Delaware Hays High School students win NASA app development challenge
Mar 25, 2025
DELAWARE, Ohio (WCMH) -- A group of Delaware Hayes High School students are going to Johnson Space Center in Houston next month after winning NASA’s App Development Challenge.
Each year, NASA holds the coding competition for students across the nation. Out of all the teams that entered, the gr
oup from Delaware Hayes was chosen as one of just four finalists.
The challenge was to build an app for NASA’s Artemis II mission, where astronauts will slingshot around the moon and earth next year.
Delaware Hayes teacher and team leader, Joanne Meyer, said the five students had just 10 weeks to make a fully functional app.
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“They provided us with 13,000 lines of Excel spreadsheet and from that data it was up to the kids to problem solve it and how they wanted to handle it. There’s a million of different ways they could approach it,” Meyer said.
The goal was to create an app that visualizes Artemis II’s path, and team members said it wasn’t easy.
“It was a grind the whole 10 weeks. So then to see it all come together, look pretty, work. It was all really, really awesome to see that,” said Madeline Bruns, a team member and Delaware Hayes senior.
The team found out in February that they were selected as finalists and they head to Houston at the beginning of April. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the five students.
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“You know, the dream is to go to space," senior Jason White said. "That's far-fetched, but at least I hope I can help people go to space. So talking with the people who work in my dream job, I'm super excited for. I just want to see what they do."
The students’ app is pretty impressive. It’s clear they put time and effort into creating it.
Meyer said she is incredibly proud of the talented group of kids.
“They were driven and motivated to succeed and they weren’t going to let anything stop them until they got it done,” Meyer said.
The group will spend a week down in Houston at Johnson Space Center. They will have the opportunity to present their app to the public and to NASA leadership during their week there.
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