Methodic wins Rep. Terri Sewell’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Alabama’s Seventh District
Rep. Sewell has named Danielle George, Aanchal Behara, Audrey Guo, and Sophia Guo of The Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA) as the winners of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Alabama’s Seventh District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Methodic, the students said, “As students, we know how challenging school can be, especially with extracurriculars. It can be incredibly difficult to manage a full workload. We wanted to make an app that would help students by giving them an alternative to pointless cramming. With Methodic, students have access to a database of proven studying methods that help students not only process information but also retain it long-term. Students can save a lot of time by using more efficient and effective study methods. However, many students don’t know how to implement these techniques, while others don’t even know they exist. Knowing this as students, we wanted to create an app that would help connect students with study methods that would be personalized and target their specific struggles. With all of this in mind, we wanted to avoid making an app that, although it has all of the information readily available, is hard to navigate. With Methodic, we wanted to combine functionality and user-friendliness to make Methodic accessible to people with all sorts of technological skill-sets because students are already busy enough without having to learn another app on top of their typical workload.”
This year’s Challenge saw an unprecedented level of participation, with 374 Members of the House of Representatives hosting competitions, surpassing the previous record of 340. A remarkable 11,334 students from across the United States competed in this year’s Challenge, marking an impressive increase of nearly 1,000 participants compared to the previous record set in 2019. The enthusiasm and creativity these students display is a testament to the growing interest in technology and signal a bright future for American innovation. The surge of ingenuity continued with a whopping 3,645 original applications flooding in, nearly a thousand more than the previous year’s high. This remarkable growth showcases the exceptional talent and innovation within our nation’s youth.
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. This resounding show of bipartisan support emphasizes the critical importance of STEM education in today’s rapidly evolving world. 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.