Rep. Chu Announces Winners of 2025 Congressional App Challenge

PASADENA, CA - On Saturday, January 17, 2026, Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28) announced the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge for middle and high school students in the West San Gabriel Valley. This annual computer science competition, hosted by the U.S. House of Representatives, encourages students to learn how to code and inspires them to pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields.

This year, 52 apps were submitted to this competition. The winner, Anika Jha of Arcadia High School, submitted an app "Fire Up" to assist residents and first responders with an AI-powered wildfire prediction, live detection, risk-assessment and evacuation planning into real-time, localized alerts through a single, human-centered platform. After her family was nearly evacuated during the January 2025 wildfires, she created this app so all the fragmented information from NASA, NOAA, and CalFire can be integrated into one place and visualized onto an interactive map. Families, schools and communities can connect to low-cost hardware that can feed into the app to detect fire and smoke early, and the app also includes an evacuation planner that recommends safer routes by avoiding active danger zones.

Rep. Judy Chu issued the following statement:

"I was thrilled to host my 7thAnnual Congressional App Challenge Competition and highlight the increasing importance of STEM education in our country. STEM grows more valuable for our nation's youth, and the powerful skills gained from coding and programming will ensure that our nation remains at the forefront of technological progress and advancements. All our submissions came from talented young coders who worked collaboratively to fix problems facing the world. I'm proud of all our winners and everyone who participated in the competition. Congratulations to each one of them!"

List of Winners:

First Place: Fire Up by Anika Jha (https://youtu.be/M6boFqd9h_E)

Second Place: SCREAM++ by Tony Kan (https://youtu.be/ONdKvxl1Xgo)

Third Place: EyeMAX by Drexel Ngo, Alina Ramos, Evan Lau, and Athicha Chanpradub (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpZ1x8xMZCA)

Fourth Place: No Nurdles by Bernice Deng (https://youtu.be/AF45KeqGvBQ)

Fifth Place: Chorify by Chenxi (Eva) Huang (https://youtu.be/-EDnSJqf-5I)

Honorable Mention: SeeSomething AI by Spursh Deshpande, Timofey Tkachev, and Thomas Haddad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR3zwcc3pQ8)

Honorable Mention: MyMelody by Lily Chen (https://youtu.be/aQCLCxCFqhg)

Honorable Mention: PathGuard by Aaron Shen (https://youtu.be/50tSXgX29zg)

Honorable Mention: MediHelp by Theo Mirzakhanian and Karen Avetisyan (https://youtu.be/wferZ6MPRDw)

Honorable Mention: EcoQuest by Chloe Tam (https://youtu.be/v594sB1TY3o)

The winners were chosen by a panel of expert judges from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and Motiv Space Systems who made their decisions based on the app's purpose, concept, technicality, creativity, and design. The winning app, Fire Up, will be displayed on the Congressional App Challenge Website and on a digital display in the Capitol Building.