Care Plan Monkey wins Rep. Dan Bishop’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in North Carolina’s Eighth District
Rep. Bishop has named Aditya Choubey, an eighth grader at Weddington Middle School, as the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in North Carolina’s Eighth District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Care Plan Monkey, the student said, “About a year ago, I learned at school about the age demographics of our country. Some of the statistics about the growing elderly population fascinated me. It made me think about how aging makes physical and mental capabilities deteriorate and significantly increases the risk of diseases, leading to the need for more holistic and involved care. The pandemic also highlighted the complexity of caring for senior citizens.
Since we know that the elderly population is growing, and at a faster rate than in earlier decades, I believe there is a great need for innovation in caring for our growing elderly population. My app is one such small effort in that direction.
Also, from my personal experience, I have seen my grandparents’ health deteriorate significantly in the past couple of years. I have observed how essential it has been to have a caregiver on the side to plan and manage care for them. More recently, my dad has also been put on medications and has been asked to log certain vitals. I observed him missing medications or failing to follow specific providers’ instructions because of his busy schedule. These prompted me to find a tool to help manage his care and track additional relevant information to assist him with the care. However, I could not find a simple and easy-to-use tool to help create a care plan and help manage his care.
All of these motivated me to design and develop an app that intends to assist caregivers in managing care.”
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.