Politiwatch Wins Rep. Watson Coleman’s (NJ-12) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman has named a Princeton student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in New Jersey’s 12th district. South Brunswick High School’s Sudharshan Srinivasan submitted Politiwatch, an app which consolidates relevant political information into one place.
When asked why they were passionate about creating an informational app the student replied, “With my interest in politics growing since middle school, I thought it would be a creative idea to combine it with my other most passionate subject, computer science. The idea for this app in particular came just as we were starting our Mobile App Development class in school in 11th grade.” 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.