By Cady Kuzmich
Gazette Reporter
Halfmoon — A Halfmoon boy is more determined than ever to pursue a future in robotics after attending The Robotics Academy at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama earlier this summer.
William Khemili, 14, spent a week in Huntsville Alabama this July constructing and programming robotics with about 60 other young programmers. Khemili’s father went to a summer program at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama in his youth as well.
Khemili was first exposed to programming by an older cousin when he was just 10 years old. Then, Khemili’s father, an IT specialist, harnessed his son’s interest and taught him HTML programming. “It was pretty simple,” said Khemili. “You just had to instruct motors on what to do,” he added.
Successful programming comes down to one thing, according to the 14 year old — checking your work. “Little mistakes can ruin everything,” he said.
Along with his interest in robotics and programming, Khemili is a member of French club at Shenendehowa. He hopes to join a programming club once he is in high school. “I definitely want to keep programming,” he said.
Eventually, Khemili would like to program his own videogame series. “At age five, my dream was to create video games,” he said. “I would take building blocks and reenact storylines,” he added.
At just 14, Khemili has already programmed several games. He said most are “retro-themed” since he likes the aesthetic. Khemili takes great pride in the video games he’s made in the last four years. He’s constantly learning how to improve his programming skills and how to better his games.
Khemili hopes to eventually create a full-lenth video game — most of the games he has created so far are “arcade style” and relatively short.
If Khemili could meet anyone, he chose Shigesato Itoi, the creator of his second favorite video game series, Earthbound. His favorite videogame is the Legends of Zelda.
While Khemili doesn’t have any specific colleges in mind, he knows he would like to stay in the Northeast and continue exploring the world of programming. In 10 years, Khemili hopes to be “alive and out of the house with a job.”
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