Students from two Garland County schools were announced as second- and third-place winners Monday night in the Congressional App Challenge for Arkansas' 4th Congressional District.
"This is about encouraging students who, in a competitive way, learn more about coding and future opportunities in software development," Gov. Asa Hutchinson told The Sentinel-Record before the award ceremony.
"It's a combination of ideas, plus our coding initiative," he said.
Alexa Donley, a student at Fountain Lake Charter High School, was the second-place winner, and Brandon Cox, Lauryn White, Chelsey Vermillion and Timothy Tignor, from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, were the third-place winners.
The awards were announced by Hutchinson and U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-District 4, following a reception at Mid-America Science Museum.
The first-place winner, who will go on to the national competition, was a team comprised of Ana Cruz, Star Lowrey, Shelly Whitt, and Drake Streeter, from Hamburg High School.
Fourth place went to Fouke High School's Bryan Stacy, Reagen Richburg, Craig Hensley, and Zane Savall. Fifth place was awarded to Kenzie Glass and Kristie Glass from Springhill High School.
The Congressional App Challenge was established by members of the U.S. House in 2013 as a nationwide event that allows students from across the country to compete by creating and exhibiting their software application for mobile phones, tablets, or computer devices on a platform of their choice, a news release said.
"This is where we try to incentivize young people to get more involved with coding and technology," Westerman said.
"The Congressional App Challenge is where students come up with a plan for an app, and they submit that. Then we have a panel of judges who select the winners and we're going to award those tonight," Westerman said before the ceremony.
Westerman said only the plan and a video detailing what the app will do, and not the actual app, were submitted.
"There was a little bit of confusion among the students who thought they had to have the actual app completed, but they made videos that tells about their app and what it will do. A lot of them had already done the coding on it and some of the Environmental and Spatial Technologies lab students are well on their way to developing the app, and this goes along well with the governor's plan on coding," Westerman said.
"Arkansas is a perfect fit for this and we're very pleased with the response of the students," Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson said 42 states participate in the challenge.
"Congressman Westerman and his colleagues are the ones who have initiated it and I've just lent my support to it," he said.
Throughout the competition period, participating students were provided opportunities to engage with various Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics educational partners located throughout the community to mentor and assist them with their app development.
"As the economy continues to evolve and transform in the 21st century, it is vitally important for students to have the skills necessary to compete in the job market after graduation," Westerman said in a news release. "Programs like the Congressional App Challenge encourage students to have an interest not only in coding, but math, science, engineering, and other STEM subjects."
Local on 02/10/2016