March 28, 2024

Hoyer Announces Winners of App Challenge

Student winners in the 5th District Congressional App Challenge have been announced by Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-5).

The overall winner is Alexander Lugo, and three students tied for second place: Nicole Balay, Jasmine Brunson, and Fernanda Jimenez.

The winner and all three runners-up are students at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, MD. The winners, as well as all 32 students who submitted projects, will receive certificates from Congressman Hoyer at a reception in their honor. A video presentation of Alexander Lugo’s winning app, “Little Elf” will be on display in the U.S. Capitol for the following year.

“I’m pleased to announce that an impressive group of bright and innovative young men and women from Eleanor Roosevelt High School have won the top spots in the 2016 Fifth District Congressional App Competition,” Congressman Hoyer said. “Runners up Nicole Balay, Jasmine Brunson, and Fernanda Jimenez demonstrated, respectively, advanced coding skills by building apps to map and navigate their school, learn cryptography, and teach young children memory through games. And the overall winner, Alexander Lugo, demonstrated great creativity and superior coding ability through his advanced fantasy game, ‘Little Elf.’ This is our second year hosting the Congressional App Challenge, and we had an impressive 32 students from the Fifth District submit projects.”

The App Challenge encourages students to be creative and innovative in computer science and other STEM fields.

The STEM fields are areas of increasing importance where “we see significant growth in well-paying job opportunities,” the congressman said. “I look forward to seeing the winning app on display in the Capitol building, and I thank all who participated in the competition. I would also like to thank our volunteer judges for generously giving their time and input.”

Alexander Lugo created the “Little Elf” fantasy action game that can be played on any Android phone. The app features advanced graphics and animations resulting in a fun and sophisticated gameplay. Nicole Balay created the iPhone app, “Roosevelt Routing,” which includes an interactive map and routing program to help students and visitors navigate the large and cavernous halls of Eleanor Roosevelt High School. Jasmine Brunson created a game on the LiveCode platform called, “Crypt the Code,” where players test their math and puzzle skills as cryptographers for the FBI or CIA. Fernanda Jimenez created the “Magical Matching” app, where young children can have fun playing various memory games involving colors, animals, shapes, letters, and numbers.

Established by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013, the Congressional App Challenge is a nationwide event that invites students from all congressional districts to compete, either individually or in a group, by creating and presenting an original software application, or “app,” for a mobile, tablet, or computer platform of their choice.

The volunteer judges for the Fifth District were Dr. Julia Lipman, Dr. Austin Parker, and Dr. John Conroy, each of whom are PhD computer scientists at the Institute for Defense Analyses Center for Computing Sciences in Bowie, a federally funded research and development center.

More details on the competition and programming resources can be found on Congressman Hoyer’s app competition webpage or on the national app competition webpage.

For more information about House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, visit his Leader member page.

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