Thadus CodeLabs (discontinued)

2025 to 2026

How it started

Neth Dharmasiri and Chinmay Lal started Thadus in Brisbane in 2025, while they were still students. They could see how quickly technology and AI were changing the world, and how uneven access to digital education still was.

Most coding platforms assume fast internet and new computers. CodeLabs assumed neither. It ran fully offline on older machines, so it worked in rural schools and community centres where other tools couldn't.

Students wrote in Thadus, a language that reads close to plain English. They learned how algorithms, data and systems work before any language's syntax got in the way, across twelve courses built for complete beginners.

An educator helping students at their computers during a CodeLabs session

The platform

What CodeLabs gave a classroom

It worked offline

No internet needed once it was set up, and it ran on older, low-spec computers.
Code that reads like English

Students expressed real programming ideas in plain commands, then took the concepts into other languages later.
Twelve courses

Computational thinking, data, AI concepts, game design, cybersecurity and more, for complete beginners.

// A loop
repeat 5 times
  print attempt
end repeat

// A condition
num score = 8
if (score > 6)
  print levelclear
else
  print retry
end if

Thadus, as CodeLabs students wrote it.

Impact

What it reached

Partners ran CodeLabs in schools and community centres across five countries.

1,000students reached
7,500+projects built by students
21empowerment centres
15+partner organisations
5countries

Australia · Sri Lanka · India · Nepal · South Africa

An educator teaching at a whiteboard to a group of students

A computer room full of students working through CodeLabs courses

An educator sitting with a student at a laptop

A classroom of students facing a projected lesson

In the news

Featured on ABC News Australia

ABC News covered how CodeLabs brought computer science to students without reliable internet.

Partners

Who ran it with us

More than fifteen organisations brought CodeLabs to their students. Three of them:

Foundation of Goodness

Sri Lanka

Education and sustainable community development across Sri Lanka.

Visit their site →

Educate 4.0

Stellenbosch, South Africa

Robotics and coding for young children.

Volunteers Initiative Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal

Grassroots education across Nepal, and the highest-altitude place CodeLabs ever ran.

Visit their site →

In their words

Educate 4.0 on running CodeLabs

A partner in Stellenbosch on what changed for their students.

thadus forge

What we build now

Build it with AI. Understand what you built.

Thadus Forge is an online creator platform where young people use AI as a mentor to build real apps and games, learning computer science as they create.

It's written in Thadus, the same plain-English language CodeLabs students learned, so the ideas carry straight across. Forge goes public in 2027.

Visit Thadus Forge Request access for your organisation

Organisations apply for Forge access through Thadus Group. Choose “Forge” on the contact form and tell us about your organisation.

screen "My Homework"

let tasks = load("tasks", [])
let newTask = ""

heading "Due this week"
input newTask, placeholder: "Add a task..."

button "Add":
  tasks.add({ title: newTask, done: false })
  save("tasks", tasks)

for t in tasks:
  checkbox t.done, label: t.title

A working homework planner in eleven lines, built in Forge.

Our social arm

The work for students in need carries on

CodeLabs was free for charities, and that commitment didn't end with it. Thadus Group's social arm still provides our tools free to students in need, working through charities and community organisations.

If your organisation supports young people who couldn't otherwise get access, apply through Thadus Group.

Apply through Thadus Group

Thadus CodeLabs has been discontinued.