Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), a member of the House Rules Committee and Republican Leader of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health,announces University of North Texas TAMS students John Li, Jerry Liu, Nathaniel Brown and Zach Tang as the 2020 Congressional App Challenge Winners for the 26th District of Texas.

"The Congressional App Challenge provides students the opportunity to expand their imaginations and become the next generation of technology builders. This year’s winners, University of North Texas TAMS students John Li, Jerry Liu, Nathaniel Brown, and Zach Tang, were inspired by the pandemic to create "TAMSHub" – a centralized online platform to provide community to the student body. I appreciate their forward thinking and congratulate them on this success. Through this pandemic, we have seen American Innovation succeed and these students are just another example," said Burgess.

Background: 
The "TAMSHub" app can be viewed here.

The Congressional App Challenge (CAC) was created by the U.S. House of Representatives to encourage student participation in STEM, especially in computer science and coding. This nationwide effort afforded students the opportunity to compete alongside their peers by creating an app for desktop/PC, web, tablet, mobile, raspberry Pi, or other devices. Nationally, over 6500 students submitted applications for the 2020 challenge. The CAC is specifically designed to promote innovation and engagement in computer science and was open to all middle and high school students residing or attending school in the 26th Congressional District of Texas.

Participating students were tasked with creating an app that would impress our panel of expert judges. Our judging panelists were Dr. Jennifer Moore, Associate Professor & School Librarian Certification Program Faculty Lead at Texas Woman’s University School of Library & Information Sciences, Dr. Stephani Ludi, Professor, Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies & Co-Director of Research in Software Engineering Lab at the University of North Texas’ Department of Science & Engineering, and Ms. Susan Svane, Division Chair, Information Technology and Computer Science at North Central Texas College.