COVID Scanner wins Rep. Conor Lamb’s (PA-17) 2020 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Conor Lamb has named Ananth Kashyap from Fox Chapel Area High School as the winner of the 2020 Congressional App Challenge in (PA-17).
When asked what inspired the creation of COVID Scanner, the student said, “Recently, many people that I am close to were really struggling to understand if they had COVID-19 symptoms due to the mass amount of information on the CDC website. I decided to create an app that took in exactly the symptoms that they were experiencing, and returned all of the advice that they needed quickly.”
Over 6,500 students registered for the 2020 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 3,088 functioning apps, marking the end of an extremely successful Congressional App Challenge amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All told, 308 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 49 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, DC.
The CAC is an initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Members of Congress host competitions 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 Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental support. In the six years of the Congressional App Challenge, thousands of functional apps have been created by over 30,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.