Press Releases

Rep. Wexton Congratulates Participants in Congressional App Challenge, Announces District-wide Winner

Sterling, VA -- Today, Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (VA-10) hosted a reception for the students from Virginia’s 10th Congressional District who participated in the 2019 Congressional App Challenge.

“I am so impressed by the talented VA-10 middle and high schoolers who participated in Congress’ annual App Challenge,” said Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. “Each of these students has made their community and their Congresswoman proud. I am pleased to congratulate Tycho Svoboda, VA-10’s winner of this year’s Congressional App Challenge, and wish him the best of luck at the ‘House of Code’ reception on Capitol Hill this spring.”

At the reception today, Wexton viewed demonstrations of each applicant’s app creation and took photos with the students. Wexton announced Tycho Svoboda, a junior at the Academies of Loudoun, as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge for Virginia’s 10th Congressional District. Svoboda’s app, Stream Scorer, automatically analyzes water quality data and generates a score of stream health for Virginia certified stream monitors and makes stream monitoring easier, quicker, and more accurate. Svoboda will be honored, along with other winners of the Congressional App Challenge from around the country, on Capitol Hill this spring at the annual “House of Code” reception. Winners will have the opportunity to demonstrate their apps at the reception to their representatives, congressional staff, and the general public. 

Wexton was joined in announcing Svoboda as this year’s winner by a panel of three judges: Professor Irina Hashmi of George Mason University, Mr. Waseem Haider, CEO of Datawiz, and Mr. Suresh Karkala, VP of Operations and Infrastructure at Visa.

The Congressional App Challenge is hosted by Members of the U.S. House of Representatives for middle school and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science.

Photos available for distribution from the event can be found here

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