InstaData wins Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Pennsylvania’s First District
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has named Daniel Lao of Council Rock North High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Pennsylvania’s First District. Their app InstaData allows anyone to explore and analyze structured data like CSV files using Python.
When asked what inspired the creation of InstaData, Daniel Lao said, “From a young age, I’ve always been fascinated by data, from looking at sports stats to analyzing how plant growth relates to water intake. However, when I started learning about machine learning two years ago, I realized that data was far more complex than a few simple relationships. At first, this made understanding it really challenging. When I asked some of my friends if they had experience with this kind of data analysis, I was stunned to find that even the smartest among them had not been exposed to data analysis of that level. After doing some research, I discovered that over 60% of students at my school have actually never learned data analysis. That sparked my interest in creating a free tool that could teach data analysis while also giving me a chance to practice the machine learning skills I had struggled to learn myself.”
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.