Who am I?

My name is Zidan Harb, also known as Zarcotech in the online world. I am a young passionate programmer and frontend developer, ready for any challenges coming in front of me.

My promotion picture to black belt (2024)

First years

I was born in Poughkeepsie, NY, USA on August 27, 2012. I soon moved to Seoul, South Korea where I was raised for 4 years. In these four years, I developed a fluent speaking in Arabic (Egyptian Dialect), which is my parents' first language since they are both from Egypt. I also learned Korean due to my Korean community. Navigating through the multicultural environment gave me an idea that there is more than one way and people in life, showing a variety.

My Preschool Class Picture (2015)

Moving into a new community

In 2017, I moved back to the United States, settling in Austin, Texas with my family due to my father's job change from Samsung. I started Pre-K 4 at Mills Elementary School, where I met many new people, different in language and culture. Throughout the next few years of elementary school, I learned English, which I am now fluent in and certified by the TELPAS test to have passed the aspects of English in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It was a challenge at first, but I soon adapted to the new environment and made many friends along the way. I felt super supported by my teachers, which I am thankful for. I also joined Kuk Sool Won of Oak Hill, teaching me discipline, respect, and hard work. I have now achieved my first-degree black belt, and I continue to train and learn more about the art. I also use these skills in my life, helping me stay focused and patient while programming and debugging, for example.

Last Day of Kindergarten (2018)

Early Programming

In 1st grade, my parents enrolled me in a programming class in an after-school program, where I entered the cyber world of coding. I learned the basics and logic of programming through Scratch, a block programming UI. I continued to passionately use this as a source of fun in my free time. Over time, I fell in love with the logic of programming and started creating more content on Scratch. My father works at Siemens, and he often works from home. I enjoy watching him code in Tcl and running a program called Calibre that provided a CAD type of software that you can use to design semiconductors and chips. I was fascinated by this, and I wanted to learn more about programming. I would watch my dad work while asking questions about what he was doing. He would explain the logic behind what he was doing and what he was trying to achieve in a suitable way for my age. This sparked my interest in learning more about programming.

Me explaining a C++ code snippet for a GT project (2020)

COVID-19

In late 2nd grade in March of 2019, COVID-19 struck the world and made an impact everywhere. Schools were forced to shut down, and we had to adapt to a new way of learning through virtual classes. This was a challenge for me, as I had to adjust to a new way of learning and interacting with my teachers and peers online via Zoom. However, I soon adapted to this new environment and continued to learn and grow. Since we never had in-person classes, my parents decided for us to move to Cairo, Egypt next to my grandparents as a temporary living arrangement just so we could get closer as a family. I had to have all my classes between the hours of 4pm to 12am due to the time difference, but I made it work. During this time, my mother found me in great boredom and sadness since I missed my friends and school. She found a programming series on YouTube by a young woman named Neha teaching Python as a teenager on a channel called NPStation. I changed my main languages from Scratch to Python because I felt confident with the overall logic, and I was ready for advanced "typing coding." At the time, the channel was super small with less than 700 subscribers. Now it currently has 21K subscribers and is a huge community built by a person that had a dream at my age. This motivated me to always be persistent and never give up. I started learning Python through her videos, becoming fluent in the language. I created small projects, such as a calculator. I continued to learn Python using a library called Tkinter (also known as Tk), built on Tcl. I used this video, made by Codemy.com, to learn Tkinter usage. I built UI applications passionately. This was a huge jump for me. I was learning a text-based programming language, and I was loving every bit of it. I even savored every bit of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which became my main languages to program in.

My first Python Tkinter Calculator App (2021)

Going into Kealing Middle School

I graduated from Mills Elementary School in May of 2023, and started my journey into middle school by applying and enrolling at Kealing Middle School in Austin, Texas. I was excited to start this new chapter in my life, and I was ready to take on new challenges and opportunities. I also took advanced classes in math and science, which helped me develop my problem-solving skills and critical thinking abilities. I met a lot of new friends, leading me to new ways of thinking and socialization.

First Day of 6th Grade at Kealing Middle School (2023)

My Leap

I started 7th grade with some curiosity on how to make a website online in a professional way. I talked with my dad a bit on it, but I was still confused on one part: how a domain gets registered with a specific person. That's when I stumbled across a new friend named Humayd Khan. He taught me and helped me set up a server using Ubuntu Linux 22.04.5 LTS. I also bought my first domain called zarcotech.xyz (now deprecated, so it won't load; this will redirect to the new main page). I learned how to use DNS configurations on Cloudflare, and used a reverse proxy tool called Nginx (pronounced "Engine-X") to get my local websites onto my domain. This was a huge leap for me. I was hosting my own websites online, and I was loving every bit of it. I continued to learn more about web development, cybersecurity, and server management. I even started learning about ethical hacking and penetration testing in 8th grade, which fascinated me.

Installing Ubuntu Server on my server (2025)

Joining FTC

FIRST is a non-profit organization that hosts robotics competitions at several levels, aimed to inspire young minds with robotics and engineering. I previously joined a FIRST Lego League (FLL) team that a local community center hosted. In 2024, I started a FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) with a few previously known members of the FLL team we had. We named our team Cyber Salam, which translates to "Cyber Peace", reflecting terms of peace while in competition. We program our robot in Java using Android Studio and the FTC SDK, and we use resources from companies such as GoBilda and REV Robotics. Our first year as a rookie team went great! We built good popularity and relationships with other teams in our competition including Qubit Bots and Cosmobotics. We made it until the Semi-Area Regional Competition. Overall, our first year went excellently. I now continue to lead the team as a lead programmer and driver.

Me working on code during the league competition (2025)

Discovering New Aspects

In early January of 2025 while writing an essay for school, I decided to search for any Arabic Hip-hop artists to cover my boredom and plainness while writing. I first stumbled across Wegz, who is a very popular Egyptian artist who had major hits such as "Dorak Gai" and "El Bakht" at the time. I started a playlist of my favorite songs of his on Spotify. As I continued to search, I found many other artists such as Marwan Moussa, Afroto, and Marwan Pablo. These 4 artists are what I call the "Big 4", as there are many other artists I enjoy, such as Mond, Abyusif, and Hala, but these cover most of my playlist.

My favorite Arabic Hip-hop Artist: Afroto

A graphic showing the 'Big 4' Arabic Hip-hop Artists