Chinese students are showcasing their enthusiasm and innovative thinking about
mobile applications in coming up with a string of innovative apps to solve
societal issues and help enrich lives.
Li Xiang, a student at Zhejiang University, developed a mobile app with two
schoolmates that can help users develop good habits by building and feeding
virtual electronic pets.
A unique digital pet is generated in the app Weier, which sounds similar to the
English world "well", through an algorithm. A user's daily behavior is used to
help it grow.
"When users complete their daily exercise goals, their unique electronic pets will
also be full of energy, and when they go to bed too late at night, their pets will
have black circles under their eyes," Li said. The digital pet is like a projection
of the user in the virtual world. But unlike the previous digital avatars that
focus on the similarity with the user's appearance, the app is more of a projection
of the user's inner character and behavior, he said.
"The app is designed to enable users to better know themselves and help them
form good habits," Li said.
The app is one of more than 1,400 projects developed by students from more than
500 universities that were submitted to the 2021 Mobile Application Innovation
Contest, co-organized by Zhejiang University and tech heavyweight Apple
Inc of the united States. The contest concluded in mid-December.
Time Cook, CEO of Apple, said in a post on social media platform Weibo that it
was great to see the talent and ingenuity on display at the contest. Students
designed winning apps that help tackle important issues like improving accessto
healthcare and technology.
"Many of these young developers have gone on to become entrepreneurs,
developers and teachers in their own right, and they are using the skills they've
learned to make the world a better place," Cook said.
The contest is part of a broader push by the company to encourage innovation in
China. Apple said its developer community in China, over 4.4 million and
counting, is growing rapidly, experiencing a 76 percent increase from two years
ago. The company said it is committed to doing even more to support and
nurture the next generation of developers.
"Every student should have the opportunity to create something that can change
the world, and we've firsthand how coding has transformed the global economy,
creating entire new industries and supporting millions of jobs," said Isabel Ge
Mahe, vice-president and managing director of Apple Greater China.
At the innovation contest, students also designed apps to help resolve societal
difficulties with accessibility, preserving traditional culture and caring for family
members.
Apple is also stepping us its push to help Chinese apps go global. One example
is miHoYo Co, a Chinese videos game developer and animation studio based
Shanghai. It was founded in 2012 by three students-Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei and
Luo Yuhao from Shagnhai Jiao Tong University-and draws on their shared love
of anime.
It has become one of the China' biggest gaming companies with over 2,000
employees. Liu Wei, co-founder of miHoYo, attributes much of the firm's
success to its decision to develop an open-world game. That type of game has a
virtual world in which players have fewer restrictions and can explore and
handle challenges freely. The company's Genshin Impact, released in 2020, has
become one of the biggest Chinese games globally to launch on the iOS App Store.