Aspire wins Rep. Brian Higgins’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in New York’s 26th District
Rep. Higgins has named Arhan Patel of Williamsville East High School, Alexey Simakov of Williamsville North High School, Salil Karkhanis of Williamsville East High School, and Naman Kapoor of Williamsville East High School as the winners of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in New York’s 26th District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Aspire, the students said, “Growing up, we learned about the problems in society such as climate change, however, when we looked at how many people were solving one problem (in this case climate change) we wanted to instead encourage people to look at a broad range of problems and fight a highly preventable issue in the process, so we chose to fight poverty. We noticed one of the main reasons for poverty is the lack of financial education, this is the birth of Aspire.”
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.