SafeZone wins Rep. Tony Gonzales’ 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’s 23rd District
Rep. Tony Gonzales has named Mridul Gautham of Basis Shavano as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’s 23rd District. Their app SafeZone is a Progressive Web App (PWA) designed to help users caught in natural disasters by providing real-time alerts, locating nearest safe spots, and facilitating emergency communications.
When asked what inspired the creation of SafeZone, Mridul Gautham said, “The recent floods in Texas showed how quickly disasters can escalate and how difficult it can be for people to find safe areas in time. Seeing families struggle to find safe areas and understand which areas were still safe inspired me to create an app that provides real-time safety information and guidance.
During those critical hours, people faced terrifying questions:
‘Where is it safe to go?’
‘How to go?’
‘How long would it take to go?’
‘Can all of my family go?’
‘Can I communicate the safe spots to my family?’
And the answer to these is my app SafeZone – Alert, Locate, Protect.”
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.