Apple’s Swift Student Challenge honors student coders for concept apps

Software engineers will soon descend on Cupertino to hear about potential updates to Apple’s operating systems and developer tools, get advice from company experts, and mingle with others working to build apps for Apple’s platforms.

The company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicks off June 10, showcasing advances in the company’s technology. Last year’s event saw the first public appearance of the Vision Pro, and WWDC has traditionally introduced major updates to the company’s hardware and software.  

Among the attendees will be a set of “distinguished winners” of Apple’s Swift Student Challenge, which invites student coders to build out app concepts in Swift, the Apple-developed language widely used for coding for the company platforms that made its own debut at WWDC a decade ago. 

“We had a record number of submissions this year,” says Susan Prescott, vice president of developer relations, education, and enterprise at Apple. “Really impressive submissions from the students, all of whom had the opportunity to pick topics and areas to build their submissions that are interesting to them.”

From the thousands of entries, Apple selected 350 Challenge winners, who receive prizes, including a year of membership in Apple’s Developer Program and a voucher for a Swift certification exam. Of those, 50 are named distinguished winners and invited to WWDC. Among them is Dezmond Blair, a student at Detroit’s Apple Developer Academy, run by Apple and Michigan State University.

“I follow a lot of developers on different online platforms,” he says. “And so, I’m really excited for the networking opportunities and to finally meet some of these people face to face.”

Blair, who hails from Detroit, began coding in high school with Scratch, a tool designed for learning and experimentation, and later studied computer science in college before enrolling at the Apple Developer Academy. He’s scheduled to graduate from the academy in June and is also working as a mentor, teaching Swift to college students. An avid cyclist, he built an app for the Swift Student Challenge that lets users take a virtual bike ride with him.

“I wanted everyone to feel that passion and that thrill that I feel every time I go mountain biking,” he says. “So what the app does is it puts you in an AR environment where you’re right behind my handlebars—you can look around at the trail and take a bike ride with me.”

The Challenge is generally open to students ages 13 and up, and some winners do represent the youngest part of the cohort. Harshitha Rajesh, 13, of Hillsborough, New Jersey, was named a winner for her app designed to help younger students learn about deforestation. 

She’s been experimenting a bit with programming since she was about 10 years old, but got more heavily into coding when she heard about the Swift Student Challenge. On her iPad, she downloaded Swift Playgrounds, the tool students use to prepare their entries.

“My parents both come from computer science/coding-related backgrounds, so they could help me understand some of these concepts, but it was very new to me,” she says. “This was my first time actually learning how to code and learning about some of these technologies out there.”

Harshitha’s brother, who’s in fourth grade, tested the app and said it was a “very fun way to learn about” deforestation, she says. Since the Challenge, she’s stayed interested in coding. She’s continuing to learn Swift and taking online classes to help learn to code in C and Python.

“I definitely think I want to go down this route,” Harshitha says. “Learn more about coding, app development, all that.”

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