LT Senior Wins Third District's Congressional App Contest

LA GRANGE, IL — A Lyons Township High School senior and Countryside resident has won the Third District's Congressional App Challenge. Scott Turro created an app, "Water Ring Game," for Congressman Dan Lipinski's Third District contest.

According to a release, the app reproduces a classic childhood toy in the form of a mobile device app.

“The app submissions we received varied significantly, and all were great demonstrations of the students’
creativity and skill,” Lipinski said in a release. “Scott’s app stood out for the sophistication of the code and the
STEM skills he demonstrated. I want to congratulate him and thank his family and his teacher, Natalie
Carlson, for their support. All of the students who submitted apps to this year’s competition did great
work.”

Turro worked hard to program realistic movements into the rings, mimicking how plastic rings move through water and bounce off walls, according to a release. To do this, he developed algorithms that drew on his physics and math skills. The result is a realistic reproduction that even responds to the user shaking the phone.

A video featuring Turro’s app will be played throughout the year on a screen in the U.S. Capitol, and he will
receive credits for free web hosting services and an invitation to a special coding-related event next year in
Washington, D.C.

A panel of experts, including John McDonnell from Infogix, Inc., Catherine Greenspon from Project Infinite
Green, and Steven McGee from The Learning Partnership, judged the apps.

“I was very impressed with the quality of the submissions,” McGee said in a release. “Each of the students identified an interesting problem to address and their apps represented a great first step at providing solutions.”

The Congressional App Challenge began in 2015 as a way to inspire students from every corner of the
country to explore STEM, coding, and computer science through hands-on practice.

Image via Shutterstock.