In every WWDC, Apple would host a Swift Student Challenge and one of the winners happens to be a 16-year-old Malaysian teenager. Nur Alia Jannah is a self-taught coder and this was her third time joining in the challenge.
Currently a student at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seksyen 16 in Shah Alam, Alia got selected by Apple by creating Tracklist, a music review app that she created. According to sources, she was inspired by the apps showcased during the Swift Student Challenge at WWDC 2021 and then started to learn about coding. She didn't have a MacBook at the time, but she discovered Swift Playgrounds on the iPad which was accessible for beginners.
Alia told the media that she initially designed the app to track specific songs she listened to. This includes reviews of albums, artists and songs but she realised there were no apps for people to review songs. In her Tracklist app, it allows users to review music by artists, titles and genres. Of course, it wasn't without challenges as it took her three weeks to develop it.
One of the challenges she faced was a big portion of data loss. Alia said at the time, she only had outdated backup code so she had to redo some parts all over again. She also got feedback from family, friends and industry experts who played a big role in refining her app's functionality and UI.
Alia believes it is important for companies like Apple to educate and encourage students and teachers to learn and teach coding. Apart from that, she also said the Swift Student Challenge taught her there's nothing too small of an idea which can become something bigger and wonderful.
So the moral of the story? Well, Alia emphasized being consistent, open to feedback and willing to learn are principles that the developer community holds deeply. If we can follow in her footsteps, we can make the future brighter for the next generation.
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