OpiWarrior wins Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Pennsylvania’s Fifth District

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon has named Allison Tan of Lower Merion High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Pennsylvania’s Fifth District. Their app OpiWarrior is an iOS app that helps people quickly find nearby pharmacies that stock buprenorphine—a life-saving medication for opioid use disorder—in Philadelphia.

When asked what inspired the creation of OpiWarrior, Allison Tan said, “When I volunteered in a hospital ER, I saw the same overdose patients come in again and again. Between fetching Jell-O and Advil, I talked with them. Many said they wanted to get clean but couldn’t find pharmacies that would fill their buprenorphine prescriptions or offer real support. That experience pushed me to look deeper, so I conducted a research study mapping where patients in Philadelphia could actually access buprenorphine. The data showed major gaps in care across neighborhoods. Seeing those disparities firsthand and in the numbers motivated me to build OpiWarrior, a tool to make access to treatment easier and more equitable.”

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.