HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARFA!
Arfa Karim Randhawa, who became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional at 9 year old should have turned 16 exactly today, had she not died 19 days ago. Computer prodigy, Arfa passed away on January 14, 2012 due to a cardiac arrest after an epileptic seizure that damaged her brain on December 22, 2011.
WHO IS ARFA?
Arfa was born on February 2, 1995 in Faisalabad, Pakistan. She was nine years old when she became Microsoft Certified Professional - a program of Professional certifications designed for software developers, and all kinds of IT Professionals.
In 2004, Arfa was invited by Bill Gates to visit the Microsoft Headquarters in the USA. She was then interviewed by Todd Bishop whose audio file I have transcribed below.
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| Arfa on her visit to Microsoft |
AN INTERVIEW WITH ARFA
The following is a transcribed interview of Arfa during her visit to the Microsoft campus in Redmond, when she was 10 years old.
Part 1 - This part talks about her meeting with Bill Gates.
Todd: What kind of things did you talk about? Did he (Bill Gates) ask you about the programming that you’re doing?
Arfa: He didn’t ask me about programming. He did ask me about my religion, he ask me about if I belong to Faisalabad, a city of Pakistan.
I ask him few questions. I ask him why there aren’t kids around. And why kids can’t join your company. Why they have to wait so much to join your company.
He said that kids should concentrate more on their studies.
Todd: They’re not for your job.
Arfa: No. (laugh) He said that we’re doing internship in the summer with kids – high school students. The youngest is 14.
The next question I ask him, “Why aren’t there many women around here?”
Todd: And what did he say to that?
Arfa: He said it’s hard to get women get interested in technology. There are not more many women interested in technology.
Todd: I think Microsoft, about 75% are men. I guess that rule is common in the industry. Did that surprise you that there not enough women around?
Arfa: Yeah, there must be, you know, it should be a balance. Equal a lot of men and equal a lot of women.
Part 2 - This part of the interview talks about how she learned to program.
Arfa: …cause it was developing windows applications. The exam was developing windows application.
Todd: Now have you, apart from your exam, made your own program through these windows applications?
Arfa: Yeah, but they’re quite, you know little ones, like I made them when I was studying something, like when I was studying logic development, I mean a program…. I made a calculator that only did plus, minus, multiply and divide. I had made a program when I was studying Loops that you put any number, you enter any digit and it will show you the table of that.
Todd: So what languages were you doing now, what computer language are you programming?
Arfa: C#
Todd: C#, okay good. Have you tried programming with it as well?
Arfa: O yeah, a bit, a little bit. We lab it a little bit but we didn’t make any program in that. Ah I know a little bit of code and eudo.NET(?). If you see me declaring variables through eudo.NET I’ll be able to do that. It’s the soft stuff.
Part 3 - This part talks about her plans when she grew up.
Arfa: Besides computer, my parents have taken us math. Cause if you’re good at math, you’re be able to be a good programmer. And like math, it’s interesting. So, I’ll be studying master.
Todd: Do you think you might be studying computer science?
Arfa: Yeah, I might.
Todd: Okay. And you know what you will to do when you get out of college?
Arfa: I want to do satellite engineering too.
Todd: I’m sorry, I don’t understand that.
Arfa: I want to do satellite engineering.
Todd: Satellite engineering
Arfa: Yeah
Todd: Okay. And why do you want to do that?
Arfa: Ah because, you know, the world is going wireless, you know. It’s going satellite. That is why there’s a lot of need of satellite engineers. That’s why.
Todd: Would you go and like to work in Microsoft?
Arfa: Yeah (smile)
Todd: Okay. Do you guys have a satellite engineering tradition?
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| Arfa at 10 year old |
Audience: (laugh)Arfa: No (laugh) I’ll work in the development (laugh)
ARFA’S PHILOSOPHY IN LIFE
Arfa had also made her philosophy in life at age 10. At the last part of the audio clip, Arfa recounted her life’s philosophy from memory.
“If you want to do something big in your life, you must remember that shyness is only in the mind. If you think shy, you act shy. If you think confident you act confident. Therefore never let shyness conquer your mind.”
ARFA’S RECOGNITION AND AWARDS
1. Fatimah Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of Science and Technology by the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Shaukat Aziz on August 2, 2005.
2. Salaam Pakistan Youth Award from the President of Pakistan in August 2005.
3. President's Award for Pride of Performance, a civil award usually granted to people who have shown excellence in their respective fields over a long period of time. She is the youngest recipient of this award.
In recognition of her achievement Arfa was made brand ambassador for Pakistan Telecommunication Company's 3G Wireless Broadband service named EVO in January 2010.
