Counting Bot Wins Rep. McAdam’s (UT-04) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Ben McAdam’s has named a West Valley City student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Utah’s 4th district. Granger HS Senior’s Ashley Lujan submitted Counting Bot, an app that counts for you with just the press of a button.
When asked why the student was passionate about creating a counting app the student replied, “When counting for my mom, I realized counting is tedious. I often find myself having to recount, just because it’s difficult to maintain focus when doing so. This is where I came up with the idea of a counting app.” They hope 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.