Newark Charter School student wins App Challenge

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Rohan Kanchana

U.S. Representative John Carney (D-DE) announced the winner of this year’s Congressional App Challenge   after receiving the final scores from his panel of judges who evaluated each submission.

Seventeen  Delaware students participated in the challenge producing six different apps. The ideas included an app to help people find jobs, a trivia game used to test people’s memory and multitasking skills, and an app that makes it easier for people to donate items to charitable organizations.

This year’s winner is Rohan Kanchana, a 13-year-old student who is in 8th grade at Newark Charter School. 

A former Delaware State Geography Bee champion, Rohan created an app called Geography, which is designed to help users learn more about the world. You can see a demonstration of how the app works in his pitch video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgsOaUpNhgE .

Rohan’s winning app will be featured with other winners from congressional districts across the country in a display in the Capitol Building, as well as on house.gov.  He will also be invited to a reception in Washington, DC to meet other winners, and will receive a portion of $50,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits, which Amazon has donated to the competition. 

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The AWS credits can be used to access computing, storage, and database resources to help the students build more applications, run analytics, or store files. 

“Congratulations to Rohan on this tremendous accomplishment.  And I want to thank every student who participated in this year’s Congressional App Challenge. Your passion, creativity and hard work continue to inspire me,” said Congressman Carney. “I was amazed by every submission we received, all of which utilized the latest app technology to help educate others and solve important problems. These young people represent the future of our state, and I’m truly impressed by their understanding of the sophisticated and innovative technology that is changing our world. I have no doubt we will continue to see great things from this talented group of young innovators.” 

The apps were judged by a panel of local experts who work in the academic, software, and entrepreneurial fields. The panel included:

  • Patrick Callahan, Co-Founder, CompassRed Data Labs
  • Mike Derin, CEO, The Archer Group
  • Ryan Harrington, Education Coordinator, 1313 Innovation
  • Robert Herrera, Co-Founder, The Mill Space
  • Rob Nicholson, Director of Business Development, Delmarva VOIP
  • Mona Parikh, Managing Director, Start It Up, Delaware
  • Dana Rohrbough, Acting Manager, Government Information Center

“Our state’s economy has undergone some pretty significant changes over the last few years, and it has never been more important to create an environment where entrepreneurs can turn their ideas into a successful business,” said   Carney. “As we move forward, Delaware will have to compete in an increasingly globalized economy, and we are lucky to have such bright and talented young people in our state, who will soon be joining the workforce. I hope they will continue to pursue their interest in technology, programming, and development, and I’m excited to see what the future holds for all of them.”

Established by Members of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013, the Congressional App Challenge is a nationwide event intended to engage students’ creativity and encourage their participation in STEM fields.

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