A number of Monmouth County students recently received accolades for developing smart phone applications for the Congressional App Challenge.

   Congress created the event in 2014 to encourage students to develop computer coding and software application skills and foster STEM skills among young students. The contest is sponsored nationally by the Internet Education Foundation, and 303 members of Congress made the Challenge available in their districts this year, representing over two-thirds of Americans; more than 6,000 students registered for this year's competition.

   In New Jersey's 4th District, 29 students participated in teams and as individuals to design nine apps. Students from Communications High School, a Monmouth County Vocational School District career academy located in Wall Township, swept all three top spots.

   Erin Hardiman of Spring Lake, Melody Lin of Freehold and Jacob Rosegarten of Morganville took home the top prize with "CollabraCart," an app designed to "match people who are struggling to purchase groceries with individuals who are seeking to donate their time and/or money to help them," said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ4). At a user's discretion, the service may be used anonymously or people may opt to connect with another user through a "Friends" feature. All money donated would be used to pay for someone's groceries.

   "During these unprecedented times when many of our fellow New Jerseyans are struggling to maintain their livelihood and feed their families, it was great to see Melody, Erin and Jacob work together and develop an App that will help others in our community," Smith said in a release.

   "Green Garden," the second-place app, was designed by Brigid McCarthy of Manasquan, Abi Cohen of Marlboro and Rina Peshori of Holmdel, who all worked to aid the conservation of at-risk insect species through technology and engagement of an audience with a unique potential to create change. The app serves a dual purpose of education and entertainment. Users take care of and grow their own virtual garden while learning how these efforts, when applied to real life, have the potential to help insect populations.

   The third-place winners were Nate Riehl of Manasquan, Ava Turner of Middletown and Jake Polvino of Tinton Falls who designed "Roomiez," an app that helps college students find roommates. The app prompts a user seeking a compatible roommate with multiple choice questions and the ability to select interest tags in various categories. The app saves the answers from each user and will only display other users with similar interests, sorting by the closest match first.

   The three-member panel of technology professionals from the district who volunteered as judges for the Challenge were Debbie Smith of Jackson, the director of administration/director of information technology for the Office of the Standing Chapter 13 Trustee; Vincent DeTommaso of Holmdel, an app designer for Viacom, and Stadi Sinclair, managing member of Code Ninjas in Red Bank.

   The highest scoring app from each congressional district is eligible to be displayed in the US Capitol Building and featured on the House of Representatives' website at house, gov. Due to COVID-19, this year the winning students will be invited to a virtual #HouseOfCode Festival Capitol Hill Reception in the spring.