A Week in the Life of WWDC 2018 Scholarship Winners

[MacRumors]

Last week, Apple hosted its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, where over 5,000 developers descended upon the McEnery Convention Center for five days of coding labs and sessions, one-on-one consultations with Apple engineers, get-togethers, and even some early morning exercise.

Apple CEO Tim Cook with WWDC 2018 scholarship winners​

Among those developers were some 350 scholarship winners, who each received a complimentary WWDC ticket, lodging for the week, and a one-year membership in the Apple Developer Program.

Each year, students aged 13 or older at accredited schools and STEM organizations can apply to become a WWDC scholar. This year, Apple tasked applicants with creating a short interactive scene in a Swift playground, and winners were selected based on the technical skills shown, creativity, and accompanying written responses.

An example of a winning submission from Giovanni Filaferro, a four-time WWDC scholarship winner from Italy.

This year's scholars come from all corners of the world, such as Australia, Bulgaria, China, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, and Canada. Many of the 2018 winners are listed on the WWDCScholars website, run by WWDC scholars Sam Eckert, Andrew Walker, Matthijs Logemann, Michie Riffic, Oliver Binns, Moritz Sternemann, and Amol Kumar.

Apple was kind enough to provide me with a media pass to attend WWDC this year, and during my week in San Jose, I crossed paths with a few of these scholars. After learning about how much fun they were having, I was inspired to connect with more scholars to have them share their day-to-day experiences.

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Article Link: A Week in the Life of WWDC 2018 Scholarship Winners

 

[centauratlas]

Education, particularly, in STEM type fields is something that is critical for kids. This is a good Apple program that helps everyone over time.

 

[simon-says]

Good on Apple for stepping up their game for the scholarship winners. I won scholarships in 2007 and 2008. We also had to be paying members of ADC at the time as well. In 2007 I believe we got a student rate on a hotel, in 2008 we got nothing. Luckily both years my professors I was doing research under covered that expense. We had a student presentation and the speaker was an indie developer, may have skipped it the second year if they had one.

In 2007 we weren’t even allowed to go into the main room for the keynote, straight to overfill.

We sure didn’t get a trip to Apple’s headquarters. Still had a great time and would do it all over again.

 

[scottrngr]

I'm guessing they learned how to make emoji's.

 

[s15119]

What a wonderful program. Apple is a positive community member who makes amazing products and works for good!

 

[Thanks pal]

“Get your HAND off of me.”
- Tim Cook

 

[pika2000]

I'm guessing they learned how to make emoji's.

Good, let’s demean even younger generation going into STEM. Good job.

 

[techgeek1129]

I'm guessing they learned how to make emoji's.

There's a little bit more to it than that

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Good on Apple for stepping up their game for the scholarship winners. I won scholarships in 2007 and 2008. We also had to be paying members of ADC at the time as well. In 2007 I believe we got a student rate on a hotel, in 2008 we got nothing. Luckily both years my professors I was doing research under covered that expense. We had a student presentation and the speaker was an indie developer, may have skipped it the second year if they had one. In 2007 we weren’t even allowed to go into the main room for the keynote, straight to overfill. We sure didn’t get a trip to Apple’s headquarters. Still had a great time and would do it all over again.

It's interesting hearing how people in the software world live. Almost everyone I know never had a day of programming in their entire school experience, went to college shoved into pointless majors, racked up a careers worth of debt, and ended up working in plastics companies and rock quarries and drinking themselves through divorces and into poverty. Scholarships, working for professors who pay for your travel & special treatment by big cushy companies that actually give a damn about you... I'm glad life is working out for someone but you guys might as well be part of some other species living on another planet.

 

[pat500000]

They all look like emojis.

 

[alwaysbeincontact]

Awesome to see!

 

[litmag01]

I'd love to see the wide angle of that shot. I could very well be wrong, but from that one shot it looks like the group is hedging towards a monochromatic sausage-fest.

 

[scottrngr]

Good, let’s demean even younger generation going into STEM. Good job.

It wasn't a slam on the kids, but rather where Apple's priorities seem to be.

 

[chrono1081]

It wasn't a slam on the kids, but rather where Apple's priorities seem to be.

Emoji is a unicode standard, not Apple, Apple simply has to adopt them because if they didn't you'd see squares anytime someone on another platform sent you one, or you'd see hard to track down crashes in various apps.

Animoji is hardly a toy. Too many people focus on the Animoji on the screen, forgetting about the very advanced tech underneath that makes it possible. That tech underneath is what is of interest to developers.

 

[routine_analyst]

All that yellow teeth and BO. I'm surprised Cook could crack a smile.

 

[RogueWarrior65]

Should people really be allowed to win more than once?

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Good, let’s demean even younger generation going into STEM. Good job.

Well bashing anyone isn't useful, but on the subject of STEM, as much as I've been a big financial supporter of STEM field promotion, as time goes by, the more I'm seeing the results firsthand of people brought up in STEM programs, and I'm more & more certain that STEM needs to include a couple more letters. The value of the Pre-War, well-rounded, classical Greek university education is becoming rather apparent in its absence.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that most of our engineering dept arrived completely unaware that successful products and even buildings are designed by people with Art degrees, and the lawyers, engineers, and construction workers are support staff. The increasingly common phrase "Looks like it was designed by an engineer." is not a compliment. We need designers and architects that understand basic engineering principles, which they do now, but we equally need STEM grads that have some familiarity & understanding of the value of the arts in their work. Otherwise we're just rebranding german/soviet Brutalism all over again.

 

[kaneda]

Apple CEO Tim Cook with WWDC 2018 scholarship winners​

Mostly white people in the photo.

 

[Angelou92]

The women are far too attractive to be programmers

 

[0388631]

I spot a few Hispanic people and one Asian guy. The rest are white, mostly male, and very pale.

They all look like emojis.

The long necked one that resembles Matt Smith (Dr. Who) stands out.

 

[yakapo]

Apple is racist! There’s no black people selected.
Apple is sexist! There’s few women selected.

SJW you know what to do.