V-Tip Wins Rep. Biliraki’s (FL-12) 2019 Congressional App Challenge

Rep. Gus Bilirakis has named a Lutz student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Florida’s 12th district. George M. Steinbrenner High School’s Advika Jayanti submitted V-Tip, an app designed to collaboratively tackle mishappenings within the school premises through implicit incident reporting.

When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that focuses school incident reporting the student replied, “As a student, it’s essential to be eyes and ears for the school administration. There are so many incidents that we ignore in a day to day routine, which if reported timely, may have positive end results.” 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.