Presidential AI Challenge honours student bullying prevention chatbot at White House

The first US Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge National Champion Awards were presented at the White House on Tuesday, with a team of Indian-American students taking top honors for their bullying prevention chatbot. The Friendzone Chatbot Bullying Prevention App, developed by 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 award. First Lady Melania Trump presented the prizes, praising the students as 'the best of America' and emphasizing their role in driving AI innovation. The competition attracted over 20,000 participants from all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 49 Department of Defense schools in 10 countries worldwide. Winners were selected across three school tracks: elementary, middle, and high school. In Middle School Track 1, Viha Iyer, Arya Pratap, and Shrimayi Shetty from NorthStar Middle School in Sammamish, Washington, won for their project Skillup, which focuses on skills learning. Khandakar Mahin from Upper Darby Senior High School in Pennsylvania earned High School Track 1 for a computer vision project aimed at hotel room identification in criminal investigations. High School Track 2 was awarded to Alexander Du from North Allegheny High School in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, for IRIS, a low-cost AI framework designed to assist visually impaired individuals in navigating complex urban environments. Other notable winners included Alcoa Intermediate School in Tennessee for Homework Helper and Shan Vance from Julia Landon College Preparatory School in Jacksonville, Florida, for an AI model detecting urban blight using street-view images. The projects showcased diverse applications of AI, from educational support to public safety and accessibility. Trump highlighted the competition’s goal of fostering innovation among young minds, calling it a platform for students to explore AI’s potential. The awards marked the first national recognition under the Presidential AI Challenge, with participants spanning grades K-12. Mahin, one of the high school winners, will attend Harvard University in the fall, underscoring the competition’s role in nurturing future leaders in technology.