Omniversal wins Rep. Russell Fry’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in South Carolina’s Seventh District
Rep. Fry has named Alden Okoh-Aduako, a 12th grader at Trinity Collegiate School, as the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in South Carolina’s Seventh District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Omniversal, the student said, “I’d seen and used several particle life simulators before, and I wanted to try to make one of my own with features like save files, custom particle colors, graphs showing particle forces, custom particle amounts, etc. Before this app came many attempts at making particle chemistry (hence my codename for this app, “Yet Another Particle Chemistry App”), each better than the last. Omniversal is different from those past attempts in that it has completely different physics, improved performance, way more customization options, and an actual user interface instead of just keybinds.”
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.