Mela-No-More wins Rep. Albio Sires’ 2022 Congressional App Challenge in New Jersey’s Eighth District
Rep. Albio Sires has named Harita Suresh of McNair Academic High School and Sharada Suresh of McNair Academic High School as the winners of the 2022 Congressional App Challenge in New Jersey’s Eighth District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Mela-No-More, the students said, ”Melanoma is a common yet hidden skin cancer prevalent in the U.S. Although it is easily treated in early stages it can become deadly when allowed to advance. Because it can look very similar to a mole, birthmark, or scratch, many victims of melanoma do not realize that they may actually have melanoma. We created Mela-No-More in order to help those who may potential victims of melanoma recognize whether they have (or do not have) melanoma, as well as keep them informed about their current skin condition, environmental factors that can cause them to contract melanoma, and healthy habits to prevent melanoma in users in the long run.”
The Congressional App Challenge smashed previous participation records in 2022. All told, 9,011 students registered for this year’s competition – creating 2,707 fully-functioning apps for 335 Members of Congress across 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the District of Columbia. This year’s competition set the record for most student registrations, most apps submitted, most apps per district submitted, and most districts receiving over 20 apps. The wildly successful competition continues to impress upon House Members the importance of computer science education and the need to develop a pipeline of diverse, domestic STEM talent.
The Congressional App Challenge is an official 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. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and each winning team is invited to showcase their winning app to Congress during our annual #HouseOfCode festival. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from Omidyar Network, AWS, Rise, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2023 Congressional App Challenge will launch in June of 2023, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.