Apple is on the lookout for bright developers.
The tech giant will soon be jumpstarting its 2025 Swift Student Challenge, which was created to empower rising developers, creators, and entrepreneurs. Its website mentions they will be tasked with scaling their ideas into an application leveraging tools that include Swift Playgrounds and Xcode.
Previous winners include Keitaro Kawahara of Japan (PuzzlePix), Ruoshan Li of China (Deep Blue Tangram), and University of Alabama at Birmingham student AJ Nettles, who submitted an application named CryptOh. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, his app includes an interactive guide that explains the importance of password security and serves as a password manager and generator.
“I wanted to make it easier for people to store their passwords and not have them on a random sticky note on the edge of their computer,” he told AFROTECH™.
Nettles was among the 50 Distinctive Winners out of 350 winners of the challenge in 2024, and he was able to meet Apple CEO Tim Cook during the three-day Worldwide Developers Conference’s in June 2024 to demo the CryptOh application.
“Me being at Apple Park, already once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Nettles expressed. “Me presenting an app that I made to some of the leadership there, incredible. To the CEO of Apple, insane… He was asking questions. He was engaged with it. He was like, ‘What inspired you to make this’ just because of all the breaches that are happening recently and everything like that. He was actually invested in why I made it. It just made the experience that much more surreal… That’s a memory I’ll probably never forget.”
Where To Apply
For those interested in applying to participate in the challenge, submissions open Feb. 3. In the end, 350 Swift Student Challenge winners will be selected based on the criteria of “innovation, creativity, social impact, or inclusivity.” The top 50 will be granted a gift from Apple, a one-year membership in its Apple Developer Program, and more.
Requirements
To apply you must not be employed as a full-time developer. You must also meet the age requirement for your country and region, be registered as an Apple developer, or be a member of the Apple Developer program and fulfill at least one of the listed requirements:
- Be enrolled in an accredited academic institution or official homeschooling alternative
- Be enrolled in a STEM organization’s educational curriculum
- Be enrolled in an Apple Developer Academy
- Be a high school graduate or equivalent within the past 6 months and be on standby for an acceptance or have already been accepted to an accredited academic institution
Click here for more information.
