AID – Apple Infection Detector Rep. Heck’s (WA-10) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Denny Heck has named local students as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Washington’s 10th district. Nidhi Krishna Kumar submitted AID – Apple Infection Detector, an innovative app with a disease detection system for farmers that would assist in the advancements in agriculture.
When asked why they were passionate about creating an app for farmers the students replied, “A few months ago, though, when we met to hang out, we noticed that the leaves on the apple tree in my backyard had weird spots on them. When we saw these spots, we remembered the disfigured leaves on the trees from our trip the summer before. This lead to us trying to figure out what was wrong with the tree.” 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.