Few things could excuse a kid from skipping his middle school graduation. Connor Chung had a note from Apple.
It explained he would be needed in San Francisco for the WWDC. Once there, he would meet important people like Tim Cook, take part in brainstorming sessions with developers and engineers and lay the groundwork for an Apple Watch app that would be among the first in iTunes on the day OS 2 launched.
OK, the part about the watch app was unexpected, but it did keep Chung, winner of a young developers scholarship to WWDC in June, busy during a summer when most of his classmates were probably sweating the start of high school.
“Most of the scholarship winners were in high school or in college. I could count on one hand the developers I met who were my age,” Chung, 14, of Bethlehem, NY, told Cult of Mac. “I learned so much and made great friends.”
Chung is certainly not without peers. He is part of a wave of young developers who spend their free time learning code and writing software that expands the uses for our devices. Apple used to only invite developers 18 or older, but as tech companies began seeking out the ideas of young minds, Apple started giving scholarships that waved conference fees for the kid and a parent. The parent would chaperone but also sign Apple’s non-disclosure agreement on behalf of the teen.
“We would get emails after the developer conference from students, 16, 15, 14 years old, saying I already have X number of apps in the app store. I’m a developer. Can I take part too?” Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller told The Wall Street Journal in 2012.
Chung was 13 when he taught himself Apple’s coding language, Swift, and created an app called CryptoCalc, a converter for digital currencies, like Bitcoin, that is now available in 12 languages.
That app got Chung the scholarship to WWDC during which he came up with the idea of an Apple Watch app called tacet, which puts a metronome on the watch face for musicians, tracks beats per minute and also provides a quick reference guide for tempos.
Musicians have given tacet good reviews, liking that they can silence the metronome to vibrate as they rehearse a piece of music.
“My family is my beta group,” Chung said. “I’m always bothering them to try out the latest version. They find what I am doing very cool.”
There is a genuine sweetness that sparkles when he speaks and Chung is by no means a one-dimensional, hyper-focused coding wonk. His sense of humor is self-effacing and, as he says with a laugh, there are many layers of geek to his personality. Yes, it was cool his idea for tacet at the WWDC was well received by peers, but he was beyond thrilled when Cook obliged Chung with a selfie.
Chung loves Shakespere as much as computers. He is a violin player and tacet is inspired by his annoyance for the sharp tock sound of the metronome. In fact, the name tacet comes from another love of his, Latin. Tacet means silent.
Chung sees his well-rounded interests a good match with the Apple philosophy of developing products.
“Code is only a small part of a great product,” he said. “Great products come from an equal mix of the liberal arts, art, science, coding, communication and write. I like this philosophy and I’ve always loved Apple because of that.”
Chung, so far, has been pretty disciplined about the school-work balance. Coding is done only during free time after homework and violin practice.
Because he has a grandfather with Alzheimer’s disease, Chung is working on an app that would help someone in the early stages telephone a loved one by touching a photo on an iPad.