Up until a few years ago, Apple didn’t invite anyone younger than 18 to attend the annual WWDC. Hyper-smart programmers under that age usually had to devise schemes to sneak into the event.
Today, Apple has a scholarship program and invites young programmers to apply for a scholarship to attend the show. And with tickets priced at $1,599 for this year’s conference, that’s a great help to those who have won scholarships this year. The WWDC is being held from June 13 to 17 at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco.
But for the first time, Apple held its keynote event and other first-day sessions at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, roughly a mile away from Moscone West. It was here that Apple CEO Tim Cook singled out 9-year-old Anvitha Vijay as “one of the best and brightest – and youngest app developers in the world,” reports News.com.au.
Cook used his two-hour long keynote address to highlight the 350 scholarship recipients invited to this year’s event, paying particular attention to the young girl, who just happens to boast two apps to her credit, both educational ones. Mr. Cook and other top executives revealed some software updates for all of Apple’s products — iPhone, iPad, Mac computers, Apple Watch and Apple TV.
A little about Miss Anvitha Vijay
The Melbourne schoolgirl attends Mount View Primary School. She learned how to write code and make apps when she was seven years old by watching YouTube videos. She caught the eye of people in the tech industry after she created an educational app to help her little sister learn about animals, reports the Daily Mail.
The whiz-kid’s app is called “Smartkins Animals,” and is designed for children five and under to help them to learn about 100 different kinds of animals by identifying pictures of them. It has already racked up some great reviews around the world. You can get the app at the Apple App Store.
But wait, last year Miss Vijay received a $10,000 prize in the OzApp awards for her first app GoalsHi. The OzApp awards are the Asia Pacific’s most exciting and innovative app competition, seeking the region’s best mobile, web and cloud app concepts.
When asked the question, what do you want to be when you grow up? the answer was simple for Miss Vijay. “I want to be an app developer so I can make a difference in the world,” Anvitha said. She added, “All the hard work does not seem like hard work anymore when people download and start using what you have made. It is the best feeling ever.”
