13’s Apple Developer Newsletter #254 🧑🎓Student Developer Contest Updates
Introducing the just-concluded Mobile Application Innovation Contest (MAIC) and Apple’s official Swift Student Challenge 2026.
Mobile Application Innovation Contest 2025 Finals: Outstanding Performance by Taiwanese Students
The Mobile Application Innovation Contest (MAIC) is a student app development competition jointly organized by Apple Education Taiwan, Feng Chia University, Straight A (Studio A’s education brand), and National Taiwan University’s Apple Regional Training Center (RTC).
Competing apps are primarily built for Apple platforms, mostly iOS and visionOS. Think of this as Apple’s Greater China Region contest. After Taiwanese teams compete locally, they advance to the Greater China Region Finals at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou.
This year, Taiwanese students delivered their best performance ever at the Grand Finals:
First Prize: VCook (Chung Yuan Christian University • VC)
First Prize: iMirror Immersive Mirror Rehabilitation System (National Taiwan University • iMirror Lab)
Second Prize + Social Responsibility Innovation Award: Savers Near-Expiry Product Map (National Tsing Hua University, National Central University • iNTER)
Second Prize: Sound of Life (Feng Chia University • Sound of Life Team)
Outstanding Organization Award: Feng Chia University
The demo videos below are all from the Taiwan competition. The Greater China Grand Finals should have newer, much improved versions, but I haven’t found them yet.
⟪VCook⟫is an AI recipe app independently developed by Vincent using the latest Foundation Models, now available on the App Store.
⟪iMirror⟫is mirror therapy software utilizing Apple Vision Pro’s gesture recognition capabilities, a very advanced concept. It also originates from actual needs of team members’ family, complete with a backstory.
⟪Savers Near-Expiry Product Map⟫strives to solve the problem of near-expiry food waste.
⟪Sound of Life⟫is learning software designed for hearing-impaired children.
I’ve had the privilege of interacting with these award-winning students—they’re all student developers with tremendous creativity and practical ability. I’m genuinely happy for them.
More coverage:
If you’re a student, consider following next year’s MAIC. Before that, focus on the Swift Student Challenge introduced below.
Swift Student Challenge 2026
While MAIC is a Greater China Region competition, Apple also has an international student coding challenge called Swift Student Challenge, now in its seventh year since 2020. Students aged 13 and above can participate (or according to local regulations).
Submission period: 2/6-28, 2026.
The most attractive aspect of Swift Student Challenge is that Distinguished Winners receive full sponsorship to visit Apple headquarters in the US for WWDC and closely interact with winners from around the world. It’s an excellent opportunity to expand your global perspective.
This competition emphasizes creativity, not code. You can develop using the Swift Playgrounds app on iPad.
Official links:
The most important thing when entering a competition is understanding the rules clearly, followed by properly planning and executing your participation.
Swift Student Challenge has many restrictions. I’ve compiled some key rules below:
Final product is a Swift Playground App (file extension
.swiftpm) compressed into a ZIPMaximum file size is 25 MB
Must work completely offline
Solo independent development
Developed and run using Swift Playgrounds 4.6 or Xcode 26 or above
Can use Apple Pencil
User interface and content must be in English
Sometimes, having many restrictions isn’t a bad thing—it helps you focus more on creative expression.
If you want to participate, there are still several months until the submission deadline. I think you can start with simple needs around you, completing some simple small apps and exercises to familiarize yourself with Xcode, Swift, SwiftUI, and establish your own development workflow.
While familiarizing yourself with the process, more ideas will definitely emerge. There are also many AI tools that can assist. Even starting development in the final month is manageable.
The key is creative ideas—development doesn’t need to be perfect on the first try.
13+ Exclusive Content
The following section is exclusive to 13+ members, including:
More detailed discussion of competition restrictions
Reflections on interacting with and teaching students
Please upgrade to unlock at Patreon and read on the official website.