Press Releases

This past weekend, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) hosted her annual App-a-thon – an event that gives local middle and high school students access to mentors, industry professionals, and hands-on computer science experience. All apps created by students meet the requirements for submission to this year’s Congressional App Challenge (submission deadline Nov. 1^st). The students participated in a friendly competition at the end of the App-a-thon on Sunday and judges selected the winning apps. The App-a-thon took place at UW Bothell.

“I want to extend my thanks to the volunteers and partners who made this event possible. In a changing economy where millions of STEM jobs will need to be filled in the years to come, it is important for students to learn to innovate, and the App-a-thon is aimed at achieving that goal,” said DelBene. “I’ve seen a great deal of creativity and inspiring teamwork these past two days, and I am proud to say that Washington students will really be putting their best foot forward in this year’s Congressional App Challenge!”

This year’s winning App-a-thon apps are:

1^st Place: Vitality (Created by George Zhang from Tesla STEM High School, Jason Zhang from Eastlake High School, and Rohan Krishnan from Eastlake High School)

2^nd Place: Foodlynk (Created by Raghu Ramamurthy from Eastlake High School, Gyanendra Sangar from Interlake High School, and Hanut Sangarr from Interlake High School)

3^rd Place: Code 66 (Created by Azhan Zaheer from Tesla STEM High School, Varun Wescott from Tesla STEM High School, Parum Misri from Tesla STEM High School, and Brayden Brackett from Tesla STEM High School)

**Please note that these are not winning apps for the Congressional App Challenge, but all App-a-thon apps can be entered to compete in the Challenge by their respective teams.**

Contributors to the App-a-thon include the University of Washington Seattle and Bothell campuses, Amazon, Google, Zillow, Puget Sound Energy, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Microsoft, DigiPen, Blue Origin, the Washington Space Grant Consortium, and the Northeast Earth and Space Science Pipeline. 

For a list of all Congressional offices participating in this year’s Congressional App Challenge, click HERE.