Pixel Quest wins Rep. Dina Titus’ 2022 Congressional App Challenge in Nevada’s First District
Rep. Dina Titus has named Kristiyan Pandzharov, an 11th Grader at West Career and Technical Academy, as the winner of the 2022 Congressional App Challenge in Nevada’s First District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Pixel Quest, the student said, ”My inspiration for Pixel Quest came from my struggle with the pandemic. I personally noticed that I felt horrible and was in a constant state of exhaustion during my time in isolation, and many students in my school felt the same way. Our mental state was in decline and we had to struggle to complete our assignments with online lectures that had limited effectiveness. The last straw was when I saw national headlines that showed me that test scores have been in decline in the United States due to the pandemic, especially among elementary students. Children are among the most vulnerable in our society, so it is clear that we have to dedicate time and effort to helping students with their academics and mental health.”
The Congressional App Challenge smashed previous participation records in 2022. All told, 9,011 students registered for this year’s competition – creating 2,707 fully-functioning apps for 335 Members of Congress across 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the District of Columbia. This year’s competition set the record for most student registrations, most apps submitted, most apps per district submitted, and most districts receiving over 20 apps. The wildly successful competition continues to impress upon House Members the importance of computer science education and the need to develop a pipeline of diverse, domestic STEM talent.
The Congressional App Challenge is an official 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. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and each winning team is invited to showcase their winning app to Congress during our annual #HouseOfCode festival. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from Omidyar Network, AWS, Rise, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2023 Congressional App Challenge will launch in June of 2023, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.