Revant Pandey can trace his love of programming back to a Bangalore-bound flight six years ago, where he was sat next to a passenger building something on Scratch, a free block-based programming site.
“I was looking at their screen like, oh my God, what is this? They could create all these graphics, all these games and stuff, and I was really interested in that,” Pandey recalls.
“My mum asked them for the link and how I could get started, and from there, I started to make my own small little programs and stuff.”
Pandey soon wanted to make more complex applications, and started to teach himself Python, JavaScript and C++. These days, the 16-year-old is experimenting with programming to solve practical problems in his community, receiving the 2026 City of Greater Geelong Youth Awards’ Innovation Award for his efforts.
“It was a pleasant surprise…being recognised like this is a big honour,” Pandey tells Indian Link.
“I feel more motivated to bring change to people’s lives and make new things.”
For Revant Pandey, the joy of improving someone’s life and the novelty of cracking a tough problem is enough to persevere through the toughest of challenges.
“Since a problem has not been solved yet, it means there must be some difficulty involved – I take that as a challenge. It’s that curiosity that motivates me,” he reveals.
One of Pandey’s notable innovations is an adaptive traffic light system, which uses AI-powered vision to detect congestion and optimise the timing of traffic lights.
“I always noticed traffic lights would just be green on one side where there are no cars at all, making us waste time waiting – I wondered if there was a better way to solve it,” Pandey says of the idea.
“I thought, what if a human could look at the traffic lights and control it? The downside of that is, of course, we needed a human, so what if we could replace a human with cameras and have an AI system looking over that?”
The invention won him the 2025 Australian Defence Force Future Innovators Award, and Pandey now hopes to bring his proof of concept to traffic authorities to deploy it at scale.
“I guess the concept of being able to control things in real life with software was very attractive to me; what I want is to make new machines which can automate stuff,” he says about his aim as an inventor.
“For example, one of my science fair projects was glasses for the blind which had ultrasonic sensors that detect [some] distance in front. Whenever the blind people were approaching something [dangerous], it could alarm them.”
Revant Pandey
Passionate about STEM, Revant Pandey is also co-captain of his school’s robotics team who placed third at the RoboCup, and volunteers with Vinnies to teach younger children mathematics and problem-solving skills.
Originally from Delhi, the Geelong-based Pandey is now in Year 11, and studying Systems Engineering, Specialist Mathematics, and Business Management. He hopes to combine these subjects to pursue computer science after finishing his VCE.
“I want to first work in the industry with companies and help them grow, and then later on, I want to open my own business, maybe make new stuff which can have a measurable impact on the community,” he hopes.
Pandey is particularly excited about integrating Artificial Intelligence into his work to simplify lives.
“I really like the concept of machines being able to think and act like humans, and being able to automate a lot of things,” he says.
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“I’ve already started including AI into my personal projects as well – that is the route I want to go down in the future.”
Pandey is aware of how contentious the technology is of late but is optimistic AI shouldn’t be feared and can be managed responsibly.
“Right now, I agree, AI progress has been rapid, especially recently with increased computing power, but I think people are too scared of it…What we’re scared of is artificial super intelligence, where it supersedes human intelligence – I think there’s a bit of time till that happens,” he shares.
“By that time, we will have hopefully established safeguards on AI’s capabilities. So right now, I think it’s much more profitable and efficient to look at AI as a tool and an opportunity rather than fearing it and avoiding it.”
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