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13-Year-Old App Maker Wants To Spread Awareness About Autism

Youngest entrepreneur at GES 2017 wants to spread awareness on autism.

(Source: BloombergQuint)
(Source: BloombergQuint)

Hamish Finlayson, 13, is the youngest entrepreneur showcasing his gaming and awareness applications at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017 in Hyderabad.

The Australia-based 7th grader has so far developed five mobile applications. Four of them are about oceans and the harm done to the environment, including one to save the turtles, Finalyson told BloombergQuint from the sidelines of GES 2017. His most recent app is about autism and its awareness.

“One percent of the world’s population has autism. I have autism, my dad has autism,” Finalyson said. “People with autism are mostly mistreated because there is not enough awareness about it,” he added.

I am trying to bring that awareness and close the gap of people with autism being treated like monsters.
Hamish Finlayson, App Developer

Finalyson is currently working on a virtual reality game that can help autistic children to cross roads safely. “People with autism also struggle to cross roads and kids, in general, have a hard time doing it,” he said.

He is now eyeing partners in India to collaborate with for his applications. "I am super excited to be in India," Finlayson said, adding that though his first love is technology and developing apps, he also focus on his studies. "Only after finishing my school homework, I work on my apps. I work only in my spare time," he told wire agency PTI.

Graeme Finlayson, father of Hamish, told PTI that it all started when he was just eight years old and in the 3rd grade. After contesting in a competition on apps, Hamish got interested and the journey started from there, his father said. The apps developed by him are available on Apple’s App Store as well as the Google Play store.

With customers in 54 countries, Hamish wants to scale his technology to solve big problems being faced by the people across the world, the father added. He further said that at GES 2017, Hamish wants to showcase the light of sea turtles and raise awareness about the impact of autism on society.’

Read all the updates from GES 2017 here.

(With inputs from PTI)