[Essay Included] Why I was selected as Swift Student Challenge Winner

The original text of this article is in Japanese. (Translated by Deep L)

 I am logging this because I became the Japanese Winner (*tentative at the time of the award, I was a high school freshman, 16 years old) of the Swift Student Challenge, a programming contest sponsored by Apple!

This article includes the background of the application process, the full essay (original text) of the submitted work, and the concept of the idea for the application. We hope it will be of help to those who are going to challenge the Swift Student Challenge in the future, as there are not many articles about Japanese winners.

What is the Swift Student Challenge?

The Swift Student Challenge is a programming contest held annually by Apple Inc. 350 winners are selected from all over the world, and it is held every year before WWDC.

Motivation for Entry

I have started working as a mentor at Tech Kids School and needed to review the Swift language.

Eligibility

Students (most recently enrolled in any educational institution (college, high school, etc.)), Students who have no record of working as a full-time engineer are basically eligible to participate.

Submissions

We will develop using Swift (Mac required) or SwiftPlaygrounds (iPad also possible), Apple's official app development tool. All programs must be written to run offline. It is an easy language and there are plenty of official Apple tutorials available, so even beginners should have no problems. This time I developed using SwiftPlayground on my iPad.

Create an interactive scene in the App Playground that can be experienced in less than 3 minutes. Unleash your creativity. If you're looking for inspiration, the templates provided will help you create more advanced creations. Add graphics, audio, and more to build your own App playground.

https://developer.apple.com/jp/swift-student-challenge/eligibility/

You may want to check out the many past winners on Youtube WWDC23 Swift Student Challenge (playlist of winners, 2023)

Submitted Apps

Mogic Japanese takes advantage of the feature that consonants + vowels correspond verbatim to a single hiragana character. Dial to select consonants and vowels, tap to add. Drag to move added characters, and tap to delete them. Sound is played when you touch the ripples flowing from above.

ConceptI wanted the app to combine my interest in design ✖️ language. Also, most of the past Swift Student Challenge winners from Japan have been related to Japanese culture, so I decided to follow suit. The sounds of the Japanese language and the beauty of Mincho (Calligraphy) typography are recognized around the world. We originally planned to create an application that would allow foreigners to learn Japanese from its sounds, but gave up on the idea due to lack of time, and changed to a concept art project.

How can we get our application adopted?

This is a subjective viewpoint, but I have tried to think about what kind of work and essay should be submitted in order to be selected for the contest. Based on my past experience with the Kids Creators Studio (13 times more likely to be selected), Unexplored Junior (11 times more likely to be selected), and school recommendation (4 times more likely to be selected), I can guarantee the accuracy of the results to some extent.

What is more important than your work is the story of the essay you submit. To put it bluntly, if you can write a good story, even if it is a fabrication of your own work, it may be accepted over and above the quality of your work. In other words, even if you are a beginner in programming, the content of your essay will be enough to put you on the playing field.

The essay should include

・Tell us about the features and technologies you used.
・Beyond the Swift Student Challenge If you've used your coding skills to support your community or an organization in your area, let us know.
・Apps on the App Store (optional) If you have one or more apps on the App Store created entirely by you as an individual, tell us about them. This won‘t influence the judging process.
・Comments (optional) Is there anything else you‘d like us to know?

The following is a list of the four sections. (The original essay I submitted is posted below.)

Tell us about the features and technologies you used.

This is the section where you write a description of the app you have developed. Here you should not only describe the features, but also why you created this app, what kind of people you want to use it, and what you want to achieve with it. Write your passion story.

In my case, it was "I want people around the world to experience a more natural language learning experience with this app. Be as passionate as possible and be specific about who you want to use it and why.

Beyond the Swift Student Challenge

If you've used your coding skills to support your community or an organization in your area, let us know.

Your biography and development experience. Include what kind of experience you've had.

Apps on the App Store (optional)

If you have one or more apps on the App Store created entirely by you as an individual, tell us about them. This won't influence the judging process.

If you have one or more apps on the App Store created entirely by you as an individual, tell us about them.

Comments (optional)

Is there anything else you'd like us to know?

Although it is optional, this is the place where you can express your passion the most. Write about why you are applying for the Swift Student Challenge, what you would like to do if accepted, your experiences, and your vision for the future.

Below is my actual submitted essay. It will be paid content as I am embarrassed to show it. This essay, which was actually accepted, will definitely increase your chances of being accepted for the Swift Student Challenge. If you feel it is worth the 800yen, please purchase it!

My actual essay submitted to Apple

This is the original text of my essay that I actually submitted to Apple.

Tell us about the features and technologies you used.This application is a Japanese language simulator created from the viewpoint of phonetics. Japanese characters include Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Kanji characters are called ideographs, meaning that a single character represents a meaning, while hiragana and katakana characters are phonograms, meaning that a single character represents a sound. A single hiragana character has no meaning, but when linked together, they function as a language. In Japanese, all sounds, including the "readings'' of kanji, can be represented by hiragana. From a phonetics point of view, hiragana, a single sound in Japanese, is composed of a consonant plus a vowel. In other words, all sounds can be represented by the combination of consonants "K, S, T, N, H, M, Y, R, W'' and vowels "A, I, U, E, O". (Further subdivisions include the sounds of sound repression and voiced sounds.) This is a very logical, simple, and beautiful way of representing sounds in Japanese. The Japanese language expresses sounds only through the relationship between consonants and vowels as if one were playing a musical instrument. The beautiful Hiragino typography is based on calligraphy that has been practiced for over 1,300 years. The design is based on the motif of "water," which symbolizes "Wabi-sabi," and adopts a neumorphic design. The design was devised to express both Japanese culture and modern design at the same time. The design is so elementless that users do not need to read any explanatory text when using the application.Future Prospects. If connected to the Internet and linked to a search API, it is possible to display appropriate illustrations when hiragana is aligned in the order of meaningful words. By listening to the sounds of the language, visually perceiving the shapes of the letters, and visually recognizing the illustrations of the words, it will be possible to replicate the natural language acquisition inherent in humans.
307 words

Beyond the Swift Student Challenge At the age of 10, I was accepted into the Programmer Development Foundation run by Kids Creator's Studio Inc. and spent a year developing an iOS app using Swift and learning my first design techniques using Adobe Illustrator. At this foundation, I developed "Progra". This is an app for learning a programming language, which includes sections -"variables", "functions", "if", and "for" so that anyone can easily learn programming concepts. Presenting my work in front of 300 adults when I was in elementary school was a really good experience.When I was 15 years old, I was selected by "Mitoh Junior," a foundation that provides up to 3.5k dollars in development support to student developers and spent six months co-developing and designing "StudyRec," an app that helps students study more efficiently and has helped more than 2,500 users study. StudyRec is an app that helps students study more efficiently and has helped more than 2,500 users study. (GoogleAnalytics) Although the two sometimes clashed in the process of developing StudyRec, they worked together on the prototype and design plan to create the app. The finished app was then sent to Instagram and to friends at the school for feedback, and revisions were made in preparation for the debriefing session. At the debriefing session, they gave a presentation at the University of Tokyo and received a high evaluation. The team's full-scale development helped the students develop the ability to cooperate in the development process.In addition, in order to pass the interview at the high school of my first choice for the high school entrance examination, I created an interview preparation program by myself and practiced interviewing with the bot every day.I especially enjoy creating graphic design, which I continue to do as a hobby. I'm currently creating posters for school events and commissioning printers to create original stationery.
307words

Apps on the App Store (optional)StudyRec is an app that helps students study and is listed on the App Store's "Today" page. It is currently rated 4.4 stars in the App Store. StudyRec uses a Pomodoro timer (25-minute study, 5-minute break cycle) and an original "time-lapse study method" to create an environment in which users can focus on their studies. In addition, the application records study time by category of study content. The user's recorded study time can be viewed as a nationwide study time ranking. The original idea and prototype of the app were conceived by me. In junior high school, I studied on my own without entering a cram school (a common study program in Japan to prepare for exams) and acquired study skills on my own. My grades were close to average when I entered the school, but by the time I reached the third grade of junior high school, I was always ranked first in my grade in tests. I planned this app because I wanted to provide an efficient study method to many people using the study knowledge I had worked so hard to acquire. The design of the app is based on a cool neumorphic design to remove the negative image of studying and is finished in a simple design with white as the base color and as few elements as possible.
223 words

Comments (optional) In August 2023 I visited my uncle in California. This was my first experience abroad, and during my 10-day stay, I visited Stanford University, UCLA, Apple Park, Google, Adobe, etc. Adobe contacted Adobe employees in advance and gave me a tour of the company. It was truly inspiring to see some of the best universities and some of the largest companies on the cutting edge of technology. I was especially excited when I heard from an employee about studying abroad at an American university. He told me that I would learn far more and have a much better experience if I went to an American university than if I went to a Japanese university. For the first time in my life, I was moved to hear someone else's story. Until then, I had taken it for granted that I would go to a Japanese university, but from that day on, I changed my mindset and started aiming to study in the United States. I think it is very difficult to take classes and live everyday life using English, which is not my mother tongue. However, I desire to enter Computer Science at UCLA and study engineering technology, programming languages, and data systems there.My parents divorced in the spring of my junior year, and I went through a very difficult time. I had to lie to people I knew and had financial problems because of having only one parent. Therefore, this stay in the U.S. was also a very valuable experience for me. Because of this experience, I have a strong interest in issues such as the economic disparity of children and other disparities in position. Thanks to the support I received from the foundation, I was able to acquire skills such as design. In the future, I aspire to establish a business that supports children in need and I contribute to the correction of social disparities. This is my goal in life.
323 words

How to come up with the Application Ideas

Have you ever heard of shower sorts? It is that phenomenon where a problem that you have been thinking about for a while but could not figure out suddenly comes to you while you are taking a bath or a shower. It is obvious that you get more ideas when you are taking a walk or doing something else to relax than when you are twisting your head around. For me, the time when the ideas would fall was right before I went to bed at night, and after I decided to apply for the Swift Student Challenge, I would keep a notebook and writing pad by my bedside and think absent-mindedly while lying on the floor. Anyway, I highly recommend having a notebook available to take notes at any time, even if you don't have a clear goal like this one. I write down every idea in Google Document on my phone. (It is very convenient because it synchronizes with any device such as PC, iPad, etc. as long as I can log in to Google.)

Every idea is a combination of existing knowledge, so it is a good idea to do some in-depth research on the past Swift Student Challenge winners, the theme of the app you want to create, and so on. I also researched a lot about Japanese culture and articles about Japanese language by people from overseas.

Let's Try

Even if you have never done programming before, it is okay. Taking the Swift Student Challenge is not only a short-term goal like getting accepted, but it is also a good opportunity to challenge yourself through trial and error. In addition, if you are accepted, there are great prizes such as AirPodsMax and the right to attend WWDC!

Please don't just refer to this article, but research all the information, come up with ideas for your app, and learn Swift. It will be an absolutely amazing experience. Why not give it a try?