Rep. Sherrill Announces 2025 Congressional App Challenge Winner
LIVINGSTON, NJ — Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) announced today that Morris County School of Technology student Paul Rowe is the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge for New Jersey's 11th District for his app SoniSight.
SoniSight is an AI-powered web application designed to make ultrasound analysis clearer, more transparent, and more educational. The app allows users to upload or select from a set of built-in breast ultrasound images and receive an instant analysis of whether the scan appears normal or suspicious.
It works by combining computer vision and artificial intelligence. Behind the scenes, OpenCV (an image-processing library) cleans up the ultrasound image, enhances contrast, and detects potential regions of interest (like lesions or dense tissue areas). Then, Google Gemini AI steps in to interpret those findings, explaining what visual features make a region look suspicious or normal. The model analyzes traits such as shape, margins, and texture, and produces a short, human-readable rationale along with probabilities for each category. The results include clear measurements, probabilities, and even an overlay box showing where the mass is located, all designed for easy interpretation by medical students and early-stage professionals. To see Paul’s work, click here.
“The Congressional App Challenge brings out the best from students across NJ-11, and every year, I look forward to the immense talent and hard work that goes into these projects,” said Rep Sherrill. “Allowing students to express their creativity with STEM resources is a great way to promote achievement in our schools, and Paul’s work is a prime example of how this project can stimulate learning while helping our community. Congratulations, Paul, and thank you to all of this year’s participants and judges.”
“On behalf of the staff of the Morris County School of Technology, congratulations to Paul on his amazing accomplishment and we commend his ability to merge his personal experience with his technical skills to develop a concept that can provide greater medical insight to those facing situations similar to his own.” said Mark Menadier, Principal of Academies at MCST.
The 2025 App Challenge winners are:
1st Place: Paul Rowe, Morris County School of Technology
2nd Place: Oma Makhija, Morris Hills High School
3rd Place: Claire Gao, Tanya Shah, Yug Shah, Atiksh Akunuri, Livingston High School
46 submissions representing 20 schools participated in the App Challenge this year. Judges scored apps based on functionality, creativity, and user experience. The NJ-11 panel of judges included:
- Dr. Alfred Bentley III PhD, Founder and CEO, vipHomeLink
- Professor Hongbou Zhou Montclair State University
- Brian Nixon, Picatinny Arsenal
The Congressional App Challenge, launched in 2014, is designed to engage student creativity and encourage their participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education fields. The winner's app is eligible to be displayed in the U.S. Capitol building and featured on the U.S. House of Representatives' website.
The competition was open to middle school and high school students who live or attend school in NJ-11. The full set of eligibility rules for individual and team entries can be found at https://www.congressionalappchallenge.us/.
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