Apple’s magnificent London headquarters in the former Battersea Power Station hosted a special event this week to announce the latest Swift Student Challenge, which encourages students to submit apps (starting in February).
2025 Apple Swift Student Challenge logo.
But now, with only a few days left until European Code Week, two eloquent and persuasive developers will be demoing their latest achievements at Battersea, and Esther, Apple’s senior director of worldwide developer marketing.・Mr. Hare talked about how important the Swift Student Challenge is to the company. .
One of the reasons it’s so popular is that Apple will honor 350 successful winners, 50 of whom will be invited to visit Cupertino next summer as outstanding winners. is.
“We want people who create,” Hare explains. So knowing what the problems are in your community can inspire you to think about what you can do to make a real difference. ”
The first developer is Aiden Forrest, a 17-year-old from Newcastle upon Tyne. He’s young, but still, this isn’t the first app he’s demonstrating. It’s called Heartbeat Hero and was created as a winning entry in the Swift Student Challenge. Teach an interactive way to learn how to perform CPR on adults or children. Forrest was inspired by his uncle, a firefighter who told Aiden how he saved someone’s life by performing CPR until an ambulance arrived.
“For me, iOS development has always been the end goal, as the ability to interact with devices and hardware is unparalleled when using something like Swift. In my app, I use something like ARKit to interact with the camera. I needed access to the microphone, and ARKit is a Swift thing that allows you to easily drag it into your app.”
Created with great imagination. This camera is used to look at the ceiling and work with an accelerometer to see how much force you’re pushing as you try out the movements required for CPR on yourself.
It also uses Apple Maps and a database to guide users to the location of the nearest defibrillator, for example.
Swift is like having a senior engineer looking over your shoulder to understand the code you’re working on.
Esther Hare believes the heartfelt and personal aspect that Forrest found is a key part of the app’s success. “When I look at the Swift Student Challenge applications, I see time and time again that ideas are driven by values in terms of where they come from. That’s why we typically see kids who have a real passion for code do very well.”
The second app is called Lungy and was created by a doctor. Luke Hale works for the UK National Health Service. In 2020, when the UK was under lockdown due to the coronavirus infection. When COVID-19 patients were taken off ventilators, they were given exercise sheets and plastic boxes to encourage deeper breathing. Hale noticed that the box was not being used and the patient was focused on something else: his cell phone.
Rangie app.
“Wouldn’t it be great if you could do an exercise on your smartphone, react to your breathing in some way, and make it interactive and fun?” They’ll see breathtaking visuals that evolve and change on screen. I imagined that I would do so. And this will motivate them to practice breathing exercises and strengthen their respiratory muscles. There was just one problem. That means you’ve never created an app before, or you have no idea how to create one. I downloaded Xcode so I could prototype on my iPhone. At first it was like learning a new language, but over time I was able to do basic things like very simple animations. And it started getting more fun. ”
The finished app certainly has immersive and engaging visuals that pulsate and change with your breathing, and even if you’re not breathing correctly, the app will encourage you.
Mr. Hale continues. “I don’t think I realized how difficult some of the steps are, especially these healthcare regulatory-related steps, but just take each step and you’ll get there eventually.”
Hare says: Luke talked about how apps have become his world during the coronavirus pandemic. He thought about how he could create something that could make a difference. I think that’s the great thing about the tools we provide. We create frameworks and APIs, but we don’t really know what people will do with them until they take them and turn them into something. ”
Apple intelligence is coming soon to iPhone. How much will something like Apple Intelligence change the nature of coding? “Our goal is for people to use the incredible tools for coding that we put out. But it’s not cheating. You have to understand how it works and have a purpose. With Apple Intelligence, you have the tools to help you write code. At the end, Hare says: “It also tells you, ‘There are some other ways you could do this.'” So a lot of that helps you ask better questions next time. ”
