dot-buddy Wins Rep. Lieu’s (CA-33) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Ted Lieu has named a Redondo Beach student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in California’s 33rd district. Redondo Union High School’s Julian Quevedo submitted dot-buddy, an app designed to aid band performers accurately hit their checkpoints as they march across the field.
When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that focuses on aiding members of the marching band the student replied, “I am always looking for new ways to make marching your drill easier. I noticed that a type of calculator made specifically for marching band would open so many doors to more precise marching and thus higher scores at our competitions. So, I combined my love for band and programming and made dot-buddy.” The student hopes to encourage other students to better their communities, by using their computer science skills.
Over 10,000 students registered for the 2019 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 2,177 functioning apps, marking the end of the most successful Congressional App Challenge to date. All told, 304 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 48 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, D.C.
The CAC is an 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. The non-profit Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental staffing and support. In the five years of the Congressional App Challenge, the program has yielded 1134 App Challenges across 48 states. Thousands of functional apps have been created by over 25,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.