Winners of the Charleston Defense Contractors Association 7th Annual Student Mobile App Competition Announced
Nonprofit’s STEM-Related Contest Awards $10,000 in Prizes, Scholarships & Future Jobs
CHARLESTON, SC – December 8, 2017 – The Charleston Defense Contractors Association (CDCA)— a non-profit advocacy group for the defense industry in the Southeast —today announced student winners of the 7th Annual Student Mobile App Competition during the CDCA Defense Summit (formerly C5ISR Summit), which was held this week (Dec. 5-8) in Charleston, SC. Designed to drive innovation, the Summit brings together nearly 1,500 industry leaders in technology, defense, cybersecurity, to get business done, connect the right people and solve real business challenges when it comes to the Defense industry.
In conjunction with the Summit, CDCA also holds a mobile app contest to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and careers, which allows students to creative unique applications that is able to run on either iOS phone or Android platforms to solve a challenge and be judged by sponsors and attendees at the event. Each year major sponsors and judges, including executives from companies including Microsoft, AT&T, Booz Allen, General Dynamics, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center – Atlantic (SSC Atlantic), and Vmware get a chance to reward students for their innovative apps. Contestants are judged on the scope of problem addressed by the application, ease-of-use, and positive user experience
“Microsoft continually seeks ways to stimulate creative thinking while encouraging students to engage in STEM-education opportunities,” said John Hearne, Microsoft Sr Account Executive for OPNAV N1 | Navy Southeast. “Investing in the development of tomorrow’s leaders is vitally important for us and others in today’s rapidly evolving technology-driven marketplace. This program also affords our companies the ability to identify and help foster the growth of these upcoming technology players.”
SSC Atlantic and AT&T donated phones and tablets that were used in the competition to help judges review the apps and explore the various aspects of each contestants’ submission.
The program is open to middle school to graduate students throughout the Southeast. This year’s College/Post Graduate winners are:
1st: Pickup by Ben Muldrow, Tyler Newman and Julian Smith from College of Charleston
2nd: Mother’s Milk by Makayla Middleton from College of Charleston
3rd: Pill Reminder by Andrew Bissada from College of Charleston/Citadel
4th: Locked Messages by Matthew McCrackin from Charleston Southern University
This year’s High School winner is:
Is My House Broke!? by Caleb Henry from Beaufort High School
This year’s Middle School winners are:
1st: Pet Love by Abigail Henry from Lady’s Island Middle School
2nd: Forest Navigator by Bryce Oliver from Lady’s Island Middle School
3rd: Social Media Smarts by LeAndria Dingle, Lamar Anthony Brown, Adaisha E. Cuffee, Daniel Martell Lockhart-Watkins, Sultan Simington, and Dawud Muhammad from Morningside Middle School
“The CDCA was created raise awareness of Charleston area defense contracting companies while driving innovation and collaboration between defense contractors and government,” said Heather Walker, Vice President, PR Chair, CDCA and Principal/Director for Booz Allen Hamilton. “It is encouraging to witness the level of innovative submissions by students who participated in the Mobile App contest this year. The high-level sponsors contributed to our success and ability to offer students significant exposure to potential employers as they pursue STEM careers. We look forward to watching the journey of winners from this year – and previous years – as they continue to grow and pursue defense, technology and cybersecurity careers.”
