AuralStudio wins Rep. Deborah Ross’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in North Carolina’s Second District
Rep. Ross has named Abhishek Shah, an 11th grader at Green Level High School, as the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in North Carolina’s Second District.
When asked what inspired the creation of AuralStudio, the student said, “In March 2023, while working on a programming project, I was hit by an ocular migraine that led to blindspots obscuring my vision. Unable to focus on the screen, I was forced to take a break and come back to the project a few hours later. The experience was short-lived, but it reminded me of an earlier visit to a school for blind girls where my aunt was a board member. At the school, I got the chance to speak to a few of the students and learn more about what they wanted to be in the future. Most wanted more than anything else to be financially independent, and many of them were already looking at viable careers that could be pursued without sight. However, not one girl I spoke to dreamed of becoming a programmer – they all believed, from what they had heard, that programming was hard enough by itself, and without sight, it would be impossible. That was when I began to wonder, is there a way that we can redesign and rethink the way we code today (which is indeed an extremely visual process), to create an app for those who cannot see? And that’s when AuralStudio was born.”
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.