Houston County High students win App Challenge Awards

Houston County High School students won the top three awards in the Congressional App Challenge for the Eighth Congressional District.  The winning students were honored on Dec. 3 by Congressman Austin Scott for the original apps they created.

 Awards were presented as follows:

·1st place ~ Rumi Lee for AidMe, a first aid medical assistance app designed for K-12 students.

·2nd place ~ Team members Donghyun Kwak, Carter Richter, Connor Richter and Tien Tran for Wraith’s Wrath, a game to provide a fun challenge.

·3rd place ~ Team members Aaron Mathieson, Christopher Saetia and Nikita Shetty for their app Rate-It R, to make it easier to choose a movie to watch.

The students are members of the school’s Coding Club. Shirl Williams, Computer Science Teacher, serves as advisor. Williams said, “We are grateful to Congressman Scott, Brandon Hancock and all the mentors of Georgia Tech Research Institute for their encouragement to participate in this venture. Brandon graduated from our school in 2014 and is a great role model for all of our students.”

As the Eighth District’s top winner, Rumi has been invited to a #HouseofCode event in Washington, D.C. this spring. Her app will also be on display at the U.S. Capitol and on the official U.S. House of Representatives website in the spring.

Rumi’s AidMe app gives the proper steps to take based on the type of emergency, whether a burn, bleeding, fainting or in need of CPR. Users may also create a virtual first aid kit. She created her app using Adobe Illustrator, Android Studio, XML and Java.

She said, “Having seen medical emergencies occur in the classroom, I wanted to create an app that would help educate and empower my peers who could face similar situations in the future.”

The apps were judged by representatives from these companies:  BAE Systems, GTRI, Mercer Engineering Research Center, Mercer University, Museum of Aviation Foundation, Robins Air Force Base and University of Dayton Research Institute. The goal of the competition is to inspire and engage secondary students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), coding and computer science.