Press Releases

WICHITA–Last week during Computer Science Education Week, Congressman Ron Estes (R-Kansas) met with the Kansas Fourth District winners of this year’s Congressional App Challenge.

"It was great to meet this year’s first and second place winners from our District during Computer Science Education Week and see their exciting work firsthand," said Rep. Estes. "All of the students involved submitted impressive apps, and I look forward to hosting this competition in our District again next year."

This was the first year the Fourth District participated in the national Congressional App Challenge. The competition offers an opportunity for middle school and high school students to showcase their creativity and technical skill by submitting the app of their choosing that they have created in the last calendar year, either for a class project, extracurricular or specifically for the App Challenge. Students living in or attending school in Kansas’ Fourth District were eligible to compete as individuals or teams of up to four. The winning app will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol Building and featured on House.gov. A panel of three individuals in the computer science field selected the winners.

First place winner Abir Haque’s Bangla Alphabet App helps English speakers develop literacy in Bengali with interactive charts, language facts, transliteration software and quizzes. Haque used Python, JavaScrip and other code to develop the app and is a student at Wichita East High School. The second-place team of Judah Hansen and Jessica Ta entered their app Bloom, which encourages a healthy sleep schedule by recording a user’s sleep time and rewarding healthy patterns through a cactus that grows when suggested hours are completed. Users can use points to collect more cacti in their garden. Hansen is a student at The Independent School and Ta is a student at Wichita Southeast High School.