Westlake Boys High School student a global winner in Apple’s student app competion

Alex Liang at the Takapuna Library where he did a lot of the work after school. Photo / Alex Burton

His feet are in the Takapuna Library, but his head is in the stars.

Westlake Boys High in Auckland, Alex Laing was crowned a winner of the Apple WWDC24 Swift Student Challenge - a global app competition associated with the tech giant’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

Fifty winners from around the planet get to attend this year’s WWDC, which will be held June 10-14 at the tech giant’s Silicon Valley headquarters, free membership of Apple’s Developer Program and other perks. Liang was the only winner from New Zealand.

He created an app that helps teach kids about the solar system by placing the planets in the right order.

The 15-year-old astronomy buff’s effort isn’t in the App Store. Students from around the world enter the competition by creating an interactive scene using Apple’s Swift Playgrounds (a user-friendly platform that serves as an entree into coding).

But he is turning it into an app that he plans to donate to Auckland’s Stardome Observatory, where it will form part of the educational display. Talks are underway.

He also gave the Herald a sneak peek of an AR or augmented reality upgrade he’s working on (see video below) - which could ultimately see it work with the new Apple Vision Pro.

Liang credits his father - a contract software developer - for encouraging him to watch the WWDC 2020 livestream, including that year’s student winners. It ignited his interest in coding.

He also thanks Auckland Astronomical Society president Bill Thomas for helping to inspire his interest in the stars - and serving as a sounding board for his app.

“The groundbreaking discoveries by the James Webb Space Telescope have opened a golden era for astronomy,” Liang said. He wants his app to help build on that interest.

He hopes his app will inspire more people. His efforts on that front are already ahead of the average Year 11 student. Liang founded an astronomy club at his school that now has 60 members.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.