Omni

The problem

Coding shouldn't need English first.

Almost every popular programming language uses English keywords. For a beginner who doesn't speak English, that means learning two new languages at once: English and code. Students who are good at logic can get stuck on words they don't know.

What if the logic came first, in your own language, and the syntax came later?

Omni lets beginners snap together blocks written in their own language. Underneath, every program is still real Python, so the jump to typed code later is small.

Try it

Same program, any language.

Pick a language. The blocks a student sees change, but the Python that runs stays exactly the same.

omni · blocks

when ▶ clicked

repeat 3

print Sawubona

what python runs

1for _ in range(3):

2 print("Sawubona")

3# isiZulu

Shown here with a greeting in each language. In Omni itself, every block label and keyword is translated too.

How I built it

A translation layer on top of Python.

The key design decision was to never translate the code itself. Translation only happens in the interface. That keeps every program valid Python, no matter which of the 133+ languages a student picks.

Blocks in your language

Tkinter UI with blocks for math symbols, operators and string manipulation.

Translate the labels

Every block label and keyword goes through the Google Translate API on the front end.

Keep the syntax

The backend maps each block back to its original English Python.

Run real Python

The program runs as normal Python, so skills carry over later.

Designed and built end to end as the only developer, from block design to the translation pipeline.
First platform to support programming in Zulu, Thai, Telugu, Nepali, Sinhala, Icelandic and Samoan.
Wrote it up as a research paper, published in the Curieux Academic Journal and presented at Innosphere, Sigma Xi's international research conference.

Impact & recognition

What happened next.

CREST Gold AwardBritish Science Association, for the research paper

2nd placeTecholympus.ai national hackathon

Published paper"The Universal Coding Platform: Omni", Curieux Academic Journal

760 studentsengaged with the platform

Gallery