Ariel Viggiano, a Spencerport High School student, was named winner for New York’s 25th Congressional District in the inaugural House of Representatives’ Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) App Challenge for high school students.
The competition promoted interest and innovation in the fields of STEM. The House STEM App Challenge called on high school students from across the country to submit ideas for a software application, or “app,” idea related to the STEM fields.
Ariel Viggiano was selected as the winner of Rep. Louise Slaughter’s challenge which ran from February through April of this year.
“I am so proud of all of the students who submitted app ideas to this challenge. It was inspiring to see the innovative ideas coming from so many incredibly bright students. On behalf of the judges, it is my great honor to congratulate Ariel Viggiano as the winner of the House STEM App Challenge! Ariel’s app, Final Buster, showed great attention to detail, presenting creative ways to engage the user and inspire competition in order to make math fun,” said Represenative Slaughter in a press release. “With fewer than one-third of U.S. eighth graders demonstrating proficiency in science and mathematics, investing in STEM education is crucial for United States to maintain its competitive advantage in science and technology.”
Over 50 students participated in Representative Slaughter’s challenge. All apps were evaluated by the district judges, area experts in game design, academics and electronics. Ariel was selected as the winner for her app, “Final Buster,” which is a quiz app to help high school students study for math tests. This innovative app blocks users from accessing other apps while studying, forcing them to focus on completing the mathematical problems on Final Buster. Final Buster does not offer multiple choice answers but instead requires the user to work through the problem to identify the correct answer. Ariel explains that this prevents the user from simply guessing the correct answer. In addition, when a question is answered incorrectly, the app reveals how to solve the problem and shows where the user went wrong. Ariel’s app also rewards the user at different levels of difficulty by awarding them with widgets or avatars which can be saved to the phone or tablet for use on social media. Ariel’s aim was to encourage the user to learn and practice their math skills.
Ariel’s app will be featured on a special page of the U.S. House of Representatives’ website, as well as on display in Representative Slaughter’s Washington, D.C. office.
Ariel is the daughter of Antonio and Sherry Viggiano.
