Monterrey campus student Leonardo González attended Apple’s WWDC 2025 after winning a developer’s challenge with his health app.
Leonardo González was chosen as one of the winners of Apple’s Swift Student Challenge for developing an app that makes it possible to set up ophthalmologist appointments and learn about the user’s visual health.
This achievement enabled the computer technology engineering student from Monterrey campus to attend WWDC 2025 organized by Apple in Cupertino, California from the 9th to 13th of June.
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an annual conference at which the company presents software innovations and a variety of programming tools.
“What I enjoyed most was talking to developers from all over the world. It kind of changes your perspective on certain things,” González remarked.
With this experience under his belt, the 20-year-old said that he would like to work as an app developer and is striving to get Eyes into the App Store as soon as possible.
Help for people who wear glasses
González has worn glasses since he was twelve. A few months ago, he noticed that the sight in his left eye was changing, and he made an appointment to see an ophthalmologist, but couldn’t find his original prescription.
As some other members of his also family wore glasses, it got him thinking that what they needed was a tool to keep better track of their appointments and provide more information about their visual health.
So he came up with Eyes, whose development he undertook with the concurrent idea of taking part in the Apple challenge he had heard about in a Tec course on iOS programming.
“It literally involved creating an app that would keep a record of ophthalmologist appointments and would allow you to consult an orderly, sequential record of appointment dates, results obtained, and the eye doctor’s comments.
“I think that was the starting point for the app and then I just kept coming up with more ideas,” he explained.
“What I enjoyed most was talking to developers from all over the world. It kind of changes your perspective on certain things.”
The student designed the app so that users can track how their sight has changed or how much it has deteriorated or improved with the passage of time.
Furthermore, he included a learning tool to instruct users on the value of visual health.
“What I try to do is explain the concepts and everything in the prescription, such as what having a positive or negative sphere means and what cylinder and axis refer to,” he said.
He included a machine learning model so that mild eye disorders can be diagnosed using your cellphone camera.
“You turn on the camera, point it at a red eye that might have cataracts, and it detects whether it is does or doesn’t,” he said.
WWDC 2025
As one of fifty students chosen in the Swift Student Challenge, González attended WWDC at Apple Park this year, taking part in workshops and webinars.
“I learned the most from the talks they gave us. They told us how to use everything new in Apple’s updated releases. It’s cool to see how people put things into practice.
“One thing that made quite an impression on me was a talk on accessibility. We were advised to focus on the app’s accessibility first and then develop it fully; in other words, take accessibility into account from the get-go,” he said.
Tec students in the Swift Student Challenge
Leonardo joins other students from the Monterrey campus who have excelled in the Swift Student Challenge in recent years.
350 students from all over the world are recognized for their apps in this competition, but only fifty are awarded distinguished winner status and invited to attend WWDC.
Erick Daniel Padilla Verdugo and David Martínez Celis González were invited to Apple Park in 2023.
The following year, nine students from the Monterrey campus were recognized among the top 350, and Alejandra Coeto and Fausto Pinto placed in the top fifty.
In 2025, the following ten students were recognized in the top 350:
- Leonardo Adrián González Hernández (distinguished winner)
- Alejandra Coeto Sánchez (two-time winner)
- Alonso Huerta Escalante
- Bernardo De la Sierra Rábago (two-time winner)
- Tlanetzi Chavez Madero (two-time winner)
- Brenda Sofía Sandoval
- Leonardo Corona Garza
- Ramiro Alejandro Garza Villarreal
- Adrián Alejandro Ramírez Cruz
- José Manuel Sánchez Pérez
- Alejandra Coeto was also invited to WWDC this year.
This achievement was made possible thanks to the creation of a community (Swift Tec) led by professors from the Computer Technologies Department to develop apps that meet the requirements to participate in this competition.
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