-based education start-up focusing on coding education, is on a mission to transform and improve traditional education. As a former Microsoft engineer and a tech veteran, Harris Chan has a vision and passion to empower young innovators through early exposure to coding and robotics, which led to his founding of Cobo Academy.
Harris’ career began as a Software Engineer at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. He also held senior leadership positions at Yahoo! Hong Kong as Head of Business Development and Director of eCommerce. Prior to founding Cobo Academy, Harris was the Director of Central Marketing Organization at Microsoft Hong Kong, in charge of commercial and consumer marketing. Harris was awarded Microsoft Circle of Excellence Gold Award in 2009.
Designed for tech enthusiasts ages 4-16 at all skill levels, Cobo Academy’s highly structured curriculum has been created to augment formal education and is the collective brainchild of experienced coders and educators — many of whom happen to be parents. Through problem-based and project-based learning, children will work on fun and exciting projects that challenge them to unleash their full potential, creativity and inner curiosity.
“Inspired by an incident where he saw a visually impaired person bumping into a wall, 10-year-old Joseph designed and programmed an obstacle detector using a micro:bit connected to a speaker and a pair of ultrasonic sensors. We challenge our students to use technology to make an impact and are always blown away by what they can do,” said Harris.
Cobo runs weekly coding courses, private sessions, and holiday camps covering trending topics including Scratch, Minecraft, micro:bit, AppInventor, mBot and Python. Student-to-teacher ratio is kept low at 4:1 – 8:1 to optimize student learning to their individual pace. “Cobo Academy goes beyond just a coding school to develop children’s critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills,”said Harris.
