Congressional App Challenge House of Code
This past week I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the U.S. Capitol to present with my team our app LunaSim at the House of Code (Congressional App Challenge). LunaSim is a web-based system dynamics modeling software.
System dynamics modeling software allows the user to graphically describe and run simulations of real-world systems. My school’s 9th Grade Foundations of Computer Science class uses this kind of software, where students learn about how modeling and simulation works and how it can be applied to the fields of engineering, physics, and biology.
Previously, my school used licensed, commercial (and expensive) software for systems modeling. A system-wide software upgrade made the previous modeling software at our school inoperable on Windows and school-issued Chromebooks, upending students’ curriculum.
This motivated me to propose and lead the development of our app LunaSim, a free, open-source alternative that can be accessed from any computer with a standard browser, allowing students to use both the desktop computers and Chromebooks to build their simulations. Today over 60 students in our school are using the app.
While at the capitol, my team had the opportunity to meet our Congressman David Trone in person. Sincere thanks to Congressman Trone and his team for their support!
At the event, we presented our app to fellow students and people of the industry, along with attending the wonderful seminars and panel sessions from experts. Thank you to Congressional App Challenge for making all this happen!
See the video below to learn more about our app, along with the Github repository to try LunaSim for yourself.