WWDC 2023: Indore girl gets top honors at Apple Swift coding challenge

Asmi Jain developed playground app that can greatly help users with eye conditions and injuries to improve their eye muscle strength

Every year just before the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple, to encourage software programming among children around the world, conducts the Swift coding contest.

Indore-based Asmi Jain has won top honours along with Marta Michelle Caliendo, and Yemi Agesin at this year's Swift Student Challenge.

20-year-old Jain, who studies at Medi-Caps University in Indore, developed a novel app that can help people strengthen their eye muscles.

Apparently, her friend's uncle underwent brain surgery, and due to some complications, the person's eye was misaligned and also suffered facial paralysis.

And, Jain came up with a brilliant app that can track a user’s eye movements as they try to follow a ball moving around the screen. It can help her friend's uncle strengthen his eye muscles. The app has the potential to help millions with eye conditions and injuries.

Swift Student Challenge winner Asmi Jain created an app playground designed to help users strengthen their eye muscles. Credit: Apple

“It was important for me to create an app playground that could positively impact the lives of people like him. 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,” said Asmi Jain.

“When you feel as though you’re part of something bigger, it motivates you and drives you to do better. Coding lets me create things that help my friends and my community. And it gives me a sense of independence that is very empowering,” Jain noted.

Winners of the contest get to attend the WWDC 2023 in person to witness the keynote, attend fun activities, events, labs, and interact with the Apple developer community. In 2023, Apple has increased the number of the winners from previous year's 350 to 375.

Over the three decades, several winners have built successful careers in technology, founded startups, and created organisations focused on democratising technology and using it to build a better future.

“We are amazed by the talent we see from the young developers who enter our Swift Student Challenge. This year’s submissions demonstrated not only the next generation’s commitment to building tools that will improve our lives, but also a willingness to embrace new technologies and tools, and deploy them in original and creative ways,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations.

Swift Challenge 2023 winners- (from left to right) Marta Michelle Caliendo, Yemi Agesin, and Asmi Jain. Credit: Apple

Swift Student Challenge winner Marta Michelle Caliendo’s app playground is a memory game featuring anatomically correct pictures of dinosaur fossils. And, Yemi Agesin has developed a first-person baseball game.

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