(Office of the CNMI Congressional Delegate) — Carson Lin, James Lin, Dip Roy, and Jaehoon Son of Marianas High School are the winners of the eighth annual Northern Mariana Islands Congressional App Challenge.
The Marianas High School students scored the top rank over 11 other submissions from schools around the Northern Marianas.
“This year’s competition saw great submissions from students,” U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kililie Camacho Sablan said. “Every submission we received demonstrated students’ dedication to learning how to code, identify real world problems, and coming up with solutions through technology.”
Judges for this year’s app challenge were former district staff member Katrina Punzalan and current district caseworker Randy Johnson. Katrina Punzalan used to run outreach for the Congressional App Challenge through your congressional office for the Marianas. She builds, modifies, and troubleshoots computers as a hobby. Randy Johnson holds a degree in Bachelor of Science in Information Technology with a specialty in Software Engineering.
Carson Lin, James Lin, Dip Roy, and Jaehoon Son’s app is called MathPal. MathPal is a web-based platform that helps high school students understand mathematical concepts through step-by-step user-friendly output.
As the Northern Marianas’ winning team, the team of four will receive national recognition and have their work eligible for display at the U.S. Capitol. They will also be invited to attend the House of Code reception in Washington, D.C., where they will have the opportunity to meet fellow coders nationwide and be honored for their work.
The Congressional App Challenge is an annual competition open to middle school and high school students to encourage students to inspire students to actively be involved in STEM learning and innovation. Apps can be submitted for any platform, such as Web browsers, smartphones, computers, or tablets. Next year’s App Challenge will commence in late summer 2023.
