Collaborate for Change wins Rep. Lauren Underwood’s (IL-14) 2020 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Lauren Underwood has named Kyran Siddiqui, Shamita Kollerkandy, Marc Townsend, and Rajiv Jhangiani from Oswego East High School as the winners of the 2020 Congressional App Challenge in (IL-14).
When asked what inspired the creation of Collaborate for Change, the students said, “A couple of us were part of a robotics team earlier this year. When the pandemic started, we wanted to contribute by 3D printing PPE for health care providers. Our PPE efforts had given us the confidence that even as middle and high school students, we could bring about positive change in our community and this problem presented us with a new challenge to tackle using our STEM skills.”
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.