In Washington D.C. on April 20–22, Victor and Forest Young, two Sophomores at Skyline High School, placed second in the National Congressional App Challenge after winning at the regional level.
The Congressional App Challenge is a nationwide contest for high school students interested in coding and app development. The Young brothers submitted an app that translates English into ASL in real time. Ultimately, their inspiration was a single video they watched in their ASL class at Skyline. Victor Young said, “It was a video of a deaf man trying to order McDonald’s, but he took more than 30 minutes to order one meal. So, he was gesturing to the waiter and writing with a pen and paper, but the waiter did not really understand a thing and became frustrated. So, after we saw that, we were like, ‘Isn’t there any translation tools?’ Because, any other language like Spanish or French, there’s Google Translate. But, why is there not one for ASL? We searched and found out that there really aren’t free public apps right now. So, we decided to create one.”
The Youngs first learned about the Congressional App Challenge while attending classes about AI. In the future, while they haven’t pinpointed their exact career aspirations, they’re interested in pursuing engineering and learning more about AI.
Their interest paid off, earning them a national placement and a trip to Washington D.C. During their trip to Washington, they met with Representative Blake Moore and Senator John Curtis. “We [also] visited the FBI museum,” Forest Young added. Furthermore, they were able to attend several important events where members of Congress, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, spoke about AI and the future.
Coding their app also taught them several things. Namely, Victor Young said, “Right now, there are many AI tools […] that help you code. So maybe coding exactly, like writing the lines, is not the hardest thing. But, thinking about the solution’s logic is difficult. The solution’s logic isn’t very complicated; it’s just hard to realize.”
The two brothers don’t plan to compete in the Congressional App Challenge again, citing their desire to leave open opportunities up for others. They will instead participate in other competitions that they haven’t tried yet. For example, they are considering entering the Presidential AI Challenge.
Ultimately, the Youngs hope to encourage others to be as interested in AI as they are. Forest Young said, “We want to say we want to encourage more students to learn about AI, because it is, right now, the main thing in the world.”
