Apple Hosts Surprise Audience with Tim Cook for Swift Student Challenge Winners
The talent development in the field of Swift programming seems to be taken increasingly seriously by Apple. In this year’s „Swift Student Challenge,“ there were a total of 350 winners. The company waived the $100 annual fee for the Apple Developer Program for all of them, and also provided a voucher for a certification exam in „App Development with Swift.“ Out of these, 50 winners were invited to a three-day event in Cupertino. They were greeted on Sunday by Susan Prescott, the Vice President of Developer Relations, who was responsible for the event. After her opening remarks, she handed over to Apple’s CEO since 2011, who greeted the 50 selected winners with his characteristic „Good Morning.“ A select group of 14 participants had the surprising opportunity to present their winning projects to him in a short presentation before. 9to5Mac reports that Tim Cook dedicated a few minutes to each software idea. All winners excelled in their presentations and demonstrated their app concepts. For example, 22-year-old Korean Shinwon Lee uses finger gestures detected by the MacBook camera to play melodies. 18-year-old Wit Owczarek from Poland even did push-ups to move the video game character in his iPad app „Pushaton.“ The event concluded with a group photo of Tim Cook with the 50 winners.
Prior to the event, the young developers had little idea of what to expect during the three days at Apple Park. Apple only promised them an extraordinary experience. They are likely to also participate in today’s kickoff of the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC Keynote) and most likely the „Platforms State of the Union“ in the afternoon, which delves deeper into developer topics. Last year, a handful of Swift Student Challenge winners were invited for a short visit to Cupertino, where they could attend a live presentation of the pre-recorded WWDC Keynote. In 2023, winners had to cover their own travel and accommodation costs, but this year Apple is covering all expenses.