Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks about Swift curriculum during Austin tech incubator visit

Apple CEO Tim Cook made an appearance at the Capital Factory tech incubator in Austin, Tex., on Friday, using the occasion to make the announcement that over 30 U.S. community college systems will start to offer Apple's 'App Development with Swift' curriculum in the 2017-2018 school year.

On his visit to Capital Factory, Cook confirmed the Austin Community College District was one of the college systems adopting the Swift curriculum. "Every student deserves the best we can give them," Cook told the audience.

Cook took a moment in the speech to pay a compliment to Austin Mayor Steve Adler, also in attendance, thanking him for his leadership. Claiming he and Apple shares Mayor Adler's values in diversity, the environment, and development, Cook said it was an honor to share the stage with him.

The curriculum is meant as a way to teach people who do not have any experience programming to produce their own fully-functional iOS app. The course centers around Swift, the open-source Apple-created language that is chiefly used to produce software on its own platforms.

Cook's trip to Austin, discovered on Thursday by an anonymous tip, follows after the CEO's visit to Des Moines, Iowa, announcing a $1.3 billion project to construct a 400,000 square foot data center. The tip also suggested there may be more announcements later today, including one relating to augmented reality (AR) projects.

20 Comments

smaffei 237 comments · 11 Years

About 7 years ago

Yes, let's make more apps from people who actually have no formal Comp Sci training. Yeah, those will be stable. :#

volcan 1799 comments · 10 Years

smaffei said:

Yes, let's make more apps from people who actually have no formal Comp Sci training. Yeah, those will be stable. :#

I think that is exactly what he is announcing. Let's begin formal computer science training at the community college level, or even earlier. You have to start somewhere and using Apple's curriculum is as good a place to start as any.

randominternetperson 3095 comments · 8 Years

smaffei said:

Yes, let's make more apps from people who actually have no formal Comp Sci training. Yeah, those will be stable. :#

I think the point is to use app development as a launching point for getting kids interested in software development (and STEM in general perhaps), not that the App Store so desperate for content that they are recruiting child labor.

StrangeDays 12959 comments · 8 Years

smaffei said:

Yes, let's make more apps from people who actually have no formal Comp Sci training. Yeah, those will be stable. :#

Hate to break it to ya — but much of the original Mac team had absolutely no Comp Sci university schooling. many were self-taught. it didn’t matter — being smart and able to get things done is what matters.

recognizing this is what makes a good hire and a good hiring manager. in my opinion too many places just want to issues tests and trick story problems, all artificial measures of what we’re looking for but are easier to administer. especially by socially inept dev teams.

Joel on Software is a good ref for how not to be this way. i give it to all of my teams:

https://www.amazon.com/Joel-Software-Occasionally-Developers-Designers/dp/1590593898

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

smaffei said:

Yes, let's make more apps from people who actually have no formal Comp Sci training. Yeah, those will be stable. :#

Programming isn't for everyone, so those really interested will eventually self-select anyway. It just broadens exposure to the basics for more people.