Trash Bin Optimizer wins Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in New York’s 13th District
Rep. Adriano Espaillat has named Louis Gui of The Bronx High School of Science as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in New York’s 13th District. Their app Trash Bin Optimizer is a web-based tool that focuses on the issue of sanitation planning in the city.
When asked what inspired the creation of Trash Bin Optimizer, Louis Gui said, “The reason we were inspired to pursue this project came from the observations we made of the discrepancies in the availability of sanitation resources among the many neighborhoods in New York City. Although the city releases a tremendous amount of information about their operations, the information comes in a form that isn’t very accessible. The motivation for this project stemmed from our desire to use our technical know-how to tackle a real-world issue in our community. We thought that our ability to simplify a complex spreadsheet system could empower our community and city authorities to use available data more meaningfully. Thus, the aim of our project became not only to represent the status quo of our infrastructure through visualization but also to offer insights for improving the same.”
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.