Three student teams from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts earned recognition in the annual Congressional App Challenge sponsored by Fourth Congressional District U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman.
The Congressional App Challenge is an annual event in which middle and high school students across the country design and code their own original apps. The winning team from each congressional district is honored at an event in Washington, D.C., where they present their apps to attendees.
Westerman announced the results during a virtual event on Nov. 12. Fourteen teams comprised of 39 students entered the competition.
ASMSA teams who placed included:
- Capstone Coach, second place. The team included Shawn Chen, Erik Fluke, Claire Green and Hibing Yu. The students developed an app to match ASMSA alumni as mentors and advisers for current students participating in the school’s capstone program.
- Terra-Aid, fourth place. Team members were David Clark, Soumya Chauhan, Pierce Hickey and Steven Lynch. The app helps users reduce their carbon footprint through gameplay. Users complete various missions based on their household to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.
- Net Reach, fifth place. The app was developed by Stacia Toney and Werner Gratton. The app helps underserved students find resume-building mentorships, internships and resources for college. It was designed to help low-income and minority populations with limited access to education and job opportunities and sufficient financial resources.
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Steve Rice, entrepreneurship instructor at ASMSA, served as the student teams’ adviser. He said the competition offers students an important learning opportunity.
“The Congressional App Challenge draws together students across disciplines and teaches teamwork, problem-solving and critical thinking. This semester has been a challenge for everyone, and these young scholars certainly rose to the challenge in a big way,” Rice said.
Westerman held a virtual reception for the challenge this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said having the chance to still recognize the students’ efforts was pleasing.
“I look forward to the Congressional App Challenge every year as a way to showcase the incredible talent of Fourth District students,” Westerman said in a release announcing the winners. “Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet with them in person this year due to COVID-19, but I’m glad we still got to hold the reception virtually so I could congratulate them on all their hard work. It’s always difficult to pick a winner!”
The release announcing the winners on Westerman’s website includes links to the video presentations of each team. To view the release and video links, visit https://asmsa.me/conappwesterman.