“Rising up in LA, I’ve at all times been conscious of the wildfire dangers that include residing in Southern California,” Marina Lee, a 21-year-old pc science pupil on the College of Southern California, tells Entrepreneur. “However the urgency actually hit house when my grandmother discovered herself within the evacuation zones through the latest LA wildfires again in January — she known as me as a result of she obtained an evacuation alert on her cellphone.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Apple. Marina Lee.
Lee recollects being overwhelmed by the state of affairs and uncertain of what to pack, the place to go and tips on how to keep up to date. Realizing that so many different folks have been in all probability experiencing the identical confusion and worry, she determined to construct an app to solve the problem: EvacuMate.
Lee’s EvacuMate helps customers put together an emergency guidelines of important objects, add copies of essential paperwork by way of their iPhone digital camera roll and import emergency contacts by way of their iPhone’s contacts checklist. The app additionally permits customers to watch air high quality ranges and put collectively a first-aid equipment.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Marina Lee
It took Lee about one month to develop the app and submit it to Apple’s Swift Student Challenge, a contest that invitations college students throughout the globe to enter their unique app playgrounds constructed with Apple’s Swift coding language.
Most college students start making ready their submissions months prematurely, so the deadline “felt a bit tight,” Lee notes. Nonetheless, she was able to rise to the event, having began her coding journey in center college and accomplished a number of initiatives within the years since.
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As a “very artistic” individual, Lee first centered on the app’s design and format, she says. Then she turned her consideration to the sensible options. Lee requested family and friends for feedback as she labored on EvacuMate, and the “very collaborative course of” allowed her to interact along with her target market and perceive how they’d work together with the app.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Marina Lee
“I undoubtedly look ahead to assembly different Swift Scholar Problem winners [at WWDC].”
Out of this yr’s 350 profitable submissions, Lee was chosen as one of many 50 distinguished winners invited to attend the Worldwide Builders Convention (WWDC) at Apple Park. The 2025 convention, which takes place in-person and on-line from June 9-13, kicks off with CEO Tim Cook‘s keynote handle and can showcase the corporate’s new expertise and software program.
A few of this yr’s other distinguished winners embrace Taiki Hamomoto, 22, of Japan, whose app Hanufada Ways teaches customers tips on how to play the normal Japanese card sport; Luciana Ortiz Nolasco, 15, of Mexico, whose app BreakDownCosmic affords a digital gathering place for astronomy fans; and Nahom Worku, 21, who grew up in Ethiopia and Canada and developed the app AccessEd, which offers studying assets which are obtainable with or with out Wi-Fi connectivity.
“I undoubtedly look ahead to assembly different Swift Scholar Problem winners [at WWDC] and different builders generally from internationally,” Lee says. “All through my years of involvement within the hackathon neighborhood, I have been capable of construct lasting friendships and connections with college students from all internationally, however it was solely by way of a digital setting. So attending this convention would actually carry that have in individual.”
Lee is presently interning as a front-end engineer at Amazon in Seattle, Washington. The function focuses on net design and constructing consumer interfaces, a course of that, like coding, additionally provides her the prospect to get artistic, she says. She hopes to pursue related work that permits her to merge her ardour for creativity, artwork and coding after she graduates from school.
Different younger individuals who need to learn to code and doubtlessly pursue an engineering profession ought to take into account taking part in hackathons, 24-48-hour occasions the place college students collaborate on initiatives and attend workshops, Lee says. Lee recollects being intimidated at first, however the expertise laid the muse for the place she is now.
“I met some new buddies that I nonetheless keep up a correspondence with to at the present time,” Lee says. “[The experience] allowed me to be taught extra about coding and turn into extra concerned within the hackathon neighborhood. I began organizing some [hackathons] myself and mentoring at different hackathons. It is a good first step in coding and actually lets you [join] the neighborhood.”
“Rising up in LA, I’ve at all times been conscious of the wildfire dangers that include residing in Southern California,” Marina Lee, a 21-year-old pc science pupil on the College of Southern California, tells Entrepreneur. “However the urgency actually hit house when my grandmother discovered herself within the evacuation zones through the latest LA wildfires again in January — she known as me as a result of she obtained an evacuation alert on her cellphone.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Apple. Marina Lee.
Lee recollects being overwhelmed by the state of affairs and uncertain of what to pack, the place to go and tips on how to keep up to date. Realizing that so many different folks have been in all probability experiencing the identical confusion and worry, she determined to construct an app to solve the problem: EvacuMate.
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