Clarity wins Rep. John James’ 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Michigan’s 10th District
Rep. John James has named Eric Mu, Vaarin Newatia, and Darsh Upadhyay of Cranbrook Kingswood School and Cranbrook Schools as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Michigan’s 10th District. Their app Clarity is a study tool that helps students stay focused through head tracking.
When asked what inspired the creation of Clarity, the students said, “As students ourselves, we’ve all experienced the struggle of trying to stay focused during study sessions. We’d sit down, only to find ourselves scrolling through social media or falling down YouTube rabbit holes.
“That’s why we decided to create Clarity. Our approach was to track your head movement as that’s the best indicator of attention. When you’re distracted, you look away, tilt your head, or leave your desk entirely.
“We also realized that accountability and motivation are just as important as measurement. That’s why we added competitive leaderboards by turning focus into a challenge you can share with friends. AI-powered insights that help you understand your study patterns and improve over time. The browser extension integration ensures that distracting websites are blocked when you’re actually unfocused.
“Ultimately, we made Clarity because we wanted to create a tool that measures real focus, adapts to your behavior, and makes staying on task both achievable and engaging.”
The 2025 Congressional App Challenge marked another record-setting year for the program. A total of 394 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives hosted App Challenges in their congressional districts, the highest level of participation in the program’s history. More than 13,800 students from across the country participated, submitting over 4,600 original apps focused on real-world challenges ranging from health and accessibility to education, sustainability, and civic engagement.
The Congressional App Challenge is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives that encourages middle school and high school students to learn to code, explore computer science, and build practical technology solutions for their communities. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and winning teams are invited to showcase their projects to Members of Congress, staff, and industry leaders at the annual #HouseOfCode celebration on Capitol Hill.
The Challenge is proudly bipartisan and reflects a shared commitment to expanding access to STEM education and preparing the next generation of American innovators for the future workforce. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from the Broadcom Foundation, AWS, Infosys Foundation USA, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2026 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.