MANSFIELD — Superintendent Teresa Murphy is pleased to announce that two Mansfield High School students were named winners of the Congressional App Challenge.
Representative Joseph Kennedy named seniors James O’Sullivan and Connor Peavey winners of the Congressional App Challenge (CAC) in Massachusetts’s 4th District. O’Sullivan and Peavey submitted Surface, a 2D platforming game app designed to test player reflexes and problem-solving skills, for consideration.
O’Sullivan and Peavey worked together on the project for nearly two months. The students used the Unity game engine and C# programming language to create the app. Aseprite was used to design and animate the original artwork within the app. Music featured in the app was created by Senior Sean Robinson.
“To me, games were never simply another form of entertainment. I feel the various games I’ve played throughout my life have inspired, educated, and helped form who I am as a person,” said Peavey. “It was this passion that made me want to start creating games in the first place. As soon as I heard about this competition, I knew I had to make a game, and I am really thankful to Jimmy and Sean for helping with this project.”
“I’m extremely proud of these young men for their initiative and commitment to undertake the 2019 Congressional App Challenge,” said Computer Science teacher Karen Elofson. “Thanks to local Congress members, students like Jimmy and Connor have the opportunity to address local, national and global problems through programming apps and to interact with members of Congress. I look forward to their future explorations of computer science and what they will create.”
O’Sullivan and Peavey plan to major in Computer Science while Robinson plans to major in Music and Business.
The Congressional App Challenge is a U.S. House of Representatives initiative where members of Congress host contests in their districts for middle and high school students. The challenge encourages students to learn coding and inspires them to pursue careers in computer science. In the five years of the Congressional App Challenge, the program has resulted in 1,134 App Challenges across 48 states including Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands and Washington, D.C.
The 2019 Congressional App Challenge received 2,177 app submissions from over 10,000 students. A total of 304 members of Congress hosted the challenge in their districts.
Congressional App Challenge winners received a $250 Amazon Web Services gift card and have been invited to attend the annual #HouseofCode Festival on Capitol Hill. At the annual #HouseofCode Festival, students’ winning applications will be showcased and lawmakers and the global tech community will have the opportunity to interact with the next generation of domestic computer science talent.
To see O’Sullivan’s and Peavey’s demonstration video, click here.
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