Salinas, CA – U.S. Representative Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) announced the winner of his district’s Congressional App Challenge, Toma Brasoveanu (pronounced Brah-show-va-nu), a seventh-grade student from Pacific Collegiate School in Santa Cruz.  The Congressional App Challenge promotes student innovation, creativity, and engagement in computer science through competition and the creation of a new application.

The Winning App

Toma’s app, “Pill Alarm,” alerts and reminds users when they need to take their medication. Toma was inspired to create “Pill Alarm” by his mother, Megan Moodie-Brasoveanu, who lives with a neuromuscular condition that requires medication at regular intervals.  Toma wanted to design an app to help his mother track and safely take her pills on time. “Pill Alarm” is Toma’s first app.

“The Congressional App Challenge provides students with a unique, hands-on experience to test their skills in computer science and explore innovative ideas outside of the traditional confines of the classroom,” said Rep. Panetta.  “Toma and this years’ runners-up saw problems in our communities and worked hard to develop technological solutions to address them. On behalf of our congressional district, congratulations to Toma and every student who participated in the competition this year, we cannot wait to see what the future holds for each of you.” 

“’Pill Alarm” is different than most medicine tracking apps because it’s based on user-set intervals instead of fixed times of day.  That’s really important for people like my mom, who need to make sure they get their medication safely, at exactly the right time,” said Toma Brasaoveanu. 

“Winning the App Challenge has really boosted my confidence in my app-building skills! I want to say thank you to Congressman Panetta and his staff for this great opportunity, to Stephanie Sumarna for running the program, and to my teacher, Elizabeth Shaw, at Cabrillo College who’s been a big supporter of mine and showed me the App Challenge.  I also want to thank my mom for collaborating with me on the “user end” of the app and my dad for helping me debug issues that came up.  Congratulations to all the other winners for building cool apps!”

Placing second in the competition are Daniel Garnica, Tushar Singh, Angel Vazquez, and Mark Ramilo from Seaside High School with their app “Sea Our Side” which highlights activities to do when you are in the City of Seaside.  In third place were Oscar Yanez, Robert Cruz, Annie Dorantes, and Roman Frilles from Seaside High School for their app “Kelp” which helps tourists and locals find restaurants in the Monterey Bay area.

Winning apps are eligible to be displayed in the U.S. Capitol building and featured on the House of Representatives website, www.House.gov.

About the Congressional App Challenge

Officially launched by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2015, the Congressional App Challenge is a nationwide effort allows students to compete against their peers by creating an application or “app,” for desktop/PC, web, tablet, mobile, or other devices.  The Congressional App Challenge is open to all middle and high school students in California's 20th Congressional District.