This year, the Apple Developer Academy gave birth to 194 graduates who have participated in a ten-month scholarship programme from April 2019 to January 2020. Through this scholarship programme, the Apple Developer Academy seeks to produce more Indonesian workers who have world-class application development competencies and are able to drive the development of the national digital economy.
The Apple graduation event was also attended by Bambang Permadi Soemantri Brodjonegoro, the Minister of Research, Technology and Head of the National Innovation Research Agency.
The Apple Developer Academy is a digital talent development platform built by Apple Inc. and supported by Sinar Mas Land. This coding school equips students with three main abilities, namely technical, business, and design. The Apple Developer Academy has a vision to develop Indonesian workers who are able to develop applications and technology to solve social problems on an operating system basis from Apple. The full scholarship program from Apple Developer Academy is received every year by hundreds of selected students.
“The graduates of the second batch of Apple Academy are expected to enrich Digital Hub which is building a tech and digital ecosystem. These world-class talents will answer the needs of digital industry players going forward,” said Project Leader of Digital Hub Sinar Mas Land, Irawan Harahap.
Indonesia has the potential to have human resources in the digital and technological fields. The growth of this industry is dominated by young people, one of which is through the Apple Developer Academy BSD City informal school. They present a variety of innovations that are very creative in line with the demands of the times.
For 10 months, the Apple Developer Academy has been incubating or deepening technology at BSD City. The incubation phase is expected to have a positive impact on the graduates so that their knowledge can be applied directly to the wider community through technology.
In this second Apple graduation class, the participants’ representatives presented a number of applications tailored to the needs of the Indonesian people. Applications presented at the Apple Developer Academy graduation in this second round include Qiroah, Friends of the Netra, Leastric, Hearo, and Canting.
Qiroah, presented by Khoirunnisa Rizki Noor Fatimah and Ramadhani Dian Pratwi, was created to support the method of learning to read the Quran face to face (talaqqi), listening to Quranic phrases, and practice the pronunciation of verses of the Quran. This application will provide feedback using machine learning technology.
The second application was Teman Netra, presented by Savitri Nurhayati and P.J. Bumi Gilang Sinawang. This application was created to help Indonesian citizens who have vision difficulties by providing assistance to read texts in letters, books, brochures, food labels, and restaurant menus, as well as to read money denominations.
Moreover Leastric was presented by Marilyn M. Y. D. Parhusip and was created to oversee the use of electricity that we use anytime and anywhere. The tool that is connected to this application will help save money and help the environment.
An equally interesting application was Hearo, which was presented by Kamilia Latifah and Aisyah Nur Shadrina, to help users who have hearing difficulties to communicate with sign language and turn it into a text. This application can also translate laughter and applause.
Dimitrij Tijawi and Indra Sumakarya presented an application called Canting that was created to provide an immersive and tangible experience for creating batik art. Making batik art is done by using the Canting application and Apple Pencil as a tool. The ease that the Canting application presents itself makes it usable by the batik community.
Continuing the success, the Apple Developer Academy has also opened registration and conducted a selection of more than 2,000 applicants from various provinces in Indonesia. This selection has successfully screened 200 prospective students who will receive scholarships in the third batch which will begin in February to December 2020.