"Everyone can be programmed" is Apple's philosophy in developer education, with the help of programming tools that have lowered the barrier to entry, more and more students have begun to become interested in programming and solve many problems encountered in their own lives.
Every year on the eve of WWDC, Apple invites student developers from around the world to participate in the "Swift Student Challenge" to create their own work with programming tools such as Swift Playgrounds. In this year's competition, a total of 350 students from different countries and regions around the world won awards, including many students from China. This year, the students have achieved a high degree of completion of their winning projects, and some of them are also keeping up with the current trends and working to make more people aware of how AI works.
Computer language is a universal language with great potential to empower people and help them build a better world. Before the official WWDC24 conference, we also had the opportunity to communicate with several Swift Student Challenge winners to learn about their creative inspiration on the development path and the stories behind the competition.
"Interest is the best stepping stone"
"Interest" is a stepping stone to the world of programming, and in interviews, many student developers said that they began to understand programming through their interest in computers and the Apple ecosystem.
Wentao Ma is from North American International High School in Suzhou
Ma Wentao, from Suzhou North American International High School, started programming as early as sixth grade. He is not only a developer of the Apple ecosystem, but also taught himself C/C++. This year, he combined the current AI technology, which is very popular, to create a small application that introduces AI neural networks, demonstrating the basic functions of AI neural networks.
As a younger winner, Ma Wentao also expressed the importance of "interest" in an interview. He believes that everyone can practice more hands-on, and then find some directions that they are interested in, and gradually see what they have made through continuous study, which is also a very rewarding thing.
Xikai Liu is from Northeastern University
Liu Xikai from Northeastern University brought us an app that can convert music album covers into wallpapers, and he also expressed the importance of interest to us in an interview. When he first came into contact with the iPod touch, his first smart mobile device, he began to have a lot of ideas about the possible system of iOS, and chose to major in computer science as an undergraduate. In his opinion, the seeds of science and technology planted in the subconscious when he was a child have subtly and profoundly affected him in this way.
In the process of learning and developing, Liu Xikai also found that being able to constantly see what he has made can continue to stimulate the secretion of endorphins and bring a sense of accomplishment. When he was in college, he also continued to improve himself in application development step by step.
"Self-Motivation"
Compared with passive receptive learning, by stimulating their own self-motivation and continuous active research, student developers can also find more possibilities for themselves, and then feel more sense of achievement and pride.
Ruoshan Li is from Shanghai Business School
Li Ruoshan, a student from Shanghai Business School, also gained more pride by actively learning programming. As a non-professional background, she hopes to use the power of science and technology to help the disadvantaged. From the initial Hello World to the gradual mastery of the Swift language, Li Ruoshan began to realize that programming can bring more possibilities to herself, and she believes that every line of code is like creating a small but beautiful miracle, which also allows her to continue to immerse herself in it.
Haosheng Zhang is from Shanghai Business School
Zhang Haosheng, also from Shanghai Business School, believes that practice can better drive his learning. He has his own set of learning logic, that is, "encounter a problem - > general query solution - > can't understand its implementation principle - > continue to query - >...-> problem solving", this set of learning logic can help him thoroughly understand the root of some problems and some extended knowledge.
"Seeking help from more high-quality resources"
During the interview, many students also shared with us the help of the school, clubs, and open source communities, especially the iOS Club in the school, which has become the main platform for many students to communicate and develop.
Joyce Lee used Swift Playgrounds to develop an app that stitches together tangrams
Ruoshan Li and Haosheng Zhang from Shanghai Business School are both beneficiaries of the iOS Club at the university. In fact, the iOS Club of Shanghai Business School has been a frequent presence in our business in recent years, and students from Shanghai Business School have won many awards in the Swift Student Challenge and the Mobile App Innovation Competition. More and more seniors and graduates will lead the newly enrolled enthusiasts to learn programming techniques and help them get started with programming quickly through the way of old and new.
Zhang Haosheng used Swift Playgrounds to develop a mini-game
When participating in this year's Swift Student Challenge, both Li Ruoshan and Zhang Haosheng received help from the iOS Club of Shanghai Business School. The technical team leader of the club can give guidance at key nodes, and the teacher in charge will also provide a more advanced development environment and provide a venue for staying up late to code. It can be said that the blessing of these high-quality resources also allows more students to participate in the competition in a more relaxed and enjoyable way and enjoy the fun of programming.
Today, when "large language models" are becoming more popular, AI is also a tool that can effectively help you improve your programming ability. In an interview, Liu Xikai said that Swift is a relatively trendy programming language, and because Apple's ecosystem is relatively closed, its documentation is somewhat lacking. Fortunately, with the advent of the AI era, making good use of large language models can help developers quickly build application frameworks.
Of course, many teachers and schools are also paying attention to the latest technological trends. In an interview with us, Ma Wentao from Suzhou North American International High School said that the school can provide a lot of help, not only the school has an AI laboratory, but also the school will invite some teachers to give some AI-related lectures and popularize AI content.
Swift Playgrounds can be developed out of the box
Similarly, Apple is iterating on these efficient and easy-to-use development tools to make coding accessible to more students. When participating in the Swift Student Challenge, many students were using "Swift Playgrounds" on their iPads to complete their programming. It doesn't even require users to have programming knowledge, but turns complex "programming" into an easy-to-use puzzle game that can be mastered with just a tap on the screen. And after learning the Swift language, you can also program directly through Swift Playgrounds, and even complete tasks such as subsequent app releases.
You see, there's no very high barrier to entry for programming, you don't even need to own a Mac, you just need an iPad to do it. "Everyone can be programmed", when you really start to practice and write your first line of code, you will slowly feel the beauty of programming. Pinch will also explore more possibilities of your own through programming.