Universal Safety App (USA) : Safety App For Reducing Distractions While Driving Wins Rep. Hill’s (AR-02) 2019 Congressional App Challenge

Rep. French Hill has named a Little Rock student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Arkansas’s 2nd district. Little Rock Central High School’s Anu Iyer submitted Universal Safety App (USA) : Safety App For Reducing Distractions While Driving, an app designed to intercept calls and texts, and send an outgoing message, which can be customized.

When asked why they are passionate about creating a safe driving app the student replied, “When I was on a road trip with my family, I noticed that drivers were using their cell phones behind the wheel. After conducting some research I found that each day 11 teens die as a result of texting and driving, and 86% of teenage drivers admit that they use their cell phones while driving. As a teenager who is about to start driving, I wanted to figure out a way to provide a safe driving experience.” The student hopes to encourage other students to better their communities, by using their computer science skills.  

Over 10,000 students registered for the 2019 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 2,177 functioning apps, marking the end of the most successful Congressional App Challenge to date. All told, 304 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 48 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, D.C.

The CAC is an initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Members of Congress host contests in their districts for middle school and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science. The non-profit Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental staffing and support. In the five years of the Congressional App Challenge, the program has yielded 1134 App Challenges across 48 states. Thousands of functional apps have been created by over 25,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.