Students’ new app helps bicyclists avoid high-crash areas

WASHINGTON, D.C. [11/22/22] – Today Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici announced that a team of 8th graders – Nivedha Sathish Kumar, Sahana Muthaiya, and Anusha Jeyakumar – won the 2022 Congressional App Challenge for Oregon’s First Congressional District.

Sathish Kumar and Jeyakumar are students at Stoller Middle School and Muthaiya is a student at Tumwater Middle School.

Their app, BikeBetter, aims to help bicyclists safely plan their routes and avoid high-crash areas. It uses Oregon Department of Transportation crash data collected over 13 years to create a crash zone heatmap, showing users what streets are safe relative to others. Combining this data with the Google Maps application programming interface allows users to create a route between two addresses with high-crash zones marked on the map, helping the user choose an alternate route if needed.

“Congratulations to Nivedha, Sahana, and Anusha for winning the 2022 Congressional App Challenge,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici. “These bright students identified a problem —finding safe bike routes—and came up with an innovative solution that can benefit the community and the environment. I look forward to seeing what these talented coders create next.”

“We are thrilled about winning the Congressional App Challenge!” said the winning 8th grade team. “Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici provided a great platform to express our talents. Special gratitude to our teachers and mentors who taught the basics of coding.  We hope to expand our reach by incorporating other cities and increase its impact on bike safety!”

You can view a video presentation of the app here.

Judges gave an honorable mention to the team of Tai Wong, King Hey Chan, Jonathan Hu, and Anderson Men for their app, Focused. The app is designed to help users with ADHD and procrastination issues to better track deadlines and assignments through alarm notifications and music. Wong, Chan, and Men are students at Sunset High School and Hu is a student at Westview High School.

A panel of expert judges from Northwest Oregon selected the winning app. The judges evaluated the submissions for creativity, originality, user experience, and design. The three judges were:

    Sheri Dover, Director, PDX Code Guild
    Rihana Mungin, Interim Executive Director & Board Co-Chair, PDXWIT
    Katie SanFilippo, Chief Executive Officer, ChickTech

Bonamici recognized the winning students in a virtual reception with students from Oregon's First District who submitted entries. The winning app will be featured in the U.S. Capitol Building and on the House of Representatives website.

Bonamici is a founder and co-chair of the Congressional STEAM Caucus, which advocates for the integration of the arts and design into science, technology, engineering, and math education to encourage creative thinking and engage more students. By supporting and recognizing young programmers, Congress is acknowledging the importance of these fields. The U.S. House of Representatives organizes the nationwide Congressional App Challenge each year.