Congresswoman Renee Ellmers: Enter the Congressional App Challenge

My office is participating in the 2016 Congressional App Challenge!  If you are a high school student in North Carolina’s Second District and have an idea for a great new app, I hope you will enter the competition. Below is some basic information about the challenge. The deadline to submit entries is November 2nd. Visit this page of my website for updates. If you have any questions, you can call my office at 910-230-1910.

Basic Information:

Established by Members of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013, this competition is a nationwide event intended to engage students’ creativity and encourage their participation in STEM fields. This competition allows students to compete with peers in their own district by creating and exhibiting their software application, or “app”, for mobile, tablet, or computer devices on a platform of their choice.

Students may compete as individuals or in teams of up to four, as long as two of the teammates are eligible to participate in our district. Students entering the competition must explain their app and what they learned through this competition process by noon on November 2, 2016 EST.

Judging:

The apps will be judged by a panel of local judges who work within the academic, software, and entrepreneurial fields.                                

According to the Congressional App Challenge website, apps will be judged based on quality of the idea; implementation of the idea; and demonstrated excellence of coding and programming skills.
           
            -Quality of the idea (including creativity and originality)
            -Implementation of the idea (including user experience and design);
            -Demonstrated excellence of coding and programming skills.

Prizes:

Amazon Web Services has donated $50,000 in AWS credits, to be divided among the winning students.  1 AWS credit equals $1 to be used to data, storage, analytics in order to build your platform as the student sees fit.  Additionally, the winning student will have their app and picture displaced in the Capitol as well as receiving an invite to participate in “House of Code” in Washington, DC where the student will have the opportunity to demo their app for the Congressional and tech community. 

For additional information and to register for the competition, visit www.congressionalappchallenge.us.