Temple Terrace teen creates app explaining quantum physics, wins Apple's Swift Student Challenge

Good grades have always come easy for Lexline Johnson. 

"I'm like a straight-A student, so I've gotten on honor roll about every single year. And I'm currently also in the National Honor Society at my school and National Beta Club and our Mu Alpha Theta Club too," she said. 

The Temple Terrace 16-year-old has always been open to learning, especially about the science of physics. 

"Quantum physics is a branch in physics that deals with small particles, and basically they behave a lot differently from classical objects since they're so small. And they're basically governed by a completely different set of rules," Johnson added. 

Photo: Lexline Johnson won the Swift Student Challenge

Lexline Johnson won the Swift Student Challenge.

The Academy of The Holy Names senior is so fascinated by quantum physics that she entered the Swift Student Challenge. It's a coding competition for students organized by Apple. 

"My app was called Quantum Entanglement, so basically it's an app that explains the basics of quantum entanglement, a phenomenon in quantum physics, and basically it seeks to explain it in simple terms, since quantum physics isn't a very well known topic to many," she explained. 

Photo: Lexline Johnson’s app called Quantum Entanglement basically explains the basics of quantum entanglement, a phenomenon in quantum physics.

Lexline Johnson’s app, Quantum Entanglement, explains the basics of a phenomenon in quantum physics. 

She is one of a few students around the world who won the most prestigious scholarship for teens. 

"I was very surprised," Johnson said. "This has been my second time participating, so I was not expecting to win. But that was very surprising, and I'm very happy." 

One day she hopes to become a Machine Learning Engineer, which is someone who works in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

"I'm really interested in like how far A.I. has gotten. And yeah, I definitely hope to like advance that and specifically in like health and medicine," she explained. "I'm hoping that I can use technology to help improve like diagnosis and other areas."

Johnson will receive one year of the Apple developer membership which allows users to publish apps on the App Store. She also receives a pin set and a jacket as part of her prize.