Bonamici Announces Winner of Oregon’s First Congressional District’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge

BEAVERTON, OR [12/17/25] - Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici announced that Dhruv Singh, a Junior at Westview High School, won the 2025 Congressional App Challenge for Oregon's First Congressional District.

His app, ReinforceLearn, teaches people the basics of reinforcement learning, an AI method where systems learn by trial and error using rewards. This approach helps machines make smart, independent decisions and is changing how technology is built.

"The Congressional App Challenge empowers students to identify challenges and then use creative and tech skills to solve them," said Congresswoman Bonamici. "It was inspiring to see the variety of thoughtfully executed apps responsive to issues facing society today. Congratulations to Dhruv, whose work on educating his peers about reinforcement learning is an important step in giving young people the tools they need to successfully use emerging technologies."

"Through my own personal learning struggles and experience, I created ReinforceLearn to aid young students in their pursuit of the future of AI, Reinforcement Learning," said Dhruv Singh. "Much of learning AI and Reinforcement Learning is difficult to grasp due to all the complex formulas, concepts, and coding involved. My platform aims to remove these barriers and provide students with an interactive and simplified way of learning. Through ReinforceLearn, I hope to fuel curiosity and inspire the next generation with the essential expertise to shape and innovate the future of intelligence systems."

You can view a video presentation of the app here.

Judges gave an honorable mention to Lincoln High School juniors Brian Wei & Siddharth Modha. Their app, Preparedness & Response for Emergency Planning (PREP), helps people prepare for natural disasters and stay safe by showing real-time weather and wildfire alerts and nearby hospitals and shelters on a map. It also provides directions and real-time weather and wildfire alerts to keep users safe.

A panel of expert judges from Northwest Oregon selected the winner and honorable mention for Oregon's First Congressional District. The judges evaluated submissions based on creativity, technical quality, demonstrated excellence of programming skill, and potential community contribution. The three judges were:

• Cara Turano, President & Director of Oregon Entrepreneurs Network
• Claudia Rizo Mendoza, Workforce Development Manager for the City of Hillsboro
• Kathy Bishop, Senior Director of Human Resources and Public Relations for Jireh Semiconductor, Inc.

Bonamici recognized Singh, Wei, and Modha in a virtual roundtable discussion with other participants from Oregon's First District. The winning app, ReinforceLearn, will be featured in the U.S. Capitol Building and on the House of Representatives website.

Bonamici is a founder and co-chair of the Congressional STEAM Caucus, which advocates for the integration of the arts and design into science, technology, engineering, and math to encourage creative thinking and engage more students. By supporting and recognizing young programmers, Congress is acknowledging the importance of these fields. The U.S. House of Representatives organizes the nationwide Congressional App Challenge each year.

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