Two Cooper High School Juniors Team to Win 2020 Congressional App Challenge

Rep. Ilhan Omar recently named Cooper High School juniors Andrew Tran and Owen Smith as the winners of the 2020 Congressional App Challenge (CAC) for District 5. They were joined in their efforts by He Yang, a friend and junior at a school in South Carolina.

The app challenge is a nationwide initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where members of Congress host competitions in their districts for middle and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science.

The Cooper duo’s app, MathIKnow Tutoring, is a free service that brings together students who are seeking math help with qualified tutors. “Our main inspiration behind creating this web application is the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has created a shift in how students learn,” Tran, Yang and Smith said in a statement. “We wanted to make sure that each student had access to tutoring and learning resources.”

Check out the MathIKnow website, learn more about the award the trio won, or watch the summary video they submitted for the competition.