Code of honour: Singapore teens embrace making apps and video games

Straits Times

29-06-2025

St Patrick's School students Advait Milind Contractor (left) and Brian Joseph showing the app FitStreak they co-created two years ago when they were 14. It is available on Apple's App Store. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
SINGAPORE – Secondary 4 student Jatin Rakesh is the rare teenager who has met Mr Tim Cook.
The famed Apple chief executive briefly interacted with the 16-year-old and other young people earlier in June, during an event at the iPhone maker's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
Jatin and selected students around the world spent a few days at the company's corporate headquarters Apple Park in Cupertino, California, as part of their prize in an annual competition organised by Apple.
The St Joseph's Institution student is one of 50 Distinguished Winners – the top-tiered award for this contest, and the only such winner in Singapore – in the Swift Student Challenge in 2025, where participants use Swift, an Apple programming language, to code.
The game that Jatin designed over two months, called Attention Tractor, addresses the issue of short attention spans.
He says he was excited, anxious and honoured to meet Mr Cook, adding that 'the other highlight was meeting the other Distinguished Winners and Apple engineers, and learning from them'.
For instance, one of the other students, from Germany, had created an app playground – the term used for an interactive coding space made with Swift – that deals with dementia. Jatin had thought it was too complex a topic to tackle in this way.
In Jatin's Attention Tractor, users help the main character Theo, a cartoon hamster, come to grips with attention deficiency through a series of mini games. These raise awareness about the importance of sleep and nutrition, and how to improve one's focus.
Jatin says: 'My generation is deeply affected by short attention spans. When I have to do homework or run errands, there are distractions in my environment or on my phone.
'Not being able to focus can lead to frustration. I wanted to dissolve this feeling of frustration within the game. You can put emotions into an app, but it's difficult. Yet if the user isn't engaged emotionally, it's hard for him or her to get into it.'
Jatin has taken part in the yearly Swift Student Challenge three times in total, with his first attempt at age 14. He credits his win this time to his app playground being more interactive.
During his recent trip to the United States, Apple engineers gave him helpful suggestions about how he could improve his product by, for instance, adding functionality and linking it to a mobile app that tracks how many hours of sleep one gets.
Teens in Singapore are embracing coding and making iOS and other apps, programs and video games. Their passion sometimes starts from playing popular games like Roblox and Minecraft as a young child, while computer programming becomes a tool for self-expression and empowerment as they grow up.
Some local coding courses and hacking communities are also seeing a rise in participation by teenagers, even as schools and enrichment centres offer coding lessons.
Coding course takes off
Jatin, a Singapore permanent resident, took enrichment lessons in block coding at age 11. This beginner-friendly approach lets users drag and drop jigsaw-like blocks of code, instead of typing a coding language.
St Joseph's Institution student Jatin Rakesh, 16, is one of just 50 Distinguished Winners in the global Swift Student Challenge, a coding contest based on Swift, an Apple programming language.
ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
In 2023 when he was in Secondary 2, Jatin co-created, with three other students, an iOS app, Journify, which plans travel itineraries. This was during the eight-month Swift Accelerator Programme he took part in.
Launched in 2018 by the Infocomm Media Development Authority and Apple, Swift Accelerator is a talent development programme for students from Secondary 1 to 3. They learn to code in Swift, and design and build an app for release on Apple's App Store.
Swift Accelerator has seen the number of applicants double since it started in 2018, says Mr Soon Yin Jie, co-founder of Tinkertanker, a technology and education company. There were 18 participating schools in 2018, rising to 35 schools in 2025, he adds.
Swift Accelerator is a flagship coding course run by Tinkercademy, the education programmes brand of Tinkertanker.
Tinkercademy also runs Swift Explorers, an app development programme where students, from primary school to junior college, can explore Swift coding.
There were more than 69 participating schools in 2024, nearly twice the number of schools when Swift Explorers was introduced in 2022, says Mr Soon. The programme has engaged over 3,500 students since its launch.
The allure of jobs in technology, societal digitalisation, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the widespread availability of coding tuition classes are among the many factors driving this demand, says Mr Soon.
He adds: 'Students who take part in robotics courses and competitions probably see app development as a natural progression. With AI, you can build things barely needing to code. I think that's going to spur more interest.
'Now you can build apps using Swift on iPad, previously you could do it only on a MacBook. There are also schools that use iPads as their personal learning device.'
Every secondary school student has a school-prescribed device as part of the National Digital Literacy Programme.
Empowered through tech
As a child, Ms Jiang Tongyu used to dream of making 'mods' on Minecraft, a favourite game in primary school. These user-created modifications, such as new animals or weapons, customise the experience of playing the game.
Ms Jiang Tongyu, 19, says making her first app, Habitat – Do Tasks, Grow Trees, which is about managing to-do lists, was an eye-opening experience.
ST PHOTO: VENESSA LEE
After learning coding languages like Java and Swift, and co-building an iOS app through the Swift Accelerator Programme in secondary school, the 19-year-old has co-created a game, Glowkeeper. About an abandoned world, it is slated for release later in 2025 on Steam, a platform for distributing video games online.
The Raffles Institution graduate has been on a gap year after sitting her A-level exams at the end of 2024. She says making her first app, Habitat – Do Tasks, Grow Trees, which is about managing to-do lists, was an eye-opening experience.
She adds: 'I thought apps were made by someone really professional. I realised I had all the tools on my laptop to make them. It was as if I were in a house and opened the front door and found that, suddenly, there's a whole new world to explore.
'I've always wanted to explore storytelling through technology.'
Ms Jiang was Singapore's only Distinguished Winner for the Swift Student Challenge in 2024.
She describes her entry, Tambourine Story, as a motion-based game about a girl who wants to join a band. 'You shake the iPad to play it like a tambourine.'
Now a mentor guiding teens in the Swift Accelerator Programme, she has taken part in hackathons in Shanghai and Austin, Texas.
Hackathons are events where a lot of people come together for a short period of time to write or improve computer programs or other products.
She will soon embark on an attachment in San Francisco for Hack Club, a global non-profit network that encourages teenagers to become creators of technology.
Ms Jiang wants other teens to dream big. 'I want to build more communities like this, and let people know they can make whatever they want.'
Hacker culture draws teens
The Distinguished Winners of the 2025 Swift Student Challenge at Apple Park in California, in June 2025. Singapore student Jatin Rakesh (in a light blue, long-sleeved shirt) is standing next to Apple chief executive Tim Cook (back row, centre).
PHOTO: APPLE
Hackathons organised by university students have seen a noticeable increase in adolescent participation in recent years.
While teens are a minority at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) annual Hack&Roll event, the number of students from secondary school, polytechnic and junior college rose from 70 participants in 2024 to 90 in 2025. This is according to Mr Jonathan Loh, a computer science undergraduate and president of NUS Hackers, which promotes hacker culture.
Hack&Roll typically attracts hundreds of participants, most of whom are undergraduates.
Mr Loh says: 'The initial driving force for this increased interest in building apps is its potential as a new career, as well as exposure to coding in primary and secondary school.
'But the people who come for the hackathons are less motivated by these institutional factors. It's about the fun of building apps. You can see they're doing it as a passion, especially if they start young.'
What The Hack is a software and hardware hackathon organised by the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD). It saw attendance by teens rise from around 15 per cent in 2021 to 24 per cent in its December 2024 edition, says project director Tan Jing Yee, a computer science undergraduate at SUTD.
Ms Tan says: 'It's good to start early so you can have more time to learn at your own pace. If you learn such digital skills in courses at polytechnic, for example, it may not seem as much fun.
'It's also good to interact more with other coders. You need hands-on experience. If you learn to code and don't make anything, it's hard to carry on.'
Friends who code together
Sixteen-year-old friends Brian Joseph and Advait Milind Contractor are Secondary 4 students at St Patrick's School who have a shared interest in coding.
Their app, FitStreak, was published on the App Store when they were 14, following their stint in the Swift Accelerator Programme. Created with two other students, the app motivates users to improve their fitness through customised workout challenges.
Their programming paths have diverged, however, with Advait focusing more on building apps and Brian developing his own games.
Advait says: 'My dad, who's a software engineer, encouraged me during Covid-19 to do Python, and it started from there. I wanted to explore more coding languages, as each has its own strengths and weaknesses.'
He recently launched Verdi, an iOS app that tracks an individual's carbon emissions. He has also built apps for his peers, such as one that improves and speeds up the loan process for guitars in a friend's music co-curricular activity, and another that makes study notes accessible to more people.
Advait says: 'What pushed me to become a programmer is the idea of minimal effort for maximum output. I get satisfaction when everything clicks and it's seamless. Another thing I learnt about coding is that you can help people with apps.'
Meanwhile, for Brian, playing Roblox as a child kick-started his ambitions to create his own game.
He recalls: 'I thought, I love playing games. Why don't I make them?'
Brian started by making his own Community at the age of nine, the term used for a space where like-minded individuals can engage with one another on the Roblox platform.
He says he was proud of leading his aviation-themed Community, complete with pilots, cabin crew and passengers, for about a year.
He went on to create other games on Roblox and to learn tools like the Lua programming language used for video game design.
In 2025, he began taking on freelance work projects in game development, and he has spent more than a year creating his own fighter game. He hopes to release Pandemonium in early 2026.
Brian says programming has taught him values like patience.
He says: 'You need to have relentless discipline to create your own game. During the holidays, I used to spend four or five hours a day on it. You have to take it step by step. For instance, getting feedback, even if it's brutal feedback, is crucial, as you need to know where to improve.
'When you're pursuing a passion, it's not something that comes together overnight.'
Venessa Lee is a senior correspondent at The Straits Times who writes features on parenting and social issues.
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