Student Developers Tackle Memory Loss, Cybersecurity in Apple’s 2025 Swift Student Challenge
Apple has recognised several student developers as Distinguished Winners in its 2025 Swift Student Challenge, an annual competition that encourages students to create applications using Apple’s Swift programming language.
Winners from Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand were highlighted for creating apps that address specific real-world problems, ranging from cognitive decline and personal focus to educational accessibility.
Among the winners of the 2025 Swift Student Challenge is Jatin Rakesh, 16, from Singapore. His app, Attention Tractor, is a narrative-driven game designed to help users improve their focus. Rakesh, inspired by his younger sister, developed the app based on his own research into human attention spans.
From Indonesia, Indri Ramadhanti, 21, created Memoire, an app designed to help users store and recall memories. Inspired by her grandmother, who has begun experiencing memory loss, the app allows users to archive stories, photos, and sounds. It also includes interactive quizzes and visual exercises to train memory.
“I want to help people, especially the elderly, to still feel close to their past, so that beautiful memories don’t just disappear,” Ramadhanti said.
Another winner from Indonesia, Sherly Pangestu, 18, developed Plant Heroes. The app educates children about plant growth by relating it to human development through interactive games and stories. Pangestu stated she aims to “collaborate with schools across Indonesia and abroad” to provide alternative learning methods.
Pornchanok Phetin, an 18-year-old student from Thailand, created CyberGuardian to address the lack of free cybersecurity resources. Phetin, who learned Swift programming from online tutorials, was motivated to make the knowledge accessible. Her app provides free lessons and uses a quiz game to engage users.
The winners were invited to Apple’s recent Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC25), where they met with engineers and other developers.
Apple also announced that submissions for the 2026 Swift Student Challenge will open on February 6 and run for three weeks. The company is providing new “Develop in Swift” tutorials and “Meet with Apple” code-along sessions for students preparing to enter.
