Rep. Summer Lee Announces Winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge for PA-12

WASHINGTON D.C. - DECEMBER 22, 2025 - Today, Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12) announced Upper St. Clair High School student Jeffery Zhang as the 2025 Congressional App Challenge Winner for Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District for his innovative computational-chemistry application, Isomer Enumerator.

The Congressional App Challenge, the largest student computer science competition in the nation, saw record-breaking participation this year:

• 394 Members of the House hosted competitions - the most in program history.
• 13,830 students participated nationwide, an increase of nearly 1,200 over last year.
• 4,650 original applications were submitted - almost 800 more than the previous record.
• More than 56% of all submissions integrated Artificial Intelligence, marking a transformative leap in student-driven innovation.
  • Students reported resoundingly positive impacts: 91% are now more likely to pursue STEM careers, 89% plan to keep coding, and 86% would recommend the program to a friend.

"Jeffery's work is such a powerful reminder of the brilliance and creativity we have right here in Western Pennsylvania," said Congresswoman Lee. "When our young people are given the support and opportunities they deserve, they show us new ways of thinking and they redefine what is possible. Jeffery took a complex scientific challenge and turned it into something extraordinary, something that can genuinely help researchers and scientists. That kind of curiosity, hard work, and imagination is exactly what gives me hope for the future. We are so proud of him here in PA-12, and we cannot wait to cheer him on as he represents us at the House of Code event next spring."

About the Winning App: Isomer Enumerator by Jeffery Zhang

Zhang's web-based application, Isomer Enumerator, is designed for use in computational chemistry and cheminformatics, helping researchers and developers analyze molecular structures in the search for new materials and drugs.

Using Python and JavaScript, Zhang built a highly sophisticated backend from scratch-designing original classes to model chemical bonds, electrons, and structural rules without relying on external packages. His app:

• Generates and enumerates all possible linear, constitutional isomers of a given molecule.
• Applies chemically realistic constraints to exclude unstable or nonviable structures.
• Provides key chemical insights - including polarity, hybridization, and molecular geometry.
  • Implements optimized combinatorial algorithms and graph-theory logic to reduce compute time from hours to seconds for many molecules.

Zhang shared that the project was inspired by a question raised in AP Chemistry: "Why is there no simple way to count molecular isomers?" His exploration led him deep into combinatorics, graph theory, and chemistry - ultimately producing a tool capable of generating hundreds of chemically feasible structures in minutes.

Zhang completed the project independently at home and plans to continue developing the app, including creating a more advanced 3D visualization engine and exploring faster computations using C++ and parallel processing. He has also elected to pursue Congressional Certification through Hack Club.

Jeffery Zhang will be honored at #HouseOfCode in April 2026, where students will present their apps to lawmakers and leaders in technology and innovation on Capitol Hill.

A video demonstration of the winning project is available AT THIS LINK.

Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Education and Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, shehas delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.4 Billionbrought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania's infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs. Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 3,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.