Meng Announces Winner of Congressional App Contest

March 7, 2023
Press Release

Winner is high school student from Bayside whose winning entry will be displayed in U.S. Capitol and on House of Representatives’ website; Student also invited to showcase winning app on Capitol Hill

QUEENS, NY – U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) announced today that Vincent Yip of Bayside, Queens, a 11th grader at Townsend Harris High School, has been selected as the winner of the Congresswoman's Congressional app contest.
The competition, which consisted of entries from students at Queens middle schools and high schools, is part of the "Congressional App Challenge," a nationwide contest held by the House of Representatives in which students compete by creating and exhibiting an app for mobile, tablet or computer devices.
Yip, along with the winners from app contests in Congressional districts throughout the United States, will now have their apps displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol and on the House of Representatives' official website, www.house.gov. He and the other winners have also been invited to showcase their apps to Members of Congress at #HouseOfCode, a special reception scheduled to take place on Capitol Hill in April.
The 16-year-old Yip won for his app entitled "Sit Straight!" which seeks to promote good posture. The app warns people when they are slouching by blurring their screen and providing them with a notification about it.
A YouTube video that Yip created to demonstrate and explain his app – which was required under the rules of the contest – can be viewed here.
The app works by allowing people to set a desired posture position and the camera on the computer detects if individuals deviate from it. The notification tells users to correct their posture and the screen stays blurred until they return to the desired position.
"I am extremely impressed with Vincent's app and how he uses his coding skills to highlight the importance of good posture," said Congresswoman Meng. "Proper posture is critical to people's health and wellbeing, and I commend Vincent for creating this practical and useful app to help people maintain it. I congratulate him for winning my competition, and look forward to his app representing Queens in the U.S. Capitol and on the House of Representatives' website. I also thank all the talented students who entered my competition."
"When I first found out that I won, I was extremely excited," said Vincent Yip. "The idea for my app came to me when I was slouching in my chair and my mom's endless reminders to sit back straight were lingering in my ear. I'm glad that I entered it in the contest, and I'm thrilled and honored to be selected as the winner. I wanted to create an app that would serve as a second pair of eyes to remind people to correct their posture. It's so important for our health and quality of life."
Yip plans to major in computer science or a related field when he attends college, and intends to pursue a career related to computer science as well.
In addition to Yip, there were second and third place winners for Meng's contest. They include:
  • Second Place: Evan Cedeno, an 11th grader from Rego Park, for developing an app to help people generate their own artwork.
  • Third Place: Isaac Wong, a 10th grader from Bayside, for creating an app that acts as a grade point average calculator.
All three students recently met with Meng in her Northeast Queens office where she also presented them with special certificates of congressional recognition.
Participants of the contest were permitted to compete individually or in teams of up to four students. The first, second and third place winners of Meng's competition competed individually. All of the apps, which were entered by the deadline this past November, were required to be original in concept, design and execution.
The winners of Meng's competition were selected by a panel of local judges who work within the academic, tech and coding fields. They include:
  • Ying Zhou, Executive Director of the Tech Incubator at Queens College.
  • Jukay Hsu, Co-Founder and CEO of Pursuit, a social impact organization that trains people for tech careers.
  • Becky Houran, Program Implementation Manager at Girls Who Code.
  • Jin Hyun Bae, Special Advisor for the Programs and Services Department at the Queens Public Library.
  • Anthony Negron, Director of Digital Programming at the New York Hall of Science.
Since the national Congressional App Challenge's inception in 2015, thousands of functional apps have been created by over 50,000 students from all across the country.
9,011 students registered for this year's competition and 2,707 fully functioning apps were entered. 335 Members of Congress from across 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the District of Columbia participated. This year's contest also set the record for most student registrations and most apps submitted.
The Congressional App Challenge was created to encourage students to learn to code and inspire them to pursue careers in computer science.