Palatine student wins Apple's Swift Student Challenge with 'Pink' app teaching CPR

PALATINE, Ill. - A University of Illinois student is being called a winner by tech giant Apple for creating a lifesaving app. 

He was chosen among thousands of students to be recognized as a winner of the company's Swift Challenge Award. 

Michael Parekh, 22, of Palatine, is one of thousands of college students from around the world to enter Apple's 2024 Swift Student Challenge. 

The competition encourages the next generation of developers, creators and entrepreneurs to showcase their creative coding capabilities.

Parekh is a computer science student at the university.

He created an app called "Pink," which teaches the basics of cardiac arrest and CPR through an interactive game. 

Parekh said he came up with the idea after losing a loved one to a heart attack. He wanted to figure out how to raise awareness and teach people what to do if they find themselves in that situation. 

"The app basically takes you through several levels on the game and each level represents a step of CPR. So, like either calling 911 or giving chest compressions and in order to get to the next part of the game, you have to successfully complete each level. So the goal of it is to sort of teach people how to do CPR and have fun, in an interactive way," Parekh said. 

Parekh's new goal is to get "Pink" on the App Store so people have access on their iPads, phones, computers and in every school. 

As a winner of the Swift Student Challenge, he has the opportunity to travel to the Apple campus and meet with other developers.