Broadcom Coding with Commitment® Meets Congressional App Challenge Youth Shine at #HouseOfCode on Capitol Hill
Program Highlights
2024 Congressional App Challenge Winners
Each spring the United States Capitol becomes the showcase for youth-led innovations as hundreds of young coders gather for #HouseOfCode, a Broadcom Foundation–sponsored celebration of the Congressional App Challenge award winners. The Congressional App Challenge is a nationwide initiative that encourages youth to explore STEM, coding, and computer science by creating original computer applications.
With its mission to Inspire, Include, and Innovate, the Congressional App Challenge reaches a diverse group of young people from across the country. In 2024, over 382 Members of Congress—representing more than 87% of US congressional districts—hosted challenges that engaged over 12,000 young people and produced 3,881 working apps.
“We welcomed 400 students from 48 states to #HouseOfCode,” shared Joseph Alessi, Congressional App Challenge Director. “Students had an amazing experience showing off their winning apps, networking with peers from across the country at the Broadcom Foundation Social and meeting their elected representatives under the dome of the U.S. Capitol.”
L/R Maria Wronski, Rachelle Celebrezze, Paula Golden, Joan Stone and Robert Hoffman
Many of the participants had been inspired through participation in programs supported by Broadcom Foundation. The foundation promotes digital literacy and responsible AI through Code Clubs, Coolest Projects, Experience AI, regional science fairs, and the National STEM Festival. The foundation supports free platforms—such as the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s resources—that help young people explore app development, use AI responsibly, and learn physical computing with Scratch and Python. Many programs create opportunities for Broadcom Inc. engineers and staff to volunteer as mentors, judges, and role models in their communities.
Broadcom Foundation President Paula Golden, CFO Maria Wronski, and Assistant Director for STEM Advancement Cheryl Braun, Broadcom Inc. Vice President of Marketing Joan Stone, Head of Government Affairs Robert Hoffman, and Head of U.S. Public Sector Government Relations Rachelle Celebrezze were on hand to celebrate these young innovators.
Suhana Chand, 2023 AzSEF
One such young innovator is Suhana Chand, whose app ArtiVision uses artificial intelligence to convert text to speech and assist visually impaired individuals. Her project earned her the 2023 Broadcom Coding with Commitment® award at the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair (AzSEF). She went on to win the 2024 Congressional App Challenge in Arizona’s 8th District, which is represented by Congressman Abe Hamadeh.
Suhana Chand, explaining her project to Broadcom Inc's Rachelle Celebrezze and Joan Stone
Since receiving the Broadcom Coding with Commitment® award, Suhana enhanced ArtiVision with facial and emotional recognition. “Winning the award was a significant milestone,” Suhana shared. “The prize of $250 and a Raspberry Pi Pico Kit allowed me to refine the technology and validated its potential impact.” She is now advancing her research through the development of object detection capabilities and GPS navigation features.
Broadcom Foundation President Paula Golden; Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi; Anna Beischer; and her parents, Thomas and Lily Besicher
Another standout at #HouseOfCode was Anna Beischer, winner in California’s 11th District, represented by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. Anna’s app enables users to publish stories on Wikipedia about unsung women heroes, expanding online representation. Speaker Emerita Pelosi and Paula Golden congratulated her at the Capitol on creating such an impactful app.
“Anna’s project is a perfect complement to Broadcom Foundation’s Wiki Education Equity Outreach Program,” said Golden. “Through its partnership with Wiki Education, Broadcom Foundation empowers students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and Tribal Colleges to include unsung STEM pioneers from underrepresented communities in Wikipedia—"people who look like me.” “Broadcom Foundation brought 131 brand-new biographies of diverse STEM leaders to Wikipedia over the past three years,” said Kathleen Crowley, Director of Donor Relations for WikiEdu.org. “Significantly, nearly half of all biographies added to Wikipedia about African-American scientists last year came from this initiative.”
Registration is now open for the 2025 Congressional App Challenge. Broadcom Foundation encourages all middle and high school youth to register—especially those from under-resourced or underrepresented communities—to explore digital literacy, solve real-world problems, and gain national recognition for their innovations.
ABOUT:
Broadcom Inc. is an American company and global technology leader that designs, develops, and supplies a broad range of semiconductor, enterprise software and security solutions. Solutions include service provider and enterprise networking and storage, mobile device and broadband connectivity, mainframe, cybersecurity, and private and hybrid cloud infrastructure.
Broadcom Foundation is a corporate nonprofit that advocates equitable access to STEM education and acquiring digital literacy as essential for attaining meaningful employment and becoming productive citizens in a tech-driven society. The foundation promotes basic coding as a critical 21st Century+ skill that all young people need to be creative STEM problem solvers who think critically, communicate and collaborate and who will help realize the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
