Apple profiles three distinguished Swift Student Challenge winners

AppleInsider

Apple has profiled three of the "Distinguished Winners" of its 2024 Swift Student Challenge, with apps covering care, extreme sports, and breathing exercises.

Three winners from the 2024 Swift Student Challenge

Apple launched its 2024 Swift Student Challenge in February, and picked 350 winners from the entries in March. Of the 350 winners, 50 are recognized by Apple as Distinguished Winners for outstanding submissions.

The 350 winners won prizes including AirPods Max, a certificate, and a free one-year membership to the developer program. Those deemed Distinguished Winners were awarded an invitation to a three-day in-person experience at Apple Park, including tailored programming at WWDC.

A May 1 profile of three winners revealed the motivations of some of the participants, and what they hope to do in the future.

"This year's winning Swift Student Challenge submissions once again demonstrate the breadth and depth of what is possible when talented young people use coding to make their mark on the world," said Apple VP of Worldwide Developer Relations Susan Prescott."

She continued "We're also incredibly proud to welcome more outstanding student developers than ever before to Apple Park to connect with our teams and each other as they continue to build apps that will no doubt transform our future for the better."

Family inspiration

The trio of profiles starts with Canadian student Elena Galluzzo, who used her time at home with her maternal grandparents to create the Care Capsule app.

"My grandmother is in the late stages of Alzheimer's disease and requires full-time care," explains Galluzzo. "It's also hard on my grandfather because it can be quite lonely -- even though he lives with his children and grandchildren, a lot of older people don't."

"Canada has an aging population, so I think it's really important to keep looking into ways we can help people in this field, and coding is one way I can contribute."

Care Capsule is an all-in-one assistant for elderly people, creating a chatbot to analyze interactions with the user for signs of depression. It also tracks medications and helps users remember positive memories.

After graduating with a business degree, Galluzzo plans to publish Care Capsule in the App Store.

Dezmond Blair of Michigan leaned on his mountain biking experience, as well as his family's encouragement to maintain his grades. "They spent a lot of their life trying to make sure that I wouldn't have to struggle the same way they did, and so that's where my inspiration and my passion comes from," he explains.

After starting in the Detroit Apple Developer Academy and learning Swift, he created the app MTB Extreme, which gives users a 360-degree view of trails from the view of a mountain bike.

Jawaher Shaman developed a stutter when her grandfather passed away at the age of five. With help from her father, she overcame the issue, and is now studying at the Apple Developer Academy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Her app, My Child, uses stories and breathing exercises to help train the user to speak without stuttering.

"My father never made me feel different, and I hope my app will do the same for any child or young person who suffers from stuttering," says Shaman. "I don't want them to ever feel like stuttering is a hurdle they can't overcome."



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Zirlin

I think you mean two winners and a ninja.

jvm156

I only see 2 

cia

"My father never made me feel different"  - Says the one who's father won't allow her to be seen in public without covering her entire body from head to toe.

StrangeDays

While it’s not for me, I do think it’s funny how the this demographic loves it when Boba Fet or the Mandalorian insists on hiding his face, but not when a woman does it. Examine your biases, my dudes.

Massiveattack87

Am I the only one that it is a risky move from Apple?

mikethemartian

StrangeDays said:

While it’s not for me, I do think it’s funny how the this demographic loves it when Boba Fet or the Mandalorian insists on hiding his face, but not when a woman does it. Examine your biases, my dudes.

Personally I couldn’t care less how other people dress and I respect this person’s right to wear their cultural apparel but Boba Fett is a fictional character. If someone came to a job interview dressed as Boba Fett or the teller at their bank was dressed as Boba Fett (and it wasn’t Halloween) I think most big Star Wars fans would find that odd. I used to really like Star Trek TNG but I found it odd when an alternate juror in the Whitewater trial was dressed like a Starfleet officer. A better comparison is how a Catholic nun dresses in a habit as opposed to a scifi character.

jgreg728

She’s smiling. 

hexclock

cia said:

"My father never made me feel different"  - Says the one whose father won't allow her to be seen in public without covering her entire body from head to toe.

Sharia law dictates that, not her father.

coughingllama

StrangeDays said:

While it’s not for me, I do think it’s funny how the this demographic loves it when Boba Fet or the Mandalorian insists on hiding his face, but not when a woman does it. Examine your biases, my dudes.

Call me when Boba Fett or Mandalorian are forced to cover their face because of their gender and are treated as second class citizens and not allowed basic privileges like driving. Stop thinking that normalizing misogyny makes you progressive.

AppleZulu

StrangeDays said:

While it’s not for me, I do think it’s funny how the this demographic loves it when Boba Fet or the Mandalorian insists on hiding his face, but not when a woman does it. Examine your biases, my dudes.

There are people who consistently pop up here to criticize Apple's employee equity initiatives, etc., every time they're featured or even referenced,  because they insist they "don't see race" or gender, or religion or whatever, so everything should be fine if we ignore those things and make everything merit based.

Then there are people who see a picture of the winners of what appears to be a merit-based student coding competition, and come out of the woodwork not to comment on the merit of the students' projects, but to riff on the cultural garb of one of the winners.

My hypothesis is that there is a very high correlation between these two groups of people. It's this response in the second case that proves the need for the criticized initiatives in the first case. That solely merit-based world never exists. Too many people in the majority population instantly respond dismissively and negatively to anyone who seems "different" in various ways. Because the merit-based utopia is already out the window, efforts to counter racial, cultural and gender-based biases are warranted. That merit-based ideal is only approachable after there is enough diversity on 'the inside' to significantly diffuse and eliminate dismissive and negative reactions to diversity of applicants (or contestants in this example) on 'the outside.'

AppleZulu

coughingllama said:

StrangeDays said:

While it’s not for me, I do think it’s funny how the this demographic loves it when Boba Fet or the Mandalorian insists on hiding his face, but not when a woman does it. Examine your biases, my dudes.

Call me when Boba Fett or Mandalorian are forced to cover their face because of their gender and are treated as second class citizens and not allowed basic privileges like driving. Stop thinking that normalizing misogyny makes you progressive.

One would think that a person concerned about misogyny would want to encourage the academic achievements of a victim of misogyny as a potential means of breaking free from it, rather than participating in the misogyny itself by dismissing the featuring of her for her academic achievements as merely "normalizing misogyny."

magman1979

Apple needs to DRAMATICALLY pull back on all this ESG and DEI bullshit, this will only ruin their reputation.

AppleZulu

magman1979 said:

Apple needs to DRAMATICALLY pull back on all this ESG and DEI bullshit, this will only ruin their reputation.

Or -now hear me out- given that Apple is a company with global reach and its customers are all around the world, maybe broadening their scope beyond white midwestern American men is a good business decision. Likewise, developing an operations model that isn't dependent on perpetual, increasing environmental degradation and destruction is also a good business decision. Besides, exactly what reputation is it you think will be ruined? 

bloggerblog

hexclock said:

cia said:

"My father never made me feel different"  - Says the one whose father won't allow her to be seen in public without covering her entire body from head to toe.

Sharia law dictates that, not her father.

First off "Sharia" is the Arabic word for "law". Second, this is a personal decision it is not dictated by law, it is considered the most modest way for a woman to dress and not flaunt her body for every pervert to look at, the idea is to keeps her beauty for her husband and family. She does not cover in front of any member of her family or female friends. If you visit Egypt, UAE, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, etc you'll see two sisters dressing very differently, that's because it's a choice.
Such comments only go to show the effective brainwashing the news campaigns has on citizens. The reality in the Middle East and the perception of westerners of that region is mind boggling. Such acts of vilification has been going on for centuries, invading foreign lands and vilifying the natives calling Africans savages and Arabs Terrorists.

coughingllama

AppleZulu said:

coughingllama said:

StrangeDays said:

While it’s not for me, I do think it’s funny how the this demographic loves it when Boba Fet or the Mandalorian insists on hiding his face, but not when a woman does it. Examine your biases, my dudes.

Call me when Boba Fett or Mandalorian are forced to cover their face because of their gender and are treated as second class citizens and not allowed basic privileges like driving. Stop thinking that normalizing misogyny makes you progressive.

One would think that a person concerned about misogyny would want to encourage the academic achievements of a victim of misogyny as a potential means of breaking free from it, rather than participating in the misogyny itself by dismissing the featuring of her for her academic achievements as merely "normalizing misogyny."

I think in your effort to sound magnanimously intelligent, you forgot to notice that nothing in my statement is directed at her coding acumen. You conveniently assumed that to bolster the statement you've come here to make. However, in your quixotic quest, you've conflated academic achievements as a replacement for gender equality and freedom. Sit down before you hurt yourself with all the mental gymnastics.

magman1979

bloggerblog said:

hexclock said:

cia said:

"My father never made me feel different"  - Says the one whose father won't allow her to be seen in public without covering her entire body from head to toe.

Sharia law dictates that, not her father.

First off "Sharia" is the Arabic word for "law". Second, this is a personal decision it is not dictated by law, it is considered the most modest way for a woman to dress and not flaunt her body for every pervert to look at, the idea is to keeps her beauty for her husband and family. She does not cover in front of any member of her family or female friends. If you visit Egypt, UAE, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, etc you'll see two sisters dressing very differently, that's because it's a choice.
Such comments only go to show the effective brainwashing the news campaigns has on citizens. The reality in the Middle East and the perception of westerners of that region is mind boggling. Such acts of vilification has been going on for centuries, invading foreign lands and vilifying the natives calling Africans savages and Arabs Terrorists.

Read what Moseb Yousef has to say about the BS you just spewed... In hard-core Islamic / Muslim countries, Sharia and its doctrines are NOT a choice, and women who defy this are often punished SEVERELY.

This is not "brainwashing", your comments are propaganda perpetrated by radicals of Islam towards the west, full stop.

AppleZulu

coughingllama said:

AppleZulu said:

coughingllama said:

StrangeDays said:

While it’s not for me, I do think it’s funny how the this demographic loves it when Boba Fet or the Mandalorian insists on hiding his face, but not when a woman does it. Examine your biases, my dudes.

Call me when Boba Fett or Mandalorian are forced to cover their face because of their gender and are treated as second class citizens and not allowed basic privileges like driving. Stop thinking that normalizing misogyny makes you progressive.

One would think that a person concerned about misogyny would want to encourage the academic achievements of a victim of misogyny as a potential means of breaking free from it, rather than participating in the misogyny itself by dismissing the featuring of her for her academic achievements as merely "normalizing misogyny."

I think in your effort to sound magnanimously intelligent, you forgot to notice that nothing in my statement is directed at her coding acumen. You conveniently assumed that to bolster the statement you've come here to make. However, in your quixotic quest, you've conflated academic achievements as a replacement for gender equality and freedom. Sit down before you hurt yourself with all the mental gymnastics.

You’re funny. Your failure to note her achievement is precisely the point. Her intellect demonstrates exactly why misogynistic restrictions should be removed. Ignoring her achievements so you can dismiss her inclusion undercuts the one thing she has going for her. You impose an all-or-nothing judgement that would condemn her to nothing. 

dpkroh

Wow.  It’s truly sad how the evils of oppression are so evident here.  The worst of humanity on such open display.  No, it’s not the photo or anyone in it but the commenters.  

Apple is a global company.  The sheer hypocrisy of those claiming oppression,  and disrespect is mind boggling.  As the late, great, George Carlin said “It’s scary how stupid the average person is.  It’s really scary when you realize half of people are even dumber than that”. 

This isn’t a political or cultural article.  Apple Insider should be ashamed of itself for not removing these demeaning posts.  That’s not censorship. That’s basic respect.  If you want to have a cultural debate fine, but do so in a proper on topic forum.   Not here..

macray

Maybe she can move to Iran.. .what a joke. There she can dressed like that…we want to know.. who we dealing with… by law its for bidding in the Netherlands to dress like that.