Westminster Students Win 2015 Congressional Student App Challenge

Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (CT-05) announced at a schoolwide assembly Feb. 22 at Westminster that fourth Formers Albert Gao and Ryan Lee were the winners of the 2015 Congressional App Challenge. Esty was joined by school officials and teachers at the event, as well as Simsbury First Selectman Lisa Heavner.

 

“Congress has hosted a national art competition for over 50 years, but there has never been a science competition for high school students,” Esty said. “That’s why my colleagues and I launched the ‘app’ competition – to encourage students interested in science, technology, engineering and math to develop their own programs and coding projects. We have seen tremendous interest and support for this event across central and northwest Connecticut the last two years, which shows how important it is to engage students with creative and innovative technology.”

 

The winning app is called “Galaxy” and requires players to control a spaceship while dodging rocks and other objects. It has three modes: Endless, Timed and Hungry. The game progresses in difficulty while users track their progress on their device.

 

Albert and Ryan were not notified they had won the competition until Esty announced the winners during her visit. Their success in the App Challenge has encouraged the pair to partner up for future projects and competitions. Both Albert and Ryan are members of the school’s Computer Science and Math clubs.

 

“Winning the competition was a complete surprise to us,” Albert said. “In the future, Ryan and I may develop more projects together. We spent a lot of time learning the language and how it was related to the graphics and understanding Object-Oriented Programming.”

 

“Albert and I wanted to build a revolutionary game that was user-friendly and simple enough so that everyone can play with only a basic understanding,” Ryan said. “We hope to add new useful features for the user such as new modes and characters and release the app on the App Store before spring semester. I am very excited about winning the award and hope we can develop the app further.”

 

“Westminster School is delighted about the recognition two of our students have received from Congresswoman Esty in winning the Congressional App Challenge for the Fifth District,” Westminster School Headmaster Bill Philip said. “Albert and Ryan’s initiative in using their computer science and coding knowledge to develop an award-winning app in their first collaborative project is impressive and makes everyone at Westminster extremely proud.”

 

The App Challenge is an annual contest designed to highlight the value of computer science and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and encourage all students to engage in these fields. Submissions were judged by a panel of local STEM experts, including Peter Angelastro, division director for STEM at Naugatuck Valley Community College; Shawn Monteith, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at iDevices LLC; Richard Portelance, founder of Career Path Mobile; Catherine Lesser, who recently retired from IBM after 36 years of service to the company; and Kelley Johnson, founder of Doors to Explore Inc.

 

Esty is the co-chair of the congressional 21st Century Jobs Skills Working Group and sits on the House Transportation & Infrastructure and Science, Space & Technology Committees. Esty’s bipartisan STEM Education Act of 2015, co-sponsored by Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, was signed into law by President Obama in October 2015. The legislation strengthens STEM education efforts and expands the definition of STEM to include computer science.