App of the Season Winners Tackle Community Issues with Innovative Apps
Winning submissions address drug overdose, human trafficking, and more using cutting-edge technologies like ChatGPT and IoT.
The five winning entries of the inaugural App of the Season competition—AI REI, COMBEE, Avid Reader, Found, and Smart Medicine Dispensing System—developed innovative mobile apps to tackle local issues in their communities. Honorable mentions were awarded to XôDengue, Asthma Manager, and Smart Garden.
App of the Season is a free, virtual appathon hosted by the App Inventor Foundation. It encourages dreamers, changemakers, and doers around the world to use App Inventor to build mobile apps for a cause. The competition aligns with the App Inventor Foundation’s philosophy on computational action—that in order to make computer science more inclusive and motivating, learners should be given the opportunity to develop technical products that have tangible impact.
This season’s competition took place from February 15 to April 30, 2023, and featured “community” as its theme. Participants were invited to work with members of their community, think of a cause that impacts them, and identify a solution to that cause. The 73 teams that participated in the competition represented a diverse range of backgrounds, perspectives, and issues. Participants came from 19 unique countries and regions, with 21% living in the developing world. Their ages ranged from 8 to 60 years old, and 65% reported having less than a year of experience using App Inventor. The app submissions tackled issues big and small, from fishing challenges in Tamil Naidu, India, to the dengue outbreak in Santa Catarina, Brazil, to green living screens in Tokyo, Japan.
“Each and every one of our App of the Season participants should be incredibly proud. You thought deeply about how to use technology to make a genuine impact on your communities.”
For the first time this year, submissions were assessed by community judges in addition to technical judges. Community members from Braze, a supporter of the App Inventor Foundation, and other tech companies volunteered their time to assess submissions for creativity and impact. A pool of App Inventor experts and educators evaluated apps for design and technical skill.
“Each and every one of our App of the Season participants should be incredibly proud,” said Dr. Natalie Lao, Executive Director of the App Inventor Foundation. “You thought deeply about how to use technology to make a genuine impact on your communities. And you accomplished something exceptional—creating real, working apps on your phones!"
Read more about the winning entries below.
Youth Team Track
Winner: Found
By Emma Anderson, Isabelle Ashley, Makayla Davenport (Montana, United States)
Our inspiration for Found came from local news pertaining to the huge problem people face with human trafficking, especially in Indigenous communities. In our community, many people are trafficked and have limited resources, particularly teens and young adults. Often people are not aware of the dangers of trafficking or how to prevent it. Only 1% of human trafficking victims are ever rescued, and in the United States alone, a child is taken by human traffickers every 2.5 hours. Our app will help people become aware of missing people near them, report suspicious activity relating to human trafficking, prevent teens and young adults from being trafficked online, and identify the signs of human trafficking.
Notable technologies used: gesture detection and databases
Winner: Smart Medicine Dispensing System
By Iraj Shroff, Vyshal Sreenivas (Arizona, United States)
More than 11.5 million Americans reported misusing prescription opioids in 2016. Opioids are a class of drugs that derive from natural substances found in the opium poppy plant. Prescription opioids are prescribed by doctors to treat moderate to severe pain following surgery, injury, or for health conditions such as cancer. Common types are oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, and methadone. Smart Medicine Dispensing System(SMDS) is a novel, cost-efficient, tamper-resistant, sustainable, programmable, and user-friendly system that helps prevent overdose and medication non-adherence by dispensing the patient’s medicines at specific times.
Notable technologies used: 3D printing, IoT, and Bluetooth
Honorable Mention: Smart Garden
By Alvin Chen, Henry Huang, Lucas Su, Alex Tang (California, United States)
Water is one of our planet's most precious resources, but we were surprised to learn that landscaping water use accounts for 58% of urban water use, and that 50% of the water used outdoors is wasted from inefficient methods and systems. We feel that it is urgent to curb water waste and promote water conservation and sustainability. Therefore, we developed this app to help people select water-efficient plants for their garden and spread the knowledge about saving water across our community.
Notable technologies used: ChatGPT and image classification
Youth Individual Track
Winner: Avid Reader
By Jiaxuan Ethan Dai (China)
For students in school, intensive reading is a must, either at school or at home. However, I found myself and my schoolmates always stuck with bad experiences during reading:
There are so many books to choose from, and we don’t know if the book at hand is the right fit for us. We have to read for a while and then find out it might not be a good fit.
We don’t have a good plan for the reading process. Normally we’ll give up or forget to finish it halfway.
While reading we’ll probably just flip over the pages without real understanding.
My app solves these pain points in intensive reading tasks by using a ChatGPT-enabled reading assistant.
Notable technologies used: ChatGPT
Honorable Mention: Asthma Manager
By Matthew Wang (Texas, United States)
There are more than 3 million asthma cases per year. It is a lifelong disease that is unable to be cured, but you can keep it under control. I was inspired by my cousin with asthma to create my app. The purpose of the app is to help people with asthma keep their asthma under control so they are able to live their best lives.
Notable technologies used: databases and sensors
Adult Track
Winner: AI REI
By Kishimoto Kazuki, Takei Rei, Uetake Tomohiro (Japan)
Social isolation and loneliness have become an issue in Japan due to an increase in the number of young people who have stopped attending school or withdrawn from society. Even if they try to reintegrate into society, because of their limited interaction with others, they feel worried about successfully interacting with others. As a result, there is a possibility that they may fail in schooling or employment. We heard that a friend, who had been in social withdrawal, struggled to find a job. We wanted to help young people who are trying to reintegrate into society. Our application is designed to improve communication skills for those who have difficulty with social interaction.
Notable technologies used: ChatGPT and Google Docs integration
Winner: COMBEE
By Yoursun Jung (Korea)
In an increasingly personalized society, I wanted to create a warm and revitalized sense of community. My app that aims to make the community cleaner and healthier. COMBEE is a combination of the words “community” and “bee.” In this app, members of a village can team up as bees and work together to complete various missions. Examples of missions include cleaning up trash, walking instead of using cars, and sending friendly messages to each other. For every mission completed, you receive honey as a reward. Once you collect enough honey, it turns into Royal Jelly and can be exchanged for local specialties.
Notable technologies used: image classification
Honorable Mention: XôDengue
By Pedro Philippi Araújo, Ramon Mayor Martins, Carlos José de Carvalho Pinto, Christiane Gresse von Wangenheim, Lai von Wangenheim (Brazil)
Dengue is a viral disease transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito infected with the virus. Many cities suffer from a dengue epidemic. In the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, the numbers are alarming with more than 4,700 cases of infected patients and many severe cases including hospitalization and death. Dengue can be prevented by eliminating sources of stagnant water in order to inhibit the growth of the mosquito larvae. Yet, recognizing the species of a mosquito larva is a difficult task requiring expertise. Our app helps citizens know if Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae are present in their home in order to prevent a dengue epidemic. It classifies mosquito species from a picture of a mosquito larva taken with the cellphone camera with a total accuracy of 95%.
Notable technologies used: Google’s Teachable Machine