Rep. Esty Awards Kaynor Tech Students First Prize in District Congressional App Challenge

Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty presented the first place award for her district’s Congressional App Challenge to four students at W.F. Kaynor Technical High School on Friday, December 9. The students, Raul Calderon, Joseph Grenier, Veronika Cordero, and Matthew Jones, all sophomores in Kaynor Tech’s Information Systems Technology program, created an app called “Unmutable,” which allows individuals who can’t speak the ability to play vocal commands from their mobile device or computer.

The Congressional App Challenge (CAC) is a competition aimed at encouraging U.S. high school students to learn how to code by creating their own applications. The group submitted “Unmutable” in October, and it was then judged by a panel of local computer science professionals and congressional representatives.

Representative Esty visited Kaynor Tech on Friday afternoon to surprise the award winners, who had not yet been informed of their first place finish, in front of their peers in the classroom. The students then gave a presentation to Rep. Esty and the class about their app.

Learn more about the Congressional App Challenge here: http://www.congressionalappchallenge.us/about-2/

Learn more about “Unmutable” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_aUcTAdrK8