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December 21, 2021

Congressman Schiff Announces Winners of 2021 Congressional App Challenge

Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) has announced three Angeleno students as the winners of the 2021 Congressional App Challenge for their work in promoting sustainability, community service, and mental health.

Established by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013 to promote STEM and computer-based skills, the Congressional App Challenge is open to all middle and high school students who live in or attend school in California’s 28th Congressional District.

“California’s 28th District is home to some of the brightest young minds in the country – and the submissions we received for this year’s Congressional App Challenge prove it,” said Schiff. “The past two years have been exceptionally difficult for middle and high school students. Yet these incredible young people were able to turn that hardship into inspiration, developing apps that will make the world around them a better place — a talent more necessary today than ever before. I’m tremendously proud of every participant in this year’s challenge, and it is my hope that they will continue to develop and hone their computer science skills. They will be highly coveted future talent for many of our most advanced tech companies.”

La Canada High School’s Vivien Chen won first place for her app “100,” which encourages individuals to protect the environment and live more sustainably. Also from La Canada High School, Imogen Lee took second place for her app called “Mathscovery,” which helps students in need of extra tutoring and academic support. Woodrow Wilson Middle School’s Nico Messerlian came in third place for his app “Strell’s Playground,” designed to provide stress and anxiety relief amid the COVID-19 pandemic by creating a positive virtual world.

Dr. Anjali Tripathi, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, served as this year’s judge and helped Congressman Schiff present the awards during a Monday ceremony.

More information about the 2021 winners and their submissions can be found below:

First Place: Vivien Chen – 100

Vivien Chen is a junior at La Canada High School. She resides in La Canada, California. She is passionate about coding, and is currently learning about web development and data science. Some of her other hobbies include playing tennis and crocheting.

Chen described the purpose of her app as a tool to “encourage people that are passionate about saving our environment to live sustainably by providing them with the resources and ideas they need to do so. 100 is a to-do app and journaling app combined into one. There are 100 pre-existing ideas for users to complete, achievements that are collectible based on which to-dos a user completes, and a journaling section to record progress or notes.”

Second Place: Imogen Lee – Mathscovery

Imogen Lee is a junior at La Canada High School. She lives in La Canada with her parents, her younger sister, and a miniature schnauzer named Oscar.  When she's not developing AI and machine learning models, she enjoys photography and videography.

Describing her app, Lee said Mathscovery “is a tutoring platform that uses artificial intelligence, IBM Watson Natural Language Processing and Understanding, and machine learning to solve and explain elementary-grade level addition word problems. Although there are other available platforms that can solve formula-based problems (e.g., 5 + x = 12), surprisingly, there are no applications that can solve word-based math problems. The reason for this is because trying to understand and classify information found in math word problem applications is one of the most difficult problems in the AI natural language processing community. Although many academic groups ranging from MIT to the University of Illinois to the University of Colorado have solved portions of the syntactic problems of understanding math word problems, none have thus far created working models that have flexibility in the numerous ways such word problems are expressed and strategies in understanding and classifying information found in those word problems. Although my application is in beta version and can only solve addition word problems, solutions like Mathscovery can help bridge the learning gap in our educational systems by giving extra on-demand tutoring."

Third Place: Nico Messerlian – Strell’s Playground

Nico Messerlian is a seventh grader at Woodrow Wilson Middle School and a member of the GENYES tech team. He resides in Glendale, California with his younger brother, mom and dad, and his dog Toffee. When he’s not coding, he enjoys spending time with family and friends.

Messerlian said his app, "[it] creates a safe place for students and teachers to explore, through their intuition, what they can do in each area of the playground. Because it involves the discovery and the desire to see what happens, it distracts students and teachers from any negative thoughts. It inspires creativity and a desire to discover a fun and positive world, thereby reducing stress and anxiety.”

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