He is part of a generation that has been raised with smartphones and multi-touch platforms. At the age of 12, he developed his first app, but it was his most recent development of The Homework App that put him on the global tech map. The young entrepreneur’s creation was featured as one of the top six apps in a list of back-to-school tools in the US. Earlier this month, Kerman Kohli won a prestigious scholarship with Apple, and he left for the US to attend the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. Indian Weekender spoke to Kohli to find out more about his app and his experience at one of the most-anticipated events in the tech community.

IWK: How was your experience at WWDC?

Kerman: The experience of winning one of the 350 WWDC scholarship tickets worldwide felt like winning a golden ticket to the Wonka factory, to be honest! The warm California weather combined with the atmosphere of the conference was surreal, to say the least. During the scholarship introduction day, Tim Cook came to visit us and personally signed our badges. Over the next few days, I met multiple Apple engineers, designers and people in the tech industry. I also visited the Google, PlayStation and Visa office, which were super fun to tour.

IWK: What was the idea behind developing the Homework App?

Kerman: The Homework App was born out of the necessity of requiring homework planner app. Existing apps weren’t to the standard I expected an app to be, so I decided to make my own.

IWK: What features set The Homework App apart from other homework planners available?

Kerman: Some of the key areas that make my app stand apart from the rest are ease-of-use, interface design and playfulness.

IWK: The app is currently only available for Apple users. Do you plan to extend its reach by making it available on other platforms?

Kerman: Yes, I am making the Homework app for Android platform, which will be available by August this year.

IWK: What was your biggest challenge while developing the app?

Kerman: I don’t think there was a single challenge, rather multiple challenges while developing the app. While they may be engineering, business or design related challenges, the solution has always been the same—perseverance and determination.

IWK: Tell us a little about the other apps that you've created.

Kerman: I developed my first app, Text Enlarger, when I was 12. A simple utility app, it enlarged text to the biggest possible size on a user’s phone—a mobile billboard of sorts. While the app only received a few thousand downloads, it was an exciting project to work on and fuelled my passion for developing more apps in the future.

IWK: Are there any more apps in the pipeline?

Kerman: Not sure, although I always keep a look out for any.