Rep. Huffman Announces Winner of Congressional App Challenge

November 17, 2020

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) today announced that Beck Lorsch and Amrit Baveja from Marin Academy are the winners of the 2020 Congressional App Challenge for California’s second congressional district. Beck and Amrit’s winning submission, MarinTrace, is a free contact tracing app that will be piloted in select Marin County schools. Students would use the self-reporting tool to catalog their symptoms to aid teachers and administrators in contact tracing efforts. 

“Congratulations to Beck and Amrit, who have utilized their advanced knowledge of coding and app development to create an affordable tool that could aid our efforts to fight this global pandemic,” said Rep. Huffman. “All of this year’s participants demonstrated ambition and creativity that gave me and the panel of judges more hope for the future. I look forward to seeing what these bright young people achieve next.” 

Huffman held this year’s Congressional App Challenge event virtually and provided an opportunity for students to demonstrate their apps to leaders in the tech field. Judges included Trevor Beffa and Izaac Garcilazo from Microsoft Corporation and Manolo Espinosa, an entrepreneur and Vice President at All Turtles, a tech development company. 

Established by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013, this Congressional App Challenge competition invites high school students from all participating congressional districts to compete by creating and exhibiting their software application for mobile, tablet, or computer devices on a platform of their choice. It is designed to promote innovation and engagement in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education fields. 

Apps are judged based 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.

Read more about the House Student App Challenge here. 

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