Apple announces three winners of the WWDC23 Swift Student Challenge

In advance of World Wide Developers Conference starting on Monday Apple presented three Swift Playgrounds that were submitted as part of the Swift Student Challenge. In the press release on the subject it said: "This year, Apple increased the number of winners to 350 from 375 in previous years to allow even more students to attend the event and be recognized for their artistry and ingenuity.The three featured submissions are Eye Training by Asmi Jain, Baseball App by Yemi Agesin and Dinosaur Fossil Memory by Marta Michelle Caliendo.

Apple's Swift Student Challenge

The Swift Student Challenge, in which students use the Swift programming language in the associated Playground's app should use to develop a novel and at the same time practical app, has been around since 2020. The number of winning places, increased to 375 this year, has been awarded various prizes. In addition to a one-year membership in the Apple Developer Program, there will be apparel, a hat, a pinset, a pair of AirPods Pro 2nd generation, a Swift certificate code and, for participants selected by lot, an invitation to Apple Park – this year for the first time This is because the pandemic restrictions are no longer as severe. ( )

The three presented winners in 2023

How Apple decided to introduce the three people mentioned above is not disclosed. This quote shows that, in addition to these three, more practical and helpful apps were submitted by the other 372 winners: "We are amazed by the amazing talent of the young developers participating in our Swift Student Challengesaid Susan Prescott, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "This year's entries demonstrate not only the next-generation's commitment to building tools that improve our lives, but also a willingness to embrace new technologies and tools and use them in original and creative ways."

Eye training by Asmi Jain

The first featured winner is Asmi Jain, a 20-year-old student at Medi-Caps University in Indore, India. After her boyfriend's uncle was struggling with eye misalignment due to brain surgery, she developed a Swift Playground that is used to track eye movement when following an object shown on the display. The aim of the observation and evaluation of eye movements should be the targeted strengthening of the eye muscles. Although it arose from an individual case, the project should also help other people to strengthen their eye muscles.

Baseball game by Yemi Agesin

The second featured winner is 21-year-old Yemi Agesin, a student at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. He has developed a Swift Playground that depicts a first-person baseball game. In addition to sport, the developer's second great passion also flows into this: filmmaking. For further projects he wants to develop cooperative game environments that can be used by several people at the same time, for example via augmented reality (AR). As part of the WWDC23 participation, he is therefore particularly looking forward to the ARKit and the RealityKit, according to the press release linked above. Perhaps this is another small nod from Apple towards the anticipated mixed reality headset.

Dinosaur Memory by Marta Michelle Caliendo

The third developer featured is 25-year-old Marta Michelle Caliendo, who is a concurrent student at the Apple Developer Academy and at the University of Naples Federico II. At the latter institution, she is aiming for a degree in the field of natural sciences. Accordingly, their Swift Playground revolves around dinosaur fossils. By means of a memory game that shows anatomically correct illustrations of the same, she wants to draw attention to the danger of animals becoming extinct. Your future projects should also revolve around the topics of animal and species protection. A concrete example: With an app, she wants to help monitor and protect sea turtle nests on the Italian coast.

Johannes Domke

After graduating from high school, Johannes completed an apprenticeship as a business assistant specializing in foreign languages. But then he decided to research and write, which resulted in his independence. For several years he has been working for Sir Apfelot, among others. His articles include product introductions, news, manuals, video games, consoles, and more. He follows Apple keynotes live via stream.