Ridge High School Students Earn Honorable Mentions In Congressional App Challenge

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Two Ridge High School students were among the top winners recognized in the 2025 Congressional App Challenge for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District by Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. on Thursday.

"It was a privilege to honor the students who excelled in this year's Congressional App Challenge," said Kean. "Each of them designed and built impressive applications that showcased their hard work, creativity, and technical skill. These young innovators possess extraordinary talent, and the level of thought and execution they brought to this competition speak to the strength of STEM education in our district."

The overall winners of the challenge are Maxwell Brohm and Zander Leon. These Morris County School of Technology students created the app, ChronoIQ, designed to enhance students’ time management skills, promoting greater efficiency while minimizing stress and academic pressure.

Four additional apps earned Honorable Mentions in the competition, and their developers were also recognized at Thursday's event.

• The Healthy Outcomes Honorable Mention went to Ridge High School students Madhubala Mohanakrishnan, Riya Laheja, and Rameen Nazim for their app, SymptoScan
• The Social Awareness Honorable Mention went to Michael Tan, a student at Union County Magnet High School, for his app, forum
• The API Usage Honorable Mention went to Ridge High School students Aryaman Arora and Kevin Chen, for their app, SafeSphere
• The Rising Star Honorable Mention went to Mount Olive Middle School student, Romit Gurao, for his app, VertiSight

All submissions for this year’s Congressional App Challenge were judged by Vincent Panico, Samantha Billig, and David Angradi.

A former computer science professor at Raritan Valley Community College, Panico uses his tech background as a sales leader in the enterprise technology world and as Deputy Mayor of his hometown of Readington.

Billig, named in 2016 as the Hunterdon County Teacher of the Year, has been a Business Education Teacher at Hunterdon Central in Flemington for 18 years, where she teaches Entrepreneurship 1 and 2, as well as Digital Multimedia Design.

A graduate of Rutgers University, Angradi leverages his more than 20 years of experience helping customers with their Digital Transformation initiatives as Field CTO with Presidio.