Ped Med Interaction Finder Wins Rep. Hayes’s (CT-05) 2019 Congressional App Challenge

Rep. Jahana Hayes has named a Cheshire student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Connecticut’s 5th district. St Bridget School’s Nilan Kathir submitted Ped Med Interaction Finder, an app is designed to help pediatricians find which drugs have the least adverse effects on minors. 

When asked why they were passionate about creating a medicinal app the student replied,“I read an article and found out over 156,000 medicinal reports were sent to the poison control center, within the last 14 years. Plus, one in five pediatrics and adolescents receive at least one prescription medication and, 7.5 percent receive two or more prescription medications according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. I wanted to make sure these persons were not at-risk.” The student hopes to encourage other students to better their communities by using their computer science skills.  

Over 10,000 students registered for the 2019 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 2,177 functioning apps, marking the end of the most successful Congressional App Challenge to date. All told, 304 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 48 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, D.C.

The CAC is an initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Members of Congress host contests in their districts for middle school and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science. The non-profit Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental staffing and support. In the five years of the Congressional App Challenge, the program has yielded 1134 App Challenges across 48 states. Thousands of functional apps have been created by over 25,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.