Avon Teen Earns National Honors For Creating Potentially Life-Saving App

AVON, CT — An Avon Old Farms School student has earned national recognition for creating a mobile app designed to help people with food allergies identify potentially dangerous ingredients in food products.

Nicolas Campisi, a junior from Avon, was named the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Connecticut’s 5th District for developing “Snap & Snack,” an app that allows users to scan food products and analyze ingredients for allergens.

The Congressional App Challenge is an annual competition organized by the U.S. House of Representatives that encourages middle and high school students to develop technology-based solutions for their communities. More than 13,800 students nationwide submitted over 4,600 apps this year, according to organizers.

Campisi traveled to Washington, D.C., in April to participate in the annual #HouseOfCode event, where winning students showcased their projects to members of Congress, congressional staff and technology industry leaders.

“I was excited even though I had almost forgotten about it. It was a surprise, but a really good one,” Campisi said in a statement about learning he had won the competition.

The app allows users to input food allergies, sensitivities or dietary preferences before scanning a product barcode or photographing an ingredient label.

The program then identifies allergens, including ingredients listed under alternate names, and alerts the user if a potential allergen is detected.

Snap & Snack also includes translation tools for ingredient labels and nutrition facts, as well as an artificial intelligence assistant that can suggest allergy-friendly recipes and local restaurant recommendations.

Campisi said the idea for the app was inspired by his own experiences living with severe allergies to eggs and dairy.

“My allergies are pretty severe, so wondering what is in my food has always been a major source of anxiety,” Campisi said. “For everything I eat and touch, I am essentially putting my life in the hands of others.”

He added that he hoped the app could reduce stress and improve safety for people with food allergies.

Campisi said he first became interested in computer science after taking an introductory coding class during his freshman year at Avon Old Farms School.

Since then, he has taken advanced courses and participated in the school’s Advanced Independent Project program to pursue additional coding projects.

To create the app, Campisi researched the prevalence of food allergies and learned additional programming languages to build the application for smartphones.

He said the project also introduced him to front-end development and user interface design.

Ultimately, U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes selected Campisi as the district winner.

Campisi said he hopes to complete the remaining steps needed to make the app publicly available for download.

“This goes beyond just helping my school or town,” he said. “I think this is a great opportunity to help a larger community.”