PhotoFind Wins Rep. Cheney’s (WY-00) 2019 Congressional App Challenge

Rep. Liz Cheney has named a Sheridan student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Wyoming. Sheridan High School’s Alicia Thoney submitted PhotoFind, an app that allows its users to locate a cropped part of an image, and then submit a picture of the larger scene that the original image was from. 

When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that encourages photography the student replied, “My inspirations for the creation of this app included my love of photography and attention to detail. My hometown of Sheridan Wyoming is brimming with beautiful scenery and interesting details. By capturing these unique locations and having users search for the tiny parts of a larger picture, they also experience the idea of beauty in detail.” 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.