Press Releases
Womack Honors Winner of the 2020 Congressional App Challenge
Washington,
November 13, 2020
7th grader from Fayetteville wins the 2020 Congressional App Challenge after developing an app that will help agriculture producers track soil moisture  Pictured: Rep. Womack (right) with Congressional App Challenge Winner – Veera Unnam (left) Bentonville, AR —November 13, 2020….Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) today honored Veera Sai Joshik Unnam, a 7th grader at Haas Hall Academy in Bentonville and resident of Fayetteville, for winning the 2020 Congressional App Challenge. The annual and nationwide coding competition for middle school and high school students aims to encourage our nation’s youth to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education and computer science careers. Congressman Womack said, “The future is bright with Arkansas’s next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs using this competition to leverage their science, technology, engineering, and math skills. A big congratulations to Veera on this incredible achievement! His app – which is purposed in helping our farmers and agriculture industry – shows how young minds are utilizing coding to find creative solutions to the problems we face.” Dr. Rod Wittenberg, Headmaster at Haas Hall Bentonville, said, “We are incredibly proud of Veera. As a 7th grader, he used his technological savvy to create a user-friendly app with tremendous real-world utility. As a scholar at Haas Hall Academy Bentonville, I feel that Veera has unlimited potential. Thank you, Congressman Womack, for advocating for the youth of Arkansas and promoting STEM activities.” Jeff Amerine, Founder and Managing Director of Startup Junkie, said “All of the competitors in this year's Congressional App Challenge created compelling solutions. The process of choosing the winner was very difficult as a result. The winner exhibited an understanding of a meaningful problem in agriculture, technical prowess in both hardware and software development, and the ability to tell the story. Candidly, it was amazing for a student in the 7th grade. Overall, the competing students reinforce my optimism for the future every year, and I thank Congressman Womack for continually hosting this challenge.” Veera’s winning app, Soil Moisture Control, allows farmers and people to monitor the soil moisture levels of crops in the field, as well as house plants. The app reads the moisture levels in real-time and uses the data it collects to suggest whether more or less water is needed to maintain a healthy growth environment. Impressively, Veera developed both software and hardware components, which means his application is fully functional. You can watch a tutorial of the winning app from soil analysis to water being pumped into the plant remotely here. Womack honored Veera with a certificate and congressional medallion at a ceremony at Haas Hall Academy. Entries were reviewed by a panel of local technology experts and judged on originality, creativity, and quality of the app design. The judges included Jeff Amerine, Phyl Amerine, and Haley Allgood of Startup Junkie. Soil Moisture Control will be featured on a digital display in the U.S. Capitol and on the Congressional App Challenge website. Additional honorees include:
This is the sixth year that Womack has hosted the Congressional App Challenge in Arkansas’s Third Congressional District. The Natural State has consistently had every congressional district partake in the competition, making Arkansas one of the top Congressional App Challenge participants per capita from across the United States. Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) has represented Arkansas’s Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations Committee. ### |