SPRINGDALE (KFSM) — Two Northwest Arkansas students have won a coding app challenge put on by the U.S. House of Representatives.
It’s part of a goal to get more kids involved in computer science careers.
Congressman Steve Womack announced the winners, Lucas Kellar (Don Tyson School of Innovation) and Julian Sanker (Haas Hall Academy), this morning in Springdale.
The two teamed up to develop their app, Crime Map.
It’s an interactive, real-time map of 911 dispatches.
The purpose is to let people know of any emergency situations in their community.
Kellar says the two were curious about what was happening in their communities and wanted to make an app with that information.
“Fayetteville lists 911 calls on their website, it’s like a list of addresses and names, and so we thought this is kind of hard to read... it’s just a list of text.. so we built an app that basically scrapes their data that filters it, stores it, messes with it, and puts it on a map for anyone to see,” he said.
There were about 15 entries in the third congressional district. Womack also spoke on the importance of stem education for students.