VisuAI wins Rep. Jen Kiggans’ 2024 Congressional App Challenge in Virginia’s Second District

When asked what inspired the creation of VisuAI, the students said, “From a young age, I have been passionate about programming, seeking out ways to make a difference and help others in an impactful way. A particular issue that is personal to me is my experience with impaired vision. My teammate Andy Yang’s inspiration stems from seeing his uncle in China suffer from diabetic retinopathy, a condition leading to blindness. Knowing that this disease is passed down genetically, the fear of this disease someday affecting his family and loved ones pushed him to design something that keeps visually impaired people more independent while still connected to their surroundings. Creating this app is his way of taking a deeply personal experience and turning it into a solution that helps others in similar situations. Having worn glasses since childhood, I have gotten a glimpse into the challenges a blind person may experience but I can only imagine the difficulty they may face every day. 

A real turning point for me came when I noticed kids from the building with disabilities in my school. A particular student caught my interest as I noticed his day-to-day life with vision loss. Seeing his experience from being able to clearly see to a complete loss of vision had a profound impact on me, leaving me to deeply value the gift of sight. Driven by this story, I researched and discovered that over 2.2 billion people worldwide suffer from vision impairment, with 43.3 million of them living without sight entirely. Learning how global this problem really is encouraged me to think of a way to help people in whatever way I could. Using my knowledge of programming, AI, and Python, I began to build an app that could change millions of lives. I didn’t create this app simply to submit to a competition; rather, it was a challenge to my technical skills driven by empathy and a yearning to make a positive impact on others’ lives.”