An Oswego student was crowned the first ever winner of the House Student App Challenge in a contest judged this week by 1871, the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, and others.
U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren, member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and co-chair of the STEM Education Caucus, announced that Jake Cirino of Oswego High School was the winner of the contest designed to encourage students' participation in STEM.
The application Cirino built is a pollution simulator that simulates each person in Illinois producing AQI (Air Quality Index), which is a measure by the government to show how polluted the air is currently or how polluted it is going to become in the future. The video above shows over time where the levels are across the state, with each dot representing 100,000 people.
“High school students in the 14th District have demonstrated immense talent in coding and computer science, and I was thrilled at the level of excellence in each submission,” Rep. Hultgren said in a statement. “I want to congratulate Jake for impressing our expert panel of judges with his app simulator, and I see a bright future ahead for him in a STEM career. Getting our students engaged in STEM fields is key to ensuring we cultivate a workforce dedicated to pursuing technological innovation—and it’s just plain fun. It’s been a joy to see the coding talents of our 14th District students, and I urge our high school students to start brainstorming now for next year’s competition.”
The full list of judges included Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois Science and Technology Coalition (ISTC), 1871, Marketplaces LLC, DigitalGroundUp, Hot Emu Development, FoodTrace, Inc., GigScout, CivicWhitaker Inc., Elmspring Accelerator and PiMaster.
Cirino's video will be featured on the House of Representatives’ website and will be on display at a U.S. Capitol exhibit.
