13-year-old Ben Anderson and third-year University of Pretoria student, Jason Mayo, represent South Africa as innovative young app developers.
South Africa (23 July 2025) – It is an incredible feat to witness young South Africans being so innovative, but then again, they are the ones with the brightest vision for the future. Recently, Ben Anderson and Jason Mayo represented South Africa as young app developers and earned their place on the global stage.
Ben, a 13-year-old from St John’s College and Jason, a student at the University of Pretoria, took part in the Swift Student Challenge. The challenge gives thousands of student developers from around the world the opportunity to showcase their creativity and coding capabilities through app playgrounds and learning real-world skills that they can take into their careers and beyond.
The challenge then narrows down to 350 students, where a pool of 50 winners is chosen. For Ben and Jason, this was their playing field, chosen amongst the world’s best young coders and app developers. Ben ventured to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, where he got to get hands-on experience from teams working with these subjects daily at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2025).
Each has won not only a great claim to fame but also exam codes to gain international certification for Swift, a year’s license to the Swift developer programme, and a pair of AirPods Max.
Tasked with innovating applications which solve real-world problems, both Ben and Jason shone brightly. Their hearts set on improving education, each innovated an app that would make schooling smoother for students and make screen time far more educational.
Ben’s app navigates the school day with scheduling periods, textbook management and school day prep.
Jason’s app, Study Guard (formerly Regret Guard), converts screen time for university students into study time by requiring them to answer AI-generated flashcards based on their study notes before accessing their social media feeds. Genius!!
It is safe to say these young men have very bright futures in the tech space and the power to empower South Africans through their innovative creativity.
Sources: Supplied
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