Cardinal Wuerl students earn Best in Nation honors for app
CRANBERRY TWP — Several students at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School got a surprise Tuesday morning.
They were told the mobile car safety app they created received Best in Nation honors from the Verizon Innovative App Challenge.
The five-member student team will receive $20,000 and will work with professional developers to turn the idea into a reality.
“I’m so proud that the kids chose to do an app that is a service to the community,” said Ellen Cavanaugh, Grow a Generation CEO.
Grow a Generation is a Sewickley-based organization that promotes STEM studies and has been working with Cardinal Wuerl students on projects.
The students honored are Giovanna Esposito, 15; Matt Esser, 16; Luc Madonna, 16; and Chris Virostek, 16, all sophomores from Cranberry Township, and Veronica Muth, 14, a freshman from Butler.
The app, SAFE SPEED, aims to increase driver safety through notifying parents if their children are driving at unsafe speeds via global positioning system. Parents can program the app onto their child’s phone. If the child drives over the speed limit for a set amount of time, the parents will receive a text alert.
Development team members said they would like for the app to be available on all mobile platforms.
“I think their (students) horizons have been vastly expanded,” Cavanaugh said. “They have developed an intense curiosity to the technology that is available inside a phone.”
Matt Esser said, “Our team has come very far. To get this far is a real surprise and accomplishment considering we’re a first-year team.”
The prize money will go for the school’s Create Lab to advance STEM education. Cavanaugh said some of the money may go to developing the app itself.
Cardinal Wuerl is one of eight schools in the nation to receive the award this year. The school also won Best in State and Best in Region honors for the app, which was inspired by the death of a Butler County high school student last year due to speeding.
Cavanaugh said she has not contacted the family of the teen driver killed in the crash about how the tragedy influenced the development team to create SAFE SPEED. However, with this honor, she said she will try to talk with them.
The students, Cavanaugh and representatives from Verizon had a ceremony at the school Tuesday morning to celebrate the achievement. Team members did not know they had received national honors until the ceremony.
“They (students) have had the opportunity to create their own experience,” said Bill Carnahan, Verizon vice president for external affairs. “This is very unique. This is the first (app) I’ve seen that encompasses the type of technology they’re looking to develop.”
Carnahan said about 1,200 schools across the country applied for the challenge.
The students will travel to Nashville, Tenn., in June to present their app at the Technology Student Association National Conference.
