Tools for beach cleanups, sports win Congressional App Challenge

Congressman Ed Case announced the winners of his inaugural “Congressional App Challenge.” Rep. Case is home in Hawaii until January 6.

“The Challenge is a great opportunity for our local students to focus their skills and creativity on developing, testing and analyzing new applications for real-world use,” Case said. “And the results of my first Challenge prove that they have the skill set, imagination and resolve to compete against the best of our young people nationwide in science, technology, engineering and math, along with the potential to lead the next generations of computer science and technology.”

The winners include:

1st Place

App: CleanMyBeach
Team: Arjun Sharma, Laurel Springs Online School
Grade: 11

See the CleanMyBeach video here.

“CleanMyBeach functions as a robust application that streamlines the process of organizing and finding community beach cleanups. It allows individuals and organizations alike around the world to interact with members of their local communities through public cleanups, increasing the scope and influence of any cleanups that are completed through social media integration, allowing friends to be invited. CleanMyBeach helps the mitigate the issue of aquatic pollution through its promotion of cleanliness and recycling, in addition to increasing awareness about the detrimental effects of plastic and pollution in general on aquatic life.

“Aside from the practical benefits of beach cleanups for the environment, ocean cleanliness, and marine animal health; beach cleanups can be a powerful tool for a community, uniting members over a shared goal of improving the environment and their own land. Cities and schools also benefit through the fostered sense of responsibility CleanMyBeach creates for taking care of the earth and our land among children and adults alike, leading to an increased level of sanitation and a decrease in acts such as littering, which in turn benefits aquatic life and organisms all around.

CleanMyBeach serves to help make the world’s oceans cleaner, one plastic bag at a time.”

2nd Place

App: WHS Sports
Team: Harvey Lloyd Picar, Jett Palacpac, and Kristine Orpilla, Waipahu High School
Grade: 11

“Our application software has an abundance of purposes. One purpose is to help pre-condition students who are interested in joining a sport at Waipahu High School. It can also help student athletes stay in shape during the waiting period for their next season. Another purpose is to help student athletes catch up on practices or conditioning that they may have missed. This app allows all these problems to be solved by conveying basic skills and exercises, catered to a specific sport, that is typically done during conditioning and practices in a span of 30 days.

3rd Place

App: WHS Tools
Team: Destiny Shishido, Reyan Lee, and Kalani Agustin of Waipahu High School
Grade: 11

“The app improves student registration at our school by providing an online registration guide that encourages earning graduation honors. As high schoolers, we understand how class registration can be difficult and confusing. High achieving students strive for various honors at graduation, but may be confused with the requirements.”

The Congressional App Challenge is an official national initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, in which Members of Congress host contests in their districts for middle and high school students, and the winner is invited to showcase the winning application at the United States Capitol and on the U.S. House website.

The Challenge encourages students to learn code and inspires them to pursue careers in computer science.

An application is a type of software that allows a person to perform specific tasks. Applications for desktop or laptop computers are sometimes called desktop applications, while those for mobile devices are called mobile apps.