(LOS ANGELES) — 14-year-old Lebanese student Jake al-Mir was the youngest iOS developer to receive a scholarship from the tech giant Apple Inc., according to a report published Thursday in Lebanon’s An-Nahar.
The newspaper said al-Mir was awarded the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference scholarship for developing an app to combat speeding. The scholarship includes complimentary admission to the developers conference, which takes annually place in San Francisco, California. It is normally $1,599 to attend.
al-Mir’s creation, registered as NoSpeed in the App Store, aims to decrease car accidents by alerting drivers when they exceed a set speed limit. A posted YouTube video shows how the app sounds an alarm warning drivers to slow down.
The young developer said he was inspired to create the app in response to the large number of car accidents in Lebanon. However, he hopes the app can be beneficial to users worldwide.
Most traffic accidents in Lebanon were caused by the drivers themselves, a 47 percent majority, according to a study conducted by Dr. Elias Choueiri of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.
al-Mir said it took him nine months to develop the app, which was later registered through the iOS Developer Program. The ambitious teen, who attends school at Collège des Saints-Coeurs Kfarhbab, also developed a game called Emoji Escape when he was 12-years-old.
“I would like to have my own company, not just aimed at developing apps, but also at manufacturing technological products,” he told Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Anba. “I would also like to work for Apple.”
al-Mir is among 350 scholarship recipients in all, a jump from 200 offered last year. Developers must be 13 or older to enter the scholarship program, according to Apple’s website.