Happy Hub wins Rep. Eric Swalwell’s 2022 Congressional App Challenge in California’s 15th District.

When asked what inspired the creation of Happy Hub, the student said, ”When I got to high school, I realized there was a lot of pressure to do well, academically. The pressure started getting to me and I was almost always really anxious about tests and quizzes and even homework. I started neglecting my health to focus on schoolwork. At school, my friends and I shared stories of how we had slept at 2 or 3 am for a whole week or skipped lunch to study for tests. I noticed that almost everyone around me was going through the same things I was. As our school was filled with academic high achievers, everyone was always anxious about grades. I realized that a place to vent would alleviate the anxiety because when I talked to my friends about all the tasks ahead, we laughed about them, and they felt less daunting. As I researched more into my idea, I found some shocking statistics. 16.39% of children ages 12-17 report suffering from at least 1 major depressive episode in the past year. About 18% of people ages 18-54 have an anxiety disorder in a given year. Even before the pandemic, there was a 27% increase in the number of kids diagnosed with anxiety problems. 21% of all US adults are diagnosed with a mental disorder, and this number is much higher in females than males. To try to solve this problem, my initial idea was simply an app to track the user’s moods daily and present them in various graph formats so that the user could analyze and review their emotional trends. To do this, I wanted to use facial recognition AI because people can sometimes misread themselves or not want to admit when they are unhappy. As the project grew, I added several other features.”