ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: Saket Sambaraju and Abhinav Gitta have been friends since second grade.

They used to compete against each other in chess.

ABHINAV GITTA: He always won.

SAKET SAMBARAJU: We used to play a lot.

And, we would I guess go to the same coach I think at one point.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: As high school juniors they decided instead of competing against one another to team up to submit an entry in the annual Congressional App Challenge.

ABHINAV GITTA: So, like from older kids, I always heard about that challenge.

So then when I was in 11th grade, I decided to like, you know, we can work on that together.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: Middle and high school students from across the U.S. compete to represent their congressional district in this computer science related challenge.

The goal is to expose members of Congress to emerging technologies and encourage students to experiment with science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.

For their app, Abhinav and Saket were inspired by a family member.

SAKET SAMBARAJU: My grandfather had melanoma, and he was in like a rural plac where they didn't get like checkups yearly from the doctor, and so as a result, he, like, passed away.

They wanted to create a mobile application for people who didn't have easy access to a doctor.

Their app scans for melanoma.

SAKET SAMBARAJU: So I can take a photo of my skin And then just move that up to, like, crop it.

Then use photo and then analyze the image.

And so this is benign because, my like...

I dont have any melanoma.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: It's designed to flag skin abnormalities that could be cancerous.

It also provides information about skin cancer and if detected, can connect a person to their nearest hospital.

SAKET SAMBARAJU: And we found that it had a 92.28 [percent] testing accuracy, which was really amazing.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: So amazing that it earned the recognition of Rep. Jennifer McClellan, who selected their entry to represent Virginia's 4th District.

While their technology isn't available to the public yet, these young developers say they hope to partner with clinics and doctors to expand their dataset.

And then... ABHINAV GITTA: we want to publish it on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store so that people can actually use it.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: The goal, they say, isn't financial, but to provide a resource for those in need.

SAKET SAMBARAJU: We want to help people with melanoma and in these rural districts.

And so that, they don't have to get like the checkups that maybe they don't- can't afford.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: For students who may be interested in submitting their own entry registration for the 2025 Congressional App Challenge is now open.

The deadline is October 30th.

Adrienne Hoar McGibbon, VPM News.