AI Corn Disease Detector wins Rep. Mike Flood’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Nebraska’s First District
Rep. Flood has named Adam Khattak, a 12th grader at Lincoln Southwest High School, as the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Nebraska’s First District.
When asked what inspired the creation of the AI Corn Disease Detector, the student said, “I was inspired by my friend, Austin, who is a farmer. Over the summer Austin and I had gone fishing together, and on our trip he explained to me the difficulties his family’s farm had been having with the health of their corn. During this same summer I had been working at UNL doing work on autoencoders. While at work after the conversation with Austin I realized that machine learning could be used to help farmers such as my friend Austin. After my epiphany I requested Austin send me some pictures of corn to help train the model. I was also motivated to make this app because corn plays a significant part in Nebraskan culture, and I enjoyed learning more about the crop which some of my identity is based on.”
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. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from Omidyar Network, AWS, Rise, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2024 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May of 2024, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.