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Howard Co. Student Wins Congressional App Challenge For Md's 7th District

BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- When congressional leaders asked high school students to develop a meaningful and useful computer program, over 4,000 high school students responded.

A Howard County student has been chosen as the winner of the 2017 Congressional App Challenge for Maryland 7th District for his disaster mapping app.

"It shows the areas that had the greatest difference in the amount of infrastructure before and after the storm," said 16-year-old app creator Luke Mann.

Mann received a certificate, picture, gift card and praise from NASA and Congressman Elijah Cummings -- while the public is getting someone who is using his skills to help society as a whole.

"He used NASA data for his app, so when you take that public domain and do something to help people, that's really inspiring stuff," said Jordan Snyder of the NASA Goddard Space Center.

[Reporter: The congressman said a lot of nice things about you in there, what was that like?]

"It was pretty cool, it was great to achieve recognition from someone who's achieved so much," Mann said.

Rep. Cummings took a moment to reflect on his recent brush with death, a successful heart procedure and recovery. As a democrat in a Washington controlled by Republicans, he savors a day like this one.

"This is a good day," Cummings said.

Mann will travel to Washington, D.C. to meet other winners and see their entries. Interestingly enough, earlier this year, a different phone app written by Mann won a national competition.

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