Search Party Wins Rep. Raskin’s (MD-08) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Jamie Raskin has named three North Potomac students as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Maryland’s 8th district. Montgomery Blair High School’s Matthew Casertano, Andrew Healey and Aaron Chyatte submitted Search Party, an app that provides an easy-to-use interface for citizens to collaborate with law enforcement on missing person searches.
When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that assists law enforcement the students replied, “We saw a dire problem in the world with nothing being done to address it. We knew that with our coding knowledge, we could truly make a difference in this area through the use of technology. We figured this could enhance the ability of authorities to organize and collaborate with the community.” They hope 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.