Civic AI Action Hub wins Rep. Joseph Morelle’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in New York’s 25th District
Rep. Joseph Morelle has named Abhiram Pulijala, Saatvik Guduru, Henry Gagnier, and James Casey of John P. Stevens and Pittsford Sutherland High School as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in New York’s 25th District. Their app Civic AI Action Hub is a web app that helps students and communities turn local environmental and repair data into simple, AI-generated projects that make neighborhoods better.
When asked what inspired the creation of Civic AI Action Hub, the students said, “As high school students, we know how hard it is to come up with meaningful ways to improve our communities, much less personalized ideas tailored to our community’s needs and information. We also know the effort it takes to create change and effectively contact local representatives about local issues. This is why we built Civic AI Action Hub. Civic AI Action Hub makes it easy for fellow students to find ways to do good locally, and makes it easy for anyone to report issues in their communities and find ways to help.”
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.