MSU and Apple Partner Up to Offer App Developer Academy in Detroit

Michigan State University and tech giant Apple are teaming up to launch an iOS developer academy in Detroit. The program is the first of its kind in North America, following similar initiatives in Brazil, Italy and Indonesia. 

For more than three years, MSU and Apple have worked to find ways for different colleges within the university to collaborate and create dynamic new ways to approach app development. Now, they’re expanding their current collaborations to fuel the developer academy in Detroit Campus iOS Lab. The lab will be aimed at expanding coding and app development in the state. 

“We have students from across campus, various disciplines, from computer scientists, to artists, to English majors, and so forth. And they all get the experience of learning how to write apps for iOS, and so on some of the aspects,” says Leo Kempel, the Dean of the College of Engineering at MSU. 

The academy in Detroit, just like the current program at MSU, will last one year and cover web coding, design and entrepreneurship.

Kempel says a crash course will also be offered for people who may think a year is a little too long. “Think of it as almost like a boot camp. That of course will have a very different group of people,” explains Kempel. “It’s meant to allow people to dip their toe into app writing to decide if they want to commit to the longer one.”

MSU is currently exploring locations for the academy in Detroit alongside Rock Ventures.

Kempel says the developer academy will fit in with the city’s rich history as a leader in advancing technologies. “Detroit has been a leader in innovation for more than a century,” says Kempel. “If you think of the society that we have, a lot of it was because of the creativity of people who live in Detroit. That was true 100 years ago, it’s true today.”