A 20-year-old girl from Indore has bagged Apple’s WWDC23 Swift Student Challenge prize for creating an original app based on the Swift coding language.

Apple on Tuesday announced the winners of the Swift Student Challenge. Asmi Jain is among three Indians who became the first-time winners of the Apple challenge.

The app playgrounds represent more than 30 countries and regions, and cover topics as varied as healthcare, sports, entertainment, and the environment.

“We are amazed by the talent we see from the young developers who enter our Swift Student Challenge,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations.

Each year, Apple issues a challenge to students across the world as part of the Worldwide Developers Conference to create an original app playground using the Swift coding language.

“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,” she added.When WWDC23 kicks off from June 5, the challenge winners will be among those attending virtually and in person to see the keynote, events, labs, and activities available this year to the global Apple developer community.While at Medi-Caps University in Indore, the 20-year-old Jain found out her friend’s uncle had to undergo brain surgery which left him with eye misalignment and facial paralysis. This pushed Jain to design her winning playground to track a user’s eye movements as they try to follow a ball moving around the screen.

The playground’s purpose is to help strengthen the eye muscles, and though it was inspired by her friend’s uncle, Jain hopes it can be used by people with a variety of eye conditions and injuries.

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

Next in line for Jain is to find crucial feedback and turn the app more effective and user-friendly before it releases on the App Store. “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,” she added.

According to her, coding lets her create things that help her friends and the community.

“It gives me a sense of independence that is very empowering,” she added.