App-a-Thon prepares STEM students for Congressional App Challenge

Local middle and high school students spent Saturday bringing their ideas for new technology to life at the fourth annual App-a-Thon.

Held at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Saturday’s App-a-Thon was hosted by the office of Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo. Neguse was unable to attend the event, but representatives from his office joined roughly 30 students as they networked with coders and workshopped ideas ahead of the Congressional App Challenge.

Launched in 2015, the Congressional App Challenge lets students across the country submit their ideas for a web or mobile application to Washington for voting. So far, Neguse’s office has received 20 submissions and has another 20 students who have expressed interest in the challenge and plan to enter by the Nov. 1 deadline.

Paul Carliner with Ball Aerospace encouraged App-a-Thon participants to “think about space” when considering their future careers, adding that there’s a constant demand for engineers.

“It’s your generation — middle school and high school kids — that are really going to be our astronauts taking us back to the moon and Mars (in) the future,” Carliner told the students.

Lafayette Mayor JD Mangat, who also attended the App-a-Thon, stressed to students the real-world benefits their apps can have. Mangat said one of the ideas he saw last year was an app that identified waste as recyclable or compostable.

“So many people lack that education even to this day, and that app simplified it,” Mangat said. “We should be using that in the City of Lafayette. …These are real, tangible solutions that you are creating with your own hands.”

Jonathan Zheng, a seventh grader at Southern Hills Middle School in Boulder, plans to submit an original “memorization game” app to the challenge.

“This is my first really large coding project,” Zheng said. “I’ve always liked trying to make games.”

A returning participant from last year’s App-a-Thon was Boulder High School junior Lucien Allison. Allison, who designed a photo encryption app this year, said one of his favorite things about the App-a-Thon is the chance to meet other people who are interested in technology.

“You can kind of talk to people through the internet about tech, but it’s just way better to be in person and discuss how these things work,” Allison said. “It’s just fun to be able to talk to people with way more expertise than you.”

Some App-a-Thon participants were interested in entering the challenge but hadn’t yet landed on an idea for their app. No matter where students were in the process, industry partners were available to offer advice and encouragement as mentors.

“My goal is to get every child exposed to STEM, regardless of background,” said mentor Craig Foster, owner of Louisville company Code Ninjas. “I just want to capture their interest to see how useful this can be in their toolbox.”

Students can register for the Congressional App Challenge at congressionalappchallenge.us.