U.S. Congressman Mike Flood announced Adam Khattak, a Lincoln Southwest High School student, as the Congressional App Challenge (CAC) winner for Nebraska’s First Congressional District.
For the challenge, Khattak coded an app called “AI Corn Disease Detector.” The application allows users to upload pictures of crops, and then the app would detect if they had any diseases.
“The CAC is meant to challenge middle and high school students to code and pursue careers in computer science, but it also brings forth great apps that can truly be helpful,” Rep. Flood said. “I’m very impressed with Adam’s work. Agriculture is Nebraska’s top industry, and applications like this one can be beneficial not only to our ag producers here but to farmers around the world.”
“It was an honor to participate in and to be named the winner for the First Congressional District App Challenge,” said Adam Khattak. “There’s a lot of cool innovation being done in ag technology, which inspired me to focus in this area. My app has a very practical purpose, and I hope to build on this success as I dig deeper into the field of coding for ag producers.”
“The corn disease detection application is an excellent and promising tool that can assist farmers and potentially manage different crop diseases. Adam has done a fantastic job and created something that can have an immediate impact,” wrote a member of the review committee. “It is so refreshing to see these young people being creative and innovative with something benefits the agriculture community.”
Adam’s submission was reviewed by a committee of professionals working in the start-up and digital community from the First Congressional District. Applications submitted through the contest are generally not immediately commercially available.
