Zatiak wins Rep. Jodey Arrington’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’s 19th District
Rep. Jodey Arrington has named Aileen Rivera Romero of Texas Tech University High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’s 19th District. Their app Zatiak is an adaptive learning tool that helps users practice math while monitoring their heart rate.
When asked what inspired the creation of Zatiak, Aileen Rivera Romero said, “I wanted to explore how technology could connect learning with emotional awareness. Many people experience stress or anxiety when solving math problems, which can interfere with focus and performance. This inspired me to develop Zatiak, built around the idea of Cardiognosis.
“Traditionally, cardiognosis refers to ‘knowledge of the heart,’ often in a spiritual sense. In this project, I reinterpret that idea in a modern, scientific context by focusing on how physiological signals, like heart rate, reflect a learner’s emotional state in real time.
“By combining real-time heart rate monitoring with adaptive math practice, Zatiak helps users recognize how their body responds during problem-solving. This awareness allows them to manage stress, stay focused, and approach challenges more calmly.
“Through this approach, the project demonstrates that learning is not only cognitive, but also emotional and physical, encouraging users to better understand themselves as they learn.”
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.