Hockaday Sophomore Wins Congressional App Challenge

Hockaday sophomore Anika Gopal was named the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’ 24th District.

Gopal created EyeSpy, an app that can detect if a driver is falling asleep.

“I created this app because driver drowsiness is a huge problem, especially among teens,” Gopal said.

The idea for EyeSpy originated when Gopal saw her mom drive her and her brother from one sport practice to another, causing exhaustion from the drives and long hours.

“That is when I realized that other people may be experiencing the same issues that my mom was going through,” Gopal said. “I started researching about the variable of sleepiness in road accidents and realized that drowsy drivers play a prominent role in the abundance of car fatalities each year.”

The Congressional App Challenge is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where members of Congress host contests in their districts for middle school and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code.

Gopal is the founder of Girls Who Code at Hockaday. She coded EyeSpy herself and has been invited to Washington, D.C. to showcase her app to Congress.