MediLingua wins Rep. Darin LaHood’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Illinois’s 16th District
Rep. LaHood has named Neel Kansara of Monta Vista High School, Hariom Thaker of Dunlap Valley Middle School, and Sanjit Perumalla of Dunlap Valley Middle School as the winners of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Illinois’s 16th District.
When asked what inspired the creation of MediLingua, the students said, ”According to the National Library of Medicine, non-native English speakers experience higher death rates than English speakers in emergencies, and it takes about 17-35 minutes longer for non-native English speakers to be admitted to the ICU. The sole reason for this discrepancy is the lack of adequate communication systems for non-native English-speaking patients during emergencies. We created MediLingua with the aspiration of mitigating this problem.
Our team shares a great personal connection with this issue as well, since all three of us are second-generation immigrants in the USA who have family members that are non-native English speakers. We have witnessed firsthand how slow and difficult communication can be for our parents and grandparents, especially in medical scenarios‚Äîand this is a theme for immigrant families across the country. We believe that English communication skills should not determine an individual’s safety in a life-or-death scenario.
Our greatest inspiration for this app is making communication during an emergency response more effective, inclusive, and time-saving. We aim to make emergency communication quicker and more effective, one life-saving conversation at a time.”
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.