Homeessential Museum Wins Rep. Titus’s (NV-01) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Dina Titus has named three Las Vegas students as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Nevada’s 1st district. Hyde Park Middle School’s Diva Saxena, Lillian Levine and Ashritha Kalakuntla submitted Homeessential, interactive and innovative app that allows users to better discuss communal dangers and concerns with one another.
When asked why they were passionate about creating a safety app the students replied, “ Whether it be dangerous litter on the street or a broken sprinkler in a neighbor’s yard, it is blatantly clear that there is an abundance of environmental and safety issues in the overwhelming majority of communities. We, specifically, have encountered such occurrences in each one of our neighborhoods, and have now come to realize the consequential impact of negligence in terms of the welfare of our city and its people.” 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.