Introducing Ken Kosowick
Ken is a Software Application Engineer and active musician with a combined degree in Computer Science & Music from the University of Victoria. He is passionate about the intersection of technology and creativity. Since founding the UVic Live Music Club in 2018 and more recently developing cutting-edge audio streaming devices at Music Tribe, Ken strives to empower students with the skills to follow their dreams.
Discover Coding has recently expanded into BC in partnership with UNISUS, where Ken is currently teaching coding to students.
Background and Experience
How did you first get interested in coding?
I probably first got into learning coding when I was about 9 years old. I’ve always been interested in animation and drawing. In grade four my parents enrolled me in my first summer course for game making. It was a week long at a college, and a good option, since it was a coding class near me. Throughout the course you go and make video games through coding.
What was your first project you’ve work on?
Mr. doodle man was the first coding project I’ve worked on, it was a side scrolling computer game!
Inspiration and Motivation
What inspires/excites you most about Computer Science?
The most exciting thing is being able to create anything digitally. To be able to code anything can be really inspiring.
Can you share a memorable success story from your computer science background?
A big success for me was my capstone project that I did for my final year, we had to think of a final project we wanted to complete. We had an idea for an audio plug, where you beat box, and then it translates to electronic drums in real time.
Starting out with an idea and wondering, “how is this even possible?”, then having to research it and look into what would be involved in that process. Finally being able to bring it to life was really cool.
Personal Interests
Besides coding, what are some of your hobbies or interests?
Music has always been huge hobby, I started playing in bands when I was in grade 4. I’ve done it my whole life, I love that it’s a very creative endeavour. Outside of that, I really enjoy film making. I was interested in filmmaking at a young age as well. The collaborative process with your friends was really enjoyable. Filming stuff, then editing it and seeing it all come together, I think it’s all very rewarding. I think it’s all very similar; making music, filmmaking, and even game design. They all start with an idea; you collaborate with others and then you get to see it in the real world.
How do you think your outside interests could influence your teaching style?
I think the biggest thing for me looking back, I was always driven by the things I’m excited about. Whether it’d be a video game, song, movie etc. It was having this idea of, “oh this really excited me, I really want to make this.” That gave me a lot of motivation to learn the skills to do that. In terms of teaching, I think it’d be great to find projects that kids are passionate and excited to learn about. That gives them the motivation to learn some of the skills that are a bit challenging. So I think having this North Star that you can move towards.
Future of Coding
In your opinion, how important are coding classes for children in today’s world?
I think it’s very important. And whether it’s something they do as a career or not, it’s very valuable to understand how computer and software work. It also teaches so many valuable skills, like problem solving and really breaking down problems. It’s becoming an increasingly valuable skill to learn.
Fun Questions
If you could create any app or program, what would it be and why?
Right, I have a few ideas [laughs].
I guess one that just comes to mind is I am a big fan of the voice memo app on my phone for when I’m writing music, so I’ll often get inspired and want to go down to the piano and just start playing. I would love to make some sort of app where you could create a full demo of a song through voice memos, just to keep you in that flow state, uninterrupted.
Whereas, when you sit down with a digital audio workstation (DAW), there’s a lot of setup so there’s less of a flow. So I think like some sort of voicemail app where you can quickly record ideas and layer them on top of each other maybe even having some sort of AI tools to also help you find out what the the BPM of it is and just ways to keep you in that state.
What’s the coolest project a student or a peer has ever created in one of your classes?
There’re so many really cool projects that I saw in my degree. One was It was a machine learning or a student used machine learning algorithms to come up with a generative album art from a song. So you can upload a song and then it generates album art and trying to do that through relating mood and color and stuff. So various aspects of the music to different facial properties and having that as a way of creating album artwork.
There’s tons of projects like that. There’s also using like different microcontrollers to control instruments. So, you know, we wave an arm and then it changes the parameters of to send the size or something. So yeah, lots of really cool projects.
Advice for Parents and Students
What advice would you give to parents who want to support their child’s interest in coding?
Programs are a really great way of doing that, encouraging their interest because it also gives them a little timeline to work on projects and often, they come up with specific projects. They also meet other peers that are interested in the same thing, so I think that’s a great way of encouraging kids. I think that through coding, you can discover and learn a variety of fascinating concepts.
What advice would you give to kids who are just starting to learn how to code?
I think just starting to learn how to play. It’s great to just focus on having fun and finding projects that you’re really interested in and letting that guide you. Because if it’s something that you’re excited about working on, then the work isn’t too bad. So when you run into challenges, it’s not too bad.
Thank you, Ken, for this interview! We’re thrilled to have you inspiring kids to create, code and learn with the Discover Coding Team.
