Rep. Eshoo on House's student app competition (podcast)

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution to create an academic competition that would encourage students to build mobile and computer apps. The Academic Competition Resolution of 2013 is a bi-partisan effort led by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who represents much of Silicon Valley.

The competition, according to the resolution, "will evolve over time and will challenge students in specialized areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to ensure maximum participation." The resolution states: "Because of the importance of computer science it would be appropriate to initially challenge students to develop so-called 'apps' for mobile, tablet, and computer platforms."

Details need to be worked out by the Committee on House Administration so, currently, we don't know when the competition will commence, but it is modeled after the successful Congressional Arts Competition that encourages high school students in congressional districts to submit art work with winning entries displayed in the capitol building for a year. It's not clear how Congress might "display" winning apps, but Eshoo said that they are working on ways to make sure that winners get the recognition they deserve.

In an interview (scroll down to listen), Eshoo said that "we're living in an era where, unlike other eras in the history of our country, we have stiff competition. We can meet that competition and leapfrog over it but we have to have our young people educated in these fields."

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