In a nondescript Apple office building in Cupertino, California, a group of engineers has spent the past four weeks working feverishly on the next big thing in consumer hardware, prototyping a water-saving shower head, a new version of the Apple Watch, and a “smart” water bottle.

These products may never hit the market, but that hasn’t deterred the 25 high schoolers who are building them as part of an Apple summer camp. Called the Engineering Technology Camp, or ETC for short, the new camp was designed to give high school juniors and seniors full access to 40 Apple staffers, as well as various building tools, as they split into teams and try to build working prototypes in just under a month.

The Verge visited the camp earlier this week and saw some of the products, which were required to work with Apple software or hardware in some way. Apple staff set a theme for the camp: sustainability. 

Some of the ETC products were built almost entirely from scratch, like Shower Buddy, an internet-connected shower head and bath mat that let you set a timer on your showers from your smartphone. It senses when you’ve stepped away from the shower head (say, to apply shampoo), and adjusts the water flow to save water. Others, like Airware, build on top of existing Apple designs to create a wearable air-quality monitor and UV tracker. One of the students on the Airware engineering team, 16-year-old Annika Urban, said she envisions something like this eventually being built directly into the Apple Watch.

Other products not pictured included a connected composting bin, a connected water bottle, and a refrigerator monitor.

The month-long camp culminates in what Apple is probably most well-known for outside of its product-making: product presentations. Today, the last day of ETC, the high school students are scheduled to present their products to Riccio and the other Apple employees who have been running the camp.

It seems the students are getting lessons in Apple’s infamous secrecy around products as well. When I asked a group of students whether they plan to continue working on their products after ETC ends, one studied replied, “I think we’ve all had that thought, but we signed an agreement, so... we can’t say anything.”

So, if you see an Apple shower head or compost bin on the market in a few years, there’s at least a chance it came from a high schooler, not your typical Apple engineer.

Source: theverge