Atheia wins Rep. Donald Beyer’s (VA-08) 2020 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Donald Beyer has named Raffu Khondaker, Irfan Nafi, Eugene Choi, and Pranav Ravella from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science And Technology as the winners of the 2020 Congressional App Challenge in (VA-08).
When asked what inspired the creation of Atheia, the students said, “In a Cornell disability report, it was estimated that in 2017, 55% of people with visual impairments were unemployed. Therefore, we set out to use AI and computer learning to make a more affordable product for those that are vision-impaired.”
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.