Cummings Announces Winners of 2016 Congressional App Challenge

Washington, D.C. (Nov. 28, 2016) — Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) announced the winners of his 2016 Congressional App Challenge, Mr. Will Cervi, Ms. Priyanka Kargupta and Mr. Rees Draminski, all students at Mount Hebron High School.  The students won for creating an app called Foodspin, which allows users to locate local restaurants.

“I look forward to hosting the Congressional App Challenge every year because it inspires many students my district to be creative and build an application on the platform of their choice,” Cummings said.  “I was very impressed by Priyanka, Rees and Will’s demonstration video.  I look forward to seeing the great careers they will undoubtedly have.”  

The contest was open to high school students in the Seventh Congressional District of Maryland and is designed to promote innovation and engagement in coding and computer science.  Students competed against their peers by creating an application or “app,” for mobile, tablet or computer devices.

Submissions were judged on the following criteria: quality of the idea, including creativity and originality; implementation of the idea, including user experience and design; and demonstrated excellence of coding and programming skills.

The four judges who helped pick the winners were Ms. Sharon Kramer, Career and Technology Coordinator with Howard County Public Schools, Dr. Jayfus Doswell, Chief Executive Officer of Juxtopia, LLC and Ms. Lindsey Jones and Mr. Jordan Snyder, both Distance Learning Specialists with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.  
    
A video of the students demonstrating their app is available here. 

Foodspin will be featured on the House of Representatives website and will be displayed at the U.S. Capitol alongside winning applications from Congressional districts nationwide.