Plainfield Middle Schooler Wins App Contest

Plainfield IL

31 March, 2021

7:06 PM

Description

PLAINFIELD, IL —Ira Jones Middle School recently celebrated the work of seventh-grader Shamita Kollerkandy, who was part of a computer science team that won the 2020 Congressional App Challenge for the 14th Congressional District. The team, which also included Kyran Siddiqui (Oswego), Marc Townsend (Oswego) and Rajiv Jhangiani (Naperville), designed an app called Collaborate for Change, which, according to a press release, was designed to address the coin shortage that has resulted from the pandemic. The app connects local businesses in need of change with people in the community who would like to trade in their coins for bills. "We were able to create our own app and we wanted to help with the coin shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic," Kollerkandy said. "We created an app where the user interacts within the app to find the coins they need or coins they need to get rid of." The Congressional App Challenge is open to middle school and high school students and encourages students to learn code and pursue careers in computer science. There were 308 members of Congress, from 49 states, who held the competition in their districts. More than 6,5000 students competed, and 3,088 functioning apps were submitted. Kollerkandy and her team presented their idea to Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-14th) and a panel of judges after working on it for several months. "The other apps we were going against were very impressive," Kollerkandy said. "But it was good to see our hard work paid off."