ReadFluid wins Rep. Katherine Clark’s (MA-05) 2020 Congressional App Challenge

When asked what inspired the creation of RealFluid, the students said, “The inspirations behind ReadFluid are both personal and practical. The two of us have plenty of combined language learning experience, be it studying German and French at school, or speaking Hindi and Mandarin at home. Personally, I (Bryant) moved from Beijing to Lexington beginning in eighth grade. To this day, I still vividly recall my struggles with learning English growing up, especially all the constant interruptions from having to look up new vocab and not knowing whether the reading materials I had were appropriate for my abilities or not. I think the app Akul and I have created would have been a tool that is useful, time-saving, and even somewhat magical to my younger self. There are a large number of English Language Learners in the world. We hope our tool can facilitate a more fluid, productive reading experience that will help them strengthen their language skills and better immerse in the community. ”

Over 6,500 students registered for the 2020 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 3,088 functioning apps, marking the end of an extremely successful Congressional App Challenge amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All told, 308 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 49 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, DC.

The CAC is an initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Members of Congress host competitions 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 Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental support. In the six years of the Congressional App Challenge, thousands of functional apps have been created by over 30,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.