Governor Roy Cooper today announced that teams from three North Carolina High Schools won the third annual Ready, Set, App! competition by designing and developing mobile applications that solve a problem in their school or community. The competition is hosted by the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE), a business-led, education non-profit within the Governor’s Office, in partnership with Lenovo.
“It is great to see North Carolina students work together to develop innovative apps to solve issues in our communities,” said Governor Cooper. “Congratulations to the Ready, Set, App! winners on their accomplishments.”
This year, 42 teams from 20 counties entered the competition. Each Ready, Set, App! team includes 3-5 students and an advisor. In addition, each team received assistance from a peer mentor, a high school student skilled in coding, app design, and project management.
A group of more than 60 judges, including 19 Lenovo employees, reviewed and voted on the incredible 21 apps that were submitted and selected the top seven teams to present in the final pitch competition on Friday, May 13.
First place went to Team Requestify from William G. Enloe High School in Wake County, which developed an app to address period poverty by allowing users to request hygiene products to be donated to local shelters. Team SLTranslate from the North Carolina School of Science and Math in Durham County came in second place by designing an app that produces live transcriptions of American Sign Language. Finally, third place was awarded to Team The Write Place of The Early College at Guilford for creating an app for students to peer-review school essays and papers.
“As a global technology company with headquarters here in North Carolina, Lenovo is committed, long-term, to investing in STEM education in our state,” said Libby Richards, Community Engagement Manager at Lenovo. “Through programs like Ready, Set, App! we hope to inspire students to become problem solvers in their community – using technology to make a difference.”
During the final pitch, the finalist teams presented their apps to a panel made up of industry professionals and answered questions about their development. Each member of the winning teams received prizes provided by Lenovo.
The competition, open to all North Carolina high school students, will be held again in 2023 with kickoff planned for the fall. For more information about the Ready, Set, App! competition, please visit www.ncbce.org/ready-set-app.
About the 2022 Ready, Set, App! Winners:
First Place -- Team Requestify from William G. Enloe High School in Wake County includes Keerthana Prakash, Sandra Jose, Kenji Jung, Aaron Koshy, and Daniel Yu. Their app, Requestify, is a platform for those in need to request menstrual and other personal hygiene products. Individuals residing in shelters can go on the app and request specific items they need through the shelter’s account for community volunteers to see and then fulfill the order. The group was led by Lori Kubik, a math and computer science educator for Enloe High School. Learn more about the team and view their virtual pitch here.
Second Place -- Team SLTranslate from the North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM) in Durham County includes Ganning Xu, Jacob Wan Meter, Jolie Duquene, Keshav Varadarajan, and Eric Liu. They developed an app that works to overcome the communication barrier between American Sign Language (ASL) users and those who don’t use ASL. The app has a live translation feature, where users can use their phone’s camera to detect sign language and transcribe it for the user to read. The group was led by Keethan Kleiner, a computer science educator for NCSSM. Learn more about the team and view their virtual pitch here.
Third Place -- Team The Write Place from the Early College at Guilford in Guilford County includes Anika Suman, Eric Wang, Jason Yin, Roshan Sundaram, and Michael Scutari. They created a platform for students to share their writing and receive feedback from other students in their community. Students can tag what class the paper is for and make it available to be reviewed by other students who have already passed that class, as indicated in their profile. The group was led by advisor Pete Kashubara, the principal of The Early College at Guilford. Learn more about the team and view their virtual pitch here.
Peer Mentors – Five interns served as peer mentors to the student teams in developing their apps and pitches: lead intern Aman Anas from Apex High School; Leah Guilford and Kyla Guilford from Wake Young Women’s Leadership Academy; Siddharth Maruvada from William G. Enloe High School; and Trinity Tran from Apex Friendship High School.
About NCBCE
Since 1983, NCBCE has provided a critical link between North Carolina business leaders and the state's education decision-makers, helping to create connections between the education curriculum and the overall work readiness of people across the state.
About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a US$60 billion revenue Fortune Global 500 company serving customers in 180 markets around the world. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, we are developing world-changing technologies that power (through devices and infrastructure) and empower (through solutions, services, and software) millions of customers every day and together create a more inclusive, trustworthy, and sustainable digital society for everyone, everywhere. To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.
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