Manav Sinh: From a Hackathon Volunteer to an Apple Swift Certification at Parul University!

Manav Sinh is a second-year computer science and Engineering student specialising in artificial intelligence and machine learning at Parul University. His route to an Apple certification began without a plan.

He was volunteering at PU Code, a campus hackathon held in the Apple lab, when he first took real notice of what the lab was. There he learned that the Apple Authorised Training Centre operates under the Tinkering Hub and that membership was the way in. He joined, and the club, a trainer, and a certification followed from that one ordinary decision.

Two ideas run through everything he says. Consistency he received as advice from his trainer and seniors. Curiosity he adds as his own.

My personal advice is to be curious about it.

He does not treat them as separate. Curiosity got him into the lab; consistency kept him there. He is candid that interest, more than method, decides whether a student keeps going, which is why he puts curiosity first and treats the certificate as its result. Ideate, build, and launch an intelligent system by studying B.Tech CSE in AI/ML at Parul University!

His preparation had a clear shape:

• A three-day workshop run by Apple Certified Trainer Prof. Umang Panchal, covering Swift, SwiftUI, and the Apple ecosystem
• Two to three months of steady study with the syllabus the trainer shared
• Guidance from seniors who had already cleared the examination

He completed the associate examination and scored above 700. His reaction, by his own account, was calm. By the time he sat down for the paper, the result was less a surprise than a confirmation of the work he had already done.

For a second-year student, an Apple credential is an early head start. Because Apple issues so few certifications, he says, a recruiter who sees one understands at once that the holder knows Swift and the Apple ecosystem.

This certification means a lot to me because I am in my second year, and it will make my resume strong.

His involvement goes beyond his own certificate. He is a member of the Swift Coding Club and is helping start a Swift community in Vadodara, adding the city to a list that already includes Bangalore, Surat, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Indore, and Pune. The first meetup is planned for the end of November.

His main ambition is research in Artificial Intelligence, and neural networks in particular. At a Swift event in Mumbai, a developer told him that companies are looking for AI and ML engineers who specialise in macOS and that machine learning differs across operating systems. That pointed him in a direction: join his Apple knowledge with machine learning. As he puts it, he will probably move towards macOS with ML and neural networks if it is something he enjoys. The certification is the first visible step on that path.

Students curious about Swift and the Apple ecosystem can start at the campus Apple Lab and the Future Skills Centre.

Apple Innovation Lab: paruluniversity.ac.in/apple-innovation-lab

Lakshya 2047, Centre for Future Skills: paruluniversity.ac.in/academics/lakshya-2047

• Manav Sinh, CSE AIML student, Apple Swift Associate certified
• Prof. Umang Panchal, Apple Certified Trainer
• Swift Coding Club, Tinkering Hub Student Swift community at Parul University
• Parul University, Vadodara, Gujarat AI/ML