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WWDC22 poster
As usual in previous years, Apple held the Swift Student Challenge this spring and announced the winners before the conference. It is understood that among the 350 student developers who won the award, a total of 21 students are from mainland China. Phoenix.com Technology was also invited to interview some students to learn about the creative inspiration and stories of these award-winning works.
more flexible development
Zhang Baiyi
Zhang Baiyi from Tongji University is a third-year software engineering student. His work “Code Translate” can help the learning of the course by allowing users to more intuitively understand what the code looks like when it is translated into intermediate code. Zhang Baiyi, who has been exposed to Apple devices since elementary school, was attracted by the various apps in the App Store at that time. Trying different interaction methods and design styles became one of his childhood pleasures, which also gave him his own definition of innovation. After entering college, he embarked on his own programming path and began to touch iOS software development.
For computer-related majors, “Principles of Compilation” is not unfamiliar, and the difficulty of learning the course also gave Zhang Baiyi inspiration to develop Code Translator. “If I can know what it looks like when different codes are translated into intermediate codes when I first come into contact with this knowledge, it will definitely greatly reduce my confusion time.” Zhang Baiyi said. However, it is slightly different from everyone’s understanding of app development. From prototyping, logo production to code debugging, Zhang Baiyi’s work was completed on an iPad mini.
Code TranslatorShowcase
At last year’s WWDC21, Apple brought the ability to compile code and submit apps to Swift Playground on the iPad, which also allowed Zhang Baiyi, who was unable to use school equipment due to the epidemic, to successfully participate in the competition. In the sharing, Zhang Baiyi said that although the screen of the iPad is smaller than that of the computer, it can also directly preview the appearance of the app in real time during the development process. At the same time, because the app itself is to be run on the iPad, the code test is faster than the simulator using Xcode on the computer. After finding the problem, you can directly adjust and rerun the test.
Developing apps with iPad
As the processing power of the iPad continues to increase, Apple is unlocking more and more capabilities for the iPad that were only available on computers. Use memos to make prototypes, XMind to make mind maps, and Playgrounds to code and debug. From Zhang Baiyi’s work, we can see that iPad is gradually gaining the ability to develop complete apps. This change in development methods may be like the iPad’s impact on painting, allowing more people to access the development of apps and solve problems through programming.
Problem solving is the original intention of development
Wang Yuxuan
The original intention of developing programs is a topic that cannot be avoided every time you have a conversation with developers, and every developer’s answer is basically the same, that is, to solve the problems they encounter in life. It is no exception for Wang Yuxuan, majoring in computer science and technology. Affected by the epidemic, Wang Yuxuan’s school implemented a dormancy policy, which followed the psychological problems of the roommates and classmates around her, which also gave Wang Yuxuan the idea of developing this work.
In her award-winning work “the Path in the Garden”, users can make a judgment on their own psychological state by asking a few simple questions. In the garden she built, the shrubs will answer different lengths according to the user’s different answers. Different flowers and finally get test results and recommendations at the end of the road. “I may not have the strongest and most advanced technology, but I really want to help people who are suffering from the epidemic, because I see people around me suffering.” Wang Yuxuan said.
the Path in the GardenDisplay
In the process of collecting information, Wang Yuxuan browsed the mood diaries of many people on social media, and these inner records also made her more determined to complete this work. To that end, she started learning from scratch, having never written SwiftUI. In addition to self-study through some video courses on the online platform, the school’s iOS Club gave good support to Wang Yuxuan, who participated in the student challenge for the first time.
As the vice president of iOS Club of Jilin University, Wang Yuxuan believes that compared with other scientific clubs, the active and sharing atmosphere of iOS Club allows everyone to learn Swift well. Through the guidance of her brother and sister and the joint development of projects with other partners, Wang Yuxuan, who has never been in contact with iOS development before, gradually became familiar with the Swift language, which also gave her new expectations for her future employment. “Maybe I can become an Apple engineer?” Wang Yuxuan shared.
Clearer future planning
Wu Yaoyao
As the founder of the iOS Club of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Wu Yaoyao, majoring in information management and information systems, has won the award for the second year. Compared to last year’s competition, Wu Yaoyao told me that her mentality has changed a lot this year. In this year’s work “HockeyTourWithBingDwenDwen”, Wu Yaoyao continued to use Apple’s AR technology to promote ice and snow sports and to popularize the rules of ice hockey to users. The difference from last year is that Wu Yaoyao’s works this year only took about 20 hours to start thinking about the material to the realization of the final function, and even the work document took only 15 minutes to complete, which is a huge change compared to last year’s 60 hours. .
“I understand what kind of person I want to be.” Wu Yaoyao said that in the past year, she can move forward according to her own goals very steadfastly without being influenced by others’ thoughts. In terms of participating mentality, last year’s award-winning experience also gave her the confidence and courage to try, even if the chance is slim, she will not give up.
HockeyTourWithBingDwenDwenShow
Wu Yaoyao said that learning the development of Swift helped her find her true direction, and the experience of the student challenge also confirmed her love for programming. Now Wu Yaoyao has three ongoing app development projects, and she is about to graduate, and she also decides to go abroad to seek a second undergraduate degree in computer science to lay a solid foundation and become an excellent software engineer and independent developer.
As Wu Yaoyao and others have shown, stimulating the enthusiasm of student developers for programming is the original intention of Apple to hold the Swift Student Challenge. In order to achieve this goal, Apple is also continuously providing tools such as SwiftUI to unlock the development capabilities of the iPad to lower the threshold of programming and allow more students to join the ranks. In the process of preparing for the competition, the participating students can also get benefits that are not limited to programming knowledge.
In the sharing of this year’s award-winning students, it can be clearly felt that because of Swift programming, they have a different way of thinking about life and have a clearer plan for their future. These life harvests are precious to everyone. I believe that these outstanding student developers will continue to create more apps in the future to realize their value and solve more problems.