Hundreds of U.S. Representatives Dec. 5 have announced the winners of their district's 2018 Congressional App Challenge, the competition said in a news release.

In all, 222 Members of Congress inspired students to pursue computer science in the fourth annual competition, the largest student computer science competition in America, the release said.

The Congressional App Challenge aims to engage students in coding and computer science. All of the competitions are local and span 46 states and U.S. territories – in rural and urban districts alike.

Congressional participation reached new horizons this year, including districts in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Wyoming. Participating members came from both sides of the aisle in near equal numbers, a testament to the bipartisan support for computer science and STEM in Congress, the release added.

"This year, the Congressional App Challenge inspired a record 5,200 student participants. We've made notable inroads in rural America and with underrepresented minorities and young women," said Rachel Decoste, director of the challenge.

Students created over 1,700 original apps, a 35 percent growth in number of apps from last year's challenge, the challenge said. 

Several Indian American app creators were among the winners named throughout the country.

In Rep. Gary J. Palmer of Alabama’s 6^th Congressional District, a team including Aniket Pant, Viraj Kacker, Lonnie Webb and Cole McKee won for their water well app forecasting and analysis in Tanzania, Africa.

In Arkansas, Ahilan Eraniyan won in Rep. Steve Womack’s 3^rd District for his insectionary app; while a team that included Devin Patel created a “Find My Teacher” app that won in the 4^th District represented by Rep. Bruce Westerman.

The CURAE app, created by Aryan Kaul and Rishabh Mudradi, won in California’s 17^th Congressional District, represented by Indian American Rep. Ro Khanna.

Also in California, Rep. Mimi Walters announced that the Portola App team, including Nikhil Jha, was the winning creation in the 45^th District. And Pranav Patil’s World of Engineers app was the winner in Scott H. Peters’ 52^nd District.

In Colorado’s 6^th Congressional District, Rep. Mike Coffman named Jayendra Chauhan the winner for his Extracurricular Connect app.

A team including Purab Angreji for their QuantEX app and a team of Jaya Hari and Dheepa Hari for their MyMedWallet app were winners in Connecticut’s 4^th and 5^th districts, respectively.

In Florida, the Fulcra app created by Sakun Chitraacharige, Mika Sudhir, Ethan McFarlin and Pedro Pachuca won the 7^th District competition; while the Kickstar app, created by a team including Ishan Shah, won in the 27^th District.

In Iowa’s 3^rd District, a team with Arya Karnik won for its FastLane app.

In Illinois’ 11^th Congressional District, the EsteemBeam app created by a team including Shagun Varma won.

In Massachusetts, the 2^nd District VeGETables app winning team included Vishnu Penubarthi and Akshay Gopinathan. Pranav Addanki’s Healthy Eats app won in Rep. Stephen F. Lynch’s 8^th Congressional District.

Rep. John K. Delaney announced the MCSSL-Helper app created by a team including Dhruv Pai as the winner in Maryland’s 6^th Congressional District. And Rep. Jamie Raskin of the 8^th District named the Time Flies app, created by a team including Suveena Sreenilayam, as the winner.

Ashwin Saxena created the TrackBus app and was named the winner in Michigan’s 4^th District. Anjika Jain’s Bridge the Gap app won in Michigan’s 11^th Congressional District.

In Minnesota, Archit Das’ Happy Weight app won in the 4^th Congressional District.

A team including Shruti Gautam created the winning app, Nostalgia, in Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s 4^th Congressional District in Missouri.

North Carolina winners included the Ripples app in the 4^th Congressional District, created by Navya Solkhan, Mahika Patil and Sara Talekar.

The DementiAid app creative team including Rishi Salwi and Charvi Shah won in New Jersey’s 6^th Congressional District. Anika Kathuria won in Rep. Leonard Lance’s 7^th Congressional District for her SafeCall app. Gurvir Singh, with Paul Niziolek, won in the 10^th District for their The Trials app. And a team of Rahul Shah, Varun Ramani and others created Questlin, which won in the 12^th Congressional District.

A team in New York’s 3^rd Congressional District, including Bhavika Garg and Nikhil Sangvi, won for their Cortex Memory Exercise app. In the 11^th District in New York, a team including Kartik Kumar won for its SchoolCrypt app. And in the 20^th District, a team including Rohan Menon won for its OpenCanvas app.

Rep. Brendan F. Boyle in Pennsylvania’s 13^th District announced Neelay Velingker as the winner for his Kolb Library app.

In Tennessee’s 8^th Congressional District, Rep. David Kustoff announced The Great Escape app as the winner. The winning team included Manas Malla.

Texas winners included MediManage, created by a team including Ali Farooqi, Rajiv Swamy, Arun Eswara and Kevin Sitsabeshon in the 3^rd District. Mridula Shan and her AP GO POW! App won in the 20^th Congressional District.

In Rep. Barbara Comstock’s 10^th Congressional District of Virginia, Pranav Wadhwa won for his Sight app.

In Washington state, Sayan Bhatia won in the 1^st Congressional District for his Clever Cart app. A team including Nikhil Devanathan created the Wallet Wise app and won in the 4^th Congressional District. Archika Dogra and Claire Jung’s Vigilant app won in the 9^th District while Smriti Somasundaram’s Everyday Care app won in the 10^th District.

The Congressional App Challenge sheds light on students' creativity and imagination. From apps that prevent car accidents to apps that help students study more efficiently, a variety of ideas were shown through different artistic styles and coding languages, the challenge news release said.

The Congressional App Challenge will invite winners from across the country to showcase their apps to the members of Congress and members of the tech community at #HouseOfCode, a reception on Capitol Hill to be held in Spring 2019.

Their work is eligible to be featured for one year on the permanent display in the U.S. Capitol Building and on the House.gov website. Each winning student will also be awarded $250 in Amazon Web Service credits.

|