Congressman Ed Case (HI-01) today announced the winners of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge for Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District at a reception at the Entrepreneurial Sandbox in Kakaako.
The winning app developed by high school students addressed women’s safety, focused on fire recovery on Maui, and developed encryption software.
“This challenge is a great opportunity for local students to focus their skills and creativity on developing, testing and analyzing new applications for use in the real world,” Case said. By stimulating creativity, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, we also hope to open our students’ minds to possibilities beyond their imagination. ”
“And the results of this year’s challenge demonstrate that they have the skillset, imagination and determination to compete with the best young people across the country in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and to lead the next generation of computing.” We have once again proven that we have the potential to improve science and technology. “
Winner of Hawaii 1st Congressional District:
Who was chosen as the 1st place Jaylen Rabago Dream House Ewa Beach Public Charter School 10th grader for her speak safe App.
Rabago said her app raises awareness about women’s safety and helps them feel empowered and secure in their daily lives.
The app’s main feature is an audio recording library designed to provide a sense of security by creating the illusion of an ongoing conversation. Rabago said the feature was designed to thwart potential attackers.
Additionally, the “Panic” button enhances the app by instantly alerting loved ones to the user’s location when faced with a dangerous situation.
“What inspired me to create this app was my own experiences and those of my loved ones. As a woman, I sometimes feel unsafe navigating certain situations and environments. People in my community Through conversations with women, we realized that many women share similar concerns and fears. We wanted to develop an app that would encourage people to do that,” Rabago said.
“We also know that there are often situations where someone feels uncomfortable or threatened but is not threatened enough to call 911 or use a defensive weapon.” I did.
“We’re going to need pepper spray,” she said. “By leveraging technology, we aim to bridge the gap between feeling vulnerable and having reliable tools to increase personal safety.”
The second place was chosen by Jeremiah Thoran 8th grade student at Christian Academy. maui fire App.
This app was designed to encourage and spread awareness to help the people of Maui from the tragic wildfires that occurred in August 2023. The app includes information about the island itself and links to fundraising websites and organizations (Shelter Relief Fund, People’s Fund). Maui, and the Maui Strong Fund through Bank of Hawaii.
So we also developed some of the games featured in the app: Fight the Flames, Fix the Lines, and Evacuation Stampede.
“News of the Maui fires inspired us to create this project. At my church, they talk about supporting Maui, and every week we try to bring relief to those in need of transitional housing. He was referring to donating to the Shelter Relief Fund that had been set up. “I had donated to the Shelter Relief Fund, but I wanted to do something more to help those in need, so I started this project. I raised it,” So said.
3rd place went to 10th grade Li Jinghao and Kekoa Dung Island Pacific Academy app PyQuCryptor.
PyQuCryptor is modern post-quantum cryptography software written in Python 3.12 (compatible with 3.11) using the PyCryptoDome and HashLib cryptography libraries.
Authors Li and Dung state, “AES-256-CTR for encryption, PBKDF2-SHA3-256 for encryption key derivation, and SHA3 for integrity authentication and verification and built-in authentication of AES-CTR. -512.”
This application is specifically designed for Windows 10 and 11, as Python 3.12 only supports Windows 10 and 11 versions.
This free, open-source software was inspired by the author’s earlier builds of “crypto” software written in Python.
The creator says: “I have extensive experience with encryption, having worked with 7-Zip’s AES-256 encryption, BitLocker device encryption, and VeraCrypt volume encryption. I also have extensive experience with HTTPS (using TLS v1.3) We also run our own website that supports ./v1.2) and a valid digital certificate from Let’s Encrypt, and we run our own VPN servers based on the ShadowSocks, OpenVPN, and WireGuard protocols .”
Entrepreneur’s Sandbox is Hawaii’s gateway to creativity, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. This 13,500 square foot collaborative facility was developed in 2019 by the Hawaii Technology Development Corporation, a state agency attached to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, to inspire everyone.
In partnership with Hub Coworking Hawaii, this space will be available to connect the community through networking, education, business training, and coworking opportunities.