Indian-American Students Shine In Presidential AI Challenge
Indian-American students won top prizes in the inaugural Presidential AI Challenge, held at the White House, with projects addressing bullying prevention, criminal investigations, and accessibility. The competition drew over 20,000 participants from across the U.S., including teams from Virginia, Washington, and Pennsylvania, with winners praised by First Lady Melania Trump as future innovators.
Several Indian-American students were recognized as national champions at the White House for their winning projects in the inaugural Presidential AI Challenge, a competition with over 20,000 participants from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and overseas Department of Defense schools. A five-member team from Aldie, Virginia—including Aarna Jaiswal, Eshani Khatri, Riva Madda, Samhitha Pinnamareddy, and Sanuli Rathnayake—won the Elementary School Track 2 category for their 'Friendzone Chatbot Bullying Prevention App.' Meanwhile, Viha Iyer, Arya Pratap, and Shrimayi Shetty from NorthStar Middle School in Sammamish, Washington, secured the Middle School Track 1 prize for their project 'SkillUp.' In the high school division, Khandakar Mahin of Upper Darby Senior High School in Pennsylvania took first place in Track 1 for his project, 'Utilising Computer Vision for Hotel Room Identification in Criminal Investigations.' Mahin, who graduates this week, will attend Harvard University in the fall. First Lady Melania Trump commended the students, calling them America’s future innovators and emphasizing the competition’s goal of fostering AI exploration. Winning projects addressed challenges in education, bullying prevention, criminal investigations, accessibility for the visually impaired, and urban development. The ceremony concluded with a reception in the White House Rose Garden.
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