UI student wins top prize in Apple contest for CPR instruction app
URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — A computer science student at the University of Illinois is among 50 app designers who received the highest prize in a recent worldwide Apple contest.
Michael Parekh was named a Distinguished Winner in Apple’s Swift Student Challenge for his app Pink. It’s an educational tool that takes users through an interactive game, teaching them about cardiac arrest and the basics of CPR.
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Parekh clarified that it is meant for use in a relaxed, classroom-like setting as opposed to an actual emergency. But the idea for the app was born from an emergency that turned tragic. Parekh’s cousin passed away at the end of last year after experiencing cardiac arrest.
“Going through that was extremely difficult,” Parekh said. “But I’ve always believed in the power of technology to do good in this world. So that kind of led me to come up with the idea of making a game about cardiac arrest to hopefully raise awareness behind the issue.”
Parekh said he started developing Pink in February when he heard about Apple’s contest, viewing it as a way to move forward from his cousin’s death. Taking inspiration from the tragedy, Parekh designed the app to teach others how to handle cardiac arrest situations and raise awareness.
It also helped that he had an internship the previous summer with Snapchat, which taught him iOS coding.
Pink was one of hundreds of apps that were submitted for the Swift Student Challenge. Susan Prescott, Apple’s Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations, said the challenge is the latest incarnation of Apple-hosted competitions asking students to submit apps of their own creation.
“In all cases, what we’ve done is ask students to submit an idea in the form of code to showcase their coding skills based on an issue or a topic that’s meaningful to that particular student,” Prescott explained. “And it’s been growing in terms of applications each year, and it’s something that we think is really exciting and a great way to open the aperture of access to coding for kids.”
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Prescott said this year’s contest included app submissions with all kinds of functions and purposes, ranging from booking times for basketball courts to 360-degree video feeds. Each app was fantastic in their own way, she said, but Parekh’s app stood out.
“In Michael’s case, I think there was a really compelling story that motivated his app. I think there was a really thoughtful approach to how he implemented the app,” Prescott said. “When you look at the creativity in solving the problem, I think he just brought a lot of different things to bear in a way that really resonated, and Michael won the hearts and minds of the judges enough to become a Distinguished Winner this year.”
The judges named 350 winners in the Swift Student Challenge, and new for this year was the Distinguished Winner recognition. 50 submissions received this honor for demonstrating “excellence in innovation, creativity, social impact, or inclusivity,” and Parekh’s app was one of those 50 submissions.
In late March, Parekh was in class when he got an email from Apple.
“It was kind of hard to pay attention in class because I really wanted to see the result. But as soon as I got home, I opened the email and signed in and saw that I won,” he said. “I was just so excited because this is something that I’ve been wanting to do since I started programing like seven years ago. I immediately called my parents and some of my friends, they were just so excited for me. It also brought me to tears a little bit because this project was like really meaningful to me. This is a story that I really wanted to tell, and I was just so happy that Apple recognized that.”
As a Distinguished Winner, Parekh is invited to Apple Park in Cupertino, Calif. for the Worldwide Developer Conference in June. He will also be going back to Snapchat to intern again in the summer, and he plans to get a master’s degree in computer science.
For Pink, he hopes it will be put on the App Store soon for download to Apple devices by students nationwide. And he hopes it will make instruction on CPR and cardiac arrest more fun.
“I think traditionally, cardiac arrest is taught in like a very boring classroom format,” Parekh said. “One of the hopes for this app is that schools across the country will hopefully implement it on their iPads and stuff so that kids can learn about the importance of cardiac arrest and how to do CPR, because I think it’s something that is not taught enough and it can strike at any moment.”
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Parekh also had some advice for aspiring app developers and computer science students: “Just go for it.”
“I think the world of computer science and software engineering is just so broad and there’s so much to learn that sometimes it can be a little bit intimidating to get into it,” he said. “So I think it’s really important just to go for it and believe in yourself, as cliche as that sounds, and you’ll end up creating something that you never thought was possible.”
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