Anika Gopal with House Representative Beth Van Duyne. Photo courtesy of Dallas ISD.
Hockaday student Anika Gopal wins the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’ 24th District, awarded by House Representative Beth Van Duyne.
Gopal’s app, Eyespy, aims to prevent accidents caused by drowsy driving by alerting students when they start to doze off with an alarm. This initiative is in response to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, reporting 1,500 deaths annually due to drowsiness behind the wheel.
Eyespy utilizes facial recognition technology, focusing on specific points around the eyes and mouth to detect increased levels of drowsiness. It triggers an alarm after waiting three to five seconds to confirm abnormal ratios.
“This idea originated when I saw my mom drive my brother and I from one sports practice to another,” Gopal said about Eyespy. “The monotonous routine caused her to always be exhausted and worn out from the drives and long hours. That is when I realized that other people may be experiencing the same issues that my mom was going through. I started researching about the variable of sleepiness in road accidents and realized that drowsy drivers play a prominent role in the abundance of car fatalities each year. Furthermore, I decided to implement this idea and create Eyespy to help people around the world.”
The Congressional App Challenge, an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, encourages middle and high school students to engage in coding and technology. This year’s challenge attracted over 11,334 participants nationwide, an uptick from a previous record set in 2019.
Winning teams from each district are invited to showcase their apps to Congress at the annual House of Code festival at Capitol Hill in April.
Students can pre-register for the 2024 Congressional App Challenge, set to launch in May 2024.
