Every year, as part of its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple issues a challenge to students across the globe: create an original app playground using the Swift coding language. This year, Apple increased the number of winners from the 350 awarded in previous years to 375 so even more students could be included in the event and recognised for their artistry and ingenuity.
When WWDC23 kicks off June 5, the challenge winners will be among those attending virtually and in person to see the keynote, events, labs, and activities available this year to the global Apple developer community. One of the winners of Apple’s Swift Student Challenge is 20-year-old Asmi Jain from Medi-Caps University in Indore.
Asmi found out her friend’s uncle had to undergo brain surgery. As a result, he was left with eye misalignment and facial paralysis.
Jain sprung into action, designing her winning playground to track a user’s eye movements as they try to follow a ball moving around the screen. The playground’s purpose is to help strengthen the eye muscles, and though it was inspired by her friend’s uncle, Jain hopes it can be used by people with a variety of eye conditions and injuries.
“It was important for me to create an app playground that could positively impact the lives of people like him,” says Jain. “My next goal is to get feedback and make sure it’s effective and user-friendly, and then release it on the App Store. Ultimately, I want to expand it so that it helps strengthen all of the muscles in the face, and I hope it can one day serve as a therapy tool that people like my friend’s uncle can use at their own pace.”
Jain’s desire to use coding to solve problems in the healthcare sector springs from many years spent volunteering to help those around her. Recently, she and a few other students created a forum at her university so that their classmates had a support system for working through tough coding problems.
“When you feel as though you’re part of something bigger, it motivates you and drives you to do better,” says Jain. “Coding lets me create things that help my friends and my community. And it gives me a sense of independence that is very empowering.”
