It was a dream come true for Delhi-based student Palash Taneja when he stood face to face with Apple CEO Tim Cook, along with 13 global students in San Jose and in that moment, came the witty question: How are you, Tim Apple?
Before Tim Cook could answer that, the floor burst into laughter.
"Yes, I am good and aware of what you mean to convey," quipped Mr Cook as he met the bright young coders from across the globe, and Palash Taneja was the only one from India.
US President Donald Trump had once addressed Tim Cook as "Tim Apple" at a conference in March. The Apple CEO later changed his Twitter name to "Tim Apple" -- replacing his surname with the company logo, which went viral on social media.
Palash Taneja, 18, who recently finished school and is on a gap year ahead of moving to the University of Texas at Austin, showcased a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) based project to Mr Cook.
"I showed him my project where the neural language processing (NLP) based algorithms can change the language of a YouTube video as you watch it, say from English to Hindi," Palash Taneja told news agency IANS.
According to him, providing language accessibility is the core of his idea -- utilise AI and ML to break the language barrier.
"My algorithms can translate nearly 50 languages on the go. The idea is to make rich and useful content accessible to all," he added.
Mr Cook, who wants coding to become the second language at schools, appreciated Palash Taneja's idea, saying he looks forward to it becoming a success.
Palash Taneja's inspiration for coding began when he saw his father working on Excel sheets and saw the visual charts.
His first foray into coding was with Raspberry Pi while in Class 8.
He had suffered from dengue fever when he was in Class 10. It was then that he created a website app to manage hospital beds after himself facing difficulties to find a bed in a hospital.
Palash Taneja also created a tool that predicts dengue fever outbreaks through Machine Learning, which achieved 3,000 page views a month during outbreaks.
