Ruoshan Li - Social Work & App Development - Swift Student Challenge Winner

Helping people is Ruoshan Li’s driving force. Throughout high school, she volunteered in her local community and saw how her time and effort could make a real difference to those in need. These experiences inspired her to study social work at university, where she has made it her mission to help the vulnerable — particularly children and young people.

During her freshman year at Shanghai Business School, Ruoshan began exploring how technology could expand her reach as a future social worker. When a professor suggested she consider app development, she joined the Swift Coding Club. She was encouraged by fellow club members who showed her how apps can positively impact society in a variety of ways — from education to healthcare. And though she had never tried coding before, she discovered that it was fun and easy to transform her ideas into working apps using Swift on Mac.

Ruoshan’s first app, Deep Blue Tangram, combines jigsaw puzzles with virtual reality technology to help develop problem-solving and fine motor skills. The game-based app was inspired by her social work internship with underprivileged children and by her young cousins, who loved to learn through games and creative play. She entered it into the Swift Student Challenge in 2024 and was named one of 50 Distinguished Winners.

“I realized that participating in the Swift Student Challenge wasn’t just about showcasing my technical skills — it was an opportunity to create something meaningful,” she says. “Coding with Swift has given me a way to transform theories and frameworks into real life tools that can help people.”

For Ruoshan, the power and versatility of Mac means she can move between coding and her social studies classes without skipping a beat. She prototypes her apps using Figma, creates design elements in Adobe Photoshop, and then brings it all to life with Swift in Xcode. In her social work studies, she uses Keynote for presentations and annotates materials on Noteful.

Today, Ruoshan still spends most of her free time at the Swift Coding Club where it all started — but it’s about more than just creating apps. The club is a tight-knit community where members study together, play games, and host potluck dinners. Now, as a senior member, things have come full circle. Ruoshan has become a mentor for younger coding enthusiasts and teaches programming to primary school children and students in disadvantaged areas.

In the future, Ruoshan aims to find a career path that combines her passion for social work with her coding skills. She aspires to utilize the many worldwide connections she’s made through the Swift Student Challenge network and is especially interested in leveraging technology to give a voice to the underprivileged.

“I believe that it’s our moral responsibility to use the tools we have to help those in need in our community,” Ruoshan says. “But what I never expected was that helping others could give me so much fulfillment and happiness as well.”