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April 07, 2016

Rep. Schiff Announces 2016 Congressional App Challenge Winners

Burbank, CA – Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) announced the winners of the annual congressional science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) academic competition, the Congressional App Challenge, for the 28th Congressional District.  The competition aims to foster an early interest and engagement in STEM education and technology by challenging students to develop an application (“app”).

Justin Park, from Crescenta Valley High School won first place for his app, Digit, – to help mass-produce low budget prosthetics for amputees. The runners up, also from Crescenta Valley High School, were Andrew Dertli and Lyron Co Ting Keh for their Locker Master App and Taeklim Kim and Nicolas Doubrosky for their Attendance Checker App. The students were inspired to participate in this challenge by their teacher, Dr. Gregory Neat.

“Students participating in this challenge never fail to impress me,” said Rep. Schiff. “The applications designed by these students are so clever, sophisticated and useful – they demonstrate the enormous creativity of young people in our community.  They give me every confidence that the next generation will help to keep our country competitive in this technologically driven age. If this contest is any indication, we’ll have some amazing talent headed to Silicon Valley.”

Established by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013, the competition is open to all high school students who live in or attend high school in the 28th Congressional District.  High school students compete by creating and exhibiting their software application, or “app,” for mobile, tablet, or computer devices on a platform of their choice.

More information about the winners and their Apps:

Justin Park – Digit App (1st Place)

Digit serves to help amputees who would otherwise not be able to have prosthetics. By mass-producing the internal components and 3D printing the outside, prices can be kept low, and the savings will be passed on to the patient. With low costs and easily made parts, Digit serves to provide an affordable way to allow amputees to return to their normal lives quicker, anywhere in the world.

Fitting in the market between modern day prosthetic hooks and $11,000 prosthetic hands, Digit is controlled by a consumer grade neural sensor to allow the user to control the hand with the mind, rather than muscle sensors. To view a video of his app, click here.

Andrew Dertli, and Lyron Co Ting Keh – Locker Master App (2nd Place)

We developed an electronic locker system for students to sign up on. It removed all the hassle of turning in forms and fighting for lockers on the first day. Now, students can go to our webpage online and register themselves. They will receive a locker based on their preferences and the preferences of others. A school admin can log on any time to view, edit, and remove student-locker pairs from the website. Our clients(secretaries and principal/assistant-principals of our school), are trying it out with a test group of students to prepare the web-app for use in the coming school year. To view a video of their app, click here.

Taeklim Kim and Nicolas Doubrosky – Attendance Checker (Team Project) App (3rd Place)

This app is an early version of an attendance checker for school clubs and other groups. It is designed so that any computer with Java installed will be able to run the app. The app needs an external database of all students named “data” in order to run. When the code runs, it takes in all attendance input from the user, and then compiles the information into a single excel file that contains the list of students with their attendance record. Students are identified by their 6-digit ID number issued by our high school on this program. To view a video of their app, click here.

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