North Penn High School (NPHS) senior Neelay Velingker is breaking ground in the world of technology as he has recently been selected as a Congressional App Challenge award winner by members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Neelay submitted an extremely advanced Mobile App to the Congressional App Challenge that he created for a Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) competitive challenge. The app was designed for Android users and is called "Kolb Library." According to Neelay, Kolb Library is a comprehensive and multi-faceted catalog system able to actively maintain thousands of books and users. Neelay was selected in December of 2018 as one of six students in Pennsylvania and just over 200 students in the nation as a Congressional App Challenge winner.
Neelay Velingker and NPHS Business Teacher Mrs. Linda Westerlund will join fellow challenge 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. Neelay' s mobile app will also be featured for one year on the permanent display in the U.S. Capitol Building and on the House.gov website. He will also be awarded $250 in Amazon Web Service credits.
In all, 222 Members of Congress inspired students to pursue computer science in the 4th annual competition, the largest student computer science competition in America. Over the last four months, thousands of students coded original apps as part of district-wide competitions.
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.
Click here to view a full list of 2018 winners.