Distancing Camera wins Rep. Suzan DelBene’s (WA-01) 2020 Congressional App Challenge

When asked what inspired the creation of Distancing Camera, the students said, “A Google-sponsored project known as “Sodar” was revealed a few months ago. The app would draw a circle in front of the user’s line of sight using their phone, and this circle could be used to determine if social distancing was violated relative to that one person. My team and I wanted to create something that would not only warn the user in a manner similar to “Sodar,” but would do so automatically and could also be used by supervisors to warn other people if they were violating social distancing.”

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.