Lebanon Trail High School junior Panav Mhatre found out he is among the winners of this year's Swift Student Challenge. Mhatre had to develop a game using Apple's Swift coding software that solves a real-world problem.
"I wanted to make games that have a practical impact," Mhatre said. "For me to win, it feels like my experience, my idea, was actually valued; something I feel will actually have a real impact."
Mhatre was inspired by his summer vacation to visit his grandparents in India. They live on a farm in a small town outside of Mumbai.
"The crops were dying," Mhatre said looking at photos. "When you see the stuff physically face to face, you really do feel what it is."
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Mhatre wanted to focus on environmental sustainability and climate change.
"I feel like climate change isn't just going to make my life hard, but it's going to make everyone's life harder," Mhatre said. "So my idea was to make a game that people could actually still learn about stuff, but make it interactive."
Mhatre's game takes users from the United States to India and Brazil to learn about recycling, pollution, extreme weather, and deforestation while playing the game.
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"So I created an app that really shows the impact of climate change around the world," Mhatre said.
Mhatre wants to refine his app with AI components to eventually make it available in the App Store. He is one of 50 Swift Student Challenge award winners invited to attend the Worldwide Developers Conference in California in June.
"If we all play a role together, then it's more likely for more change than has happened in the past," Mhatre said. "That's really the whole goal."
