WWDC 2016 hosted hundreds of developers from around the world. These tech geniuses are the best at what they do and have a vision that’s incredible. This year, however, one little girl — Anvitha Vijay – trumped them all by becoming the youngest developer ever to get invited to the prestigious event.
Anvitha is a resident of Melbourne, and the Australian spirit flows freely in her veins. Two years ago, Anvitha wanted an iPhone app developed. But when she found that she didn’t have enough money in her piggy bank to hire a developer, she decided to learn to code herself!!!
She took to YouTube and other online resources to gain the know-how of code-syntax and app development. She was seven. Seven. What on earth were you doing when you were seven? Running around being an obnoxious little kid, right? Shame on you!
In the two years since, Anvitha has developed as many apps, both of which help kids learn new things.
Anvitha got to be a part of the developer’s conference by winning Apple’s scholarship programme that aims to promote young, exceptional talent in the field of coding. According to a report by NDTV, “Out of 350 recipients of the scholarship, 120 are under the age of 18, and 22 percent are women, as part of an effort on Apple’s part to add diversity to its developer events.” And given that she’s only 9, we must say that she’s achieved a pretty remarkable feat!
The whiz-kid’s star app is called Smartkins Animals. The app helps toddlers and infants learn the names of a 100 different animals. Kids can also record the names in their own voice and then play it back to find out if they’re saying the names correctly. And to think that there are some of us who have trouble swapping a SIM card from from our phones.
We can’t help but feel a sense of pride in her Indian origins. Although, just to be clear, she’s never been on Indian soil. Her parents are permanent residents of Australia and she’s a born citizen of the Kangaroo-land. So her name is as close to an Indian connection as we can get. But that won’t stop us from claiming her as one of our own now, will it?
However, no matter what her nationality, what we’re really proud of is her talent. Young, passionate kids like her are the ones that have within themselves the potential to change the world for the better. She’s already taken a step in that direction, so here’s to her reaching many more such milestones!
Watch USA Today’s interview with Anvitha here:
