Computer Science and Engineering student Coulton Vento, a Startup Aggieland student Entrepreneur-in-Residence and self-taught iOS and web developer, recently won the top student prize at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in California.
Vento was invited to the WWDC for the first time in 2012 after receiving a scholarship to attend and has continued to be a part of the conference since.
“The WWDC excites me, and inspires me to make something awesome. If you were to go in the building and look around, you’d see so many successful developers. In the past few years, I’ve met many of the people who make the apps that I use every day. Their success and experience motivates me to make something new and exciting.”
Vento has accomplished many things even before earning this prestigious award. His résumé includes co-developing the app that won first place at the conference, PanoPerfect, which allows users to discover, share and interact with panoramic pictures from all around the world and also being the co-founder and senior programmer for the company TwoBros with his brother, Brandon. At TwoBros, Vento and his brother aim to get startup companies off the ground with custom logos, websites, and even mobile applications.
Vento is also responsible for the iPhone app Bzar, which is an app designed to make buying and selling online safer and more comfortable for the user. Along with developing apps for iOS, he develops websites such as TextPlay, which allows users to create playlists with songs that a targeted audience would want to hear. Occasionally, Vento also does freelance work for Darnology, a web design agency based in Houston, Texas.
The WWDC is Apple's annual week of learning for Mac OS X and iOS developers. During the conference, developers are able to experience the latest in iOS and OS X while also having the opportunity to connect with Apple experts and developers from around the world.
PanoPerfect, the winning social sharing app for panoramas, was created by Vento and his partner Nate Chiger of HalfPeeled LLC.
“Three years ago, at WWDC 2012, Apple unveiled a new feature inside of their camera app: the panorama camera. I met Nate Chiger at the conference, and we noticed something. There really wasn’t a place to share all of these amazing photos. So we set off and created PanoPerfect, a place where panorama lovers and photographers can come together and share their awesome pictures with each other.”
Vento is an excellent example of the quality of students that Texas A&M is known for and he continues to be an ambassador of the department.