Press Releases

Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree announced the co-winners of the 2024 Congressional App Challenge for Maine’s First District: Yarmouth High School’s Grace Keaney and Chris Irankunda. Their app, “Order in the Court”, is designed to help volleyball coaches be more efficient by tracking  lineups, scores, timeouts, and other important stats during games. 

“Since 2013, the Congressional App Challenge has provided a unique forum for students across the country to put their creativity and tech skills to the test,” said Pingree. I’m always amazed by the ideas these aspiring developers come up with—and how they address real-life situations and challenges. I think Grace and Chris’s app can be a valuable tool, not just for coaches, but for players as well. Analytics have become so important for teams at the professional and college levels; it only makes sense that high schools would start using them as well. I want to congratulate Grace and Chris on their amazing accomplishment. They’ve made their school, their community, and their state incredibly proud.”

Grace said the idea for the app stemmed from conversations she’d had with her own coach, who talked about losing points—and even games—because of flawed substitution patterns and player rotations.  

“We really enjoyed the opportunity to work together and follow through with an idea that we believe will make a difference in the volleyball community,” Grace and Chris said. “The coding aspect of the app helped us develop our problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. We were also using a new coding language—Swift—which proved to be a fun challenge. We hope to continue to improve and update this app in the years ahead, which we think will lead to more wins for our team—and help the entire volleyball community.”

Click here to watch a demo of the winning app. 

The Congressional App Challenge is a nationwide competition created in 2013 by leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and at the Internet Education Foundation who sought to foster an appreciation for computer science and STEM. The Congressional App Challenge seeks to encourage middle and high school students to pursue careers in tech through a nationwide coding challenge. 

Every year, Members of Congress challenge students in their districts to create and submit their original apps for a chance to win the competition. Winning apps from each district will be displayed and recognized at an event in Washington, D.C. this spring.

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