O Positive wins Rep. Scott Peters’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in California’s 50th District
Rep. Peters has named Umar Ghani, an 11th grader at Westview High School, as the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in California’s 50th District.
When asked what inspired the creation of O Positive, the student said, “During Covid-19, a close friend of mine was in a medical emergency, and the struggle to find a compatible donor acted as a wake-up call. It became clear to me how important it was for a swift and efficient means of connecting donors with recipients. The weight of this experience was a catalyst for action. I have always believed in the power of technology to bring about meaningful change, and thinking about that incident prompted me to develop a user-friendly platform that would encourage and empower individuals to readily offer and request blood donations. I also understood that it would be extremely important to develop this app in an intuitive way in order to remove barriers that often hinder potential donors from stepping forward, since what’s stopping most people today from actually donating blood is the entire effort they need to put into finding a blood donation camp, knowing whether or not their blood type is required, and the lack of knowledge about exactly how impactful it is. Marketing through social media and announcements did get the word about blood donation camps across, but people would ultimately forget about it unless reminded by an external source – such as an app on their phone.”
This year’s Challenge saw an unprecedented level of participation, with 374 Members of the House of Representatives hosting competitions, surpassing the previous record of 340. A remarkable 11,334 students from across the United States competed in this year’s Challenge, marking an impressive increase of nearly 1,000 participants compared to the previous record set in 2019. The enthusiasm and creativity these students display is a testament to the growing interest in technology and signal a bright future for American innovation. The surge of ingenuity continued with a whopping 3,645 original applications flooding in, nearly a thousand more than the previous year’s high. This remarkable growth showcases the exceptional talent and innovation within our nation’s youth.
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. This resounding show of bipartisan support emphasizes the critical importance of STEM education in today’s rapidly evolving world. 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 2024 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May of 2024, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.