{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://raskin.house.gov/2025/12/raskin-announces-three-montgomery-county-high-schoolers-as-winners-of-2025-congressional-app-challenge", "Raskin Announces Three Montgomery County High Schoolers as Winners of 2025 Congressional App Challenge", "2025-12-09", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "House", "MD", "Jamie Raskin", "R000606", "raskin.house.gov", "raskin", "https://raskin.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2013 Representative Jamie Raskin (MD-08) announced Montgomery County Public Schools students Kevin Xia, 11th Grade, of Walt Whitman High School; Ryan Chen, 12th Grade, of Walt Whitman High School; and Peter Xiao, 12th Grade, of Montgomery Blair High School have won his2025 Congressional App Challenge with their app SafeStride, which helps people who are blind or visually impaired navigate their surroundings safely and efficiently.\n\n\u201cIn the age of artificial intelligence, the Congressional App Challenge is a great way for young people to apply their skills with new technology to address social problems,\u201dsaid Rep. Raskin.\u201cAs we seek to master this evolving technology for the public good, we can draw hope from young people like Kevin, Ryan and Peter who are diving in headfirst, using their inventions and coding skills to help people who are blind or visually impaired navigate the world with greater ease. We congratulate them for winning this year\u2019s competition and wish them all the best in their exciting endeavors.\u201d\n\nKevin, Ryan and Peter first met while attending the University of Maryland\u2019s Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering Summer Program: \"Jumpstart your Engineering Career\" at the Universities at Shady Grove. During the program, they decided to develop SafeStride using Python Swift for Mobile (iOS).\n\nTheir app helps blind and visually impaired individuals navigate any environment safely and independently using software that analyzes the user\u2019s phone camera feed in real-time to identify safe, walkable ground. The user is alerted through their earbuds to avoid obstacles as they move.\n\nThe students are also developing a patent-pending chest strap with six sensor casings positioned around the waist which would allow the user to use the app handsfree.\n\nFor winning the competition, Kevin, Ryan and Peter will have SafeStride displayed on the nationalCongressional App Challenge website and are invited to attend the #HouseofCode Capitol Hill Reception in Washington, D.C. alongside Congressional App Challenge winners from across America.\n\nLast week, Rep. Raskinfeatured Kevin, Ryan and Peter as his Local Heroes.\n\nThe Congressional App Challenge is an annual, nationwide event intended to engage students' creativity and encourage their participation in science, technology, engineering and math. The competition allows students to learn how to code by creating and exhibiting their app for mobile, tablet, or computer devices on a platform of their choice. Any student living or attending school in MD-08 can participate through Rep. Raskin\u2019s office.Learn more here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://raskin.house.gov/2025/12/raskin-announces-three-montgomery-county-high-schoolers-as-winners-of-2025-congressional-app-challenge"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0452849566936493, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}