Clover High winners in Verizon app contest prepare for national round

Brandon Eish and his Clover High School classmates look forward to representing their school and state soon in a national contest to create a new phone app.

“I’m having a great time, having an opportunity to present our app, to show what we can do as a team,” said Eish, an 18-year-old senior. “I never really expected this opportunity.”

The five-member team will give an online presentation on its “Crash Helper” app to a panel of judges Wednesday in the Verizon Innovative App Challenge.

The other four students are Tyler DeFalco, Carson Stabell, Dale Trimper and Grant Williams. After winning the state and regional titles, the Clover team is competing for one of eight Best in Nation winners to be named Feb. 2.

For Eish, who plans to study computer information systems and software development at Lander University in Greenwood next fall, it’s a great opportunity.

“It kind of suprised me that we were the best,” said Eish, who noted that the Clover High team had to beat 1,200 teams to win the state title in the first round. “It’s really impressive, and a lot of our classmates were impressed.”

They competed against 11 teams for the Best in Region title.

Amy Moss, a Clover High computer science teacher, got students into the contest as an assignment in her AP computer science class. Students from a video production class taught by Greg Reid also participated, Moss said.

Two teams of students were formed, and each student was assigned to come up with 10 ideas for a new, original app. Each team narrowed the ideas to one to enter in the contest.

Moss said one requirement of the contest was that the proposed app must be something that would benefit the community.

She said the second Clover team proposed an app that would help students know what to do when they vote.

Eish and Stabell, a 16-year-old junior, said they decided to propose an app that would walk drivers through what to do if they are in a car accident.

“It seemed like it was the most well thought out, and when we researched it, we found out there wasn’t anything like that,” Stabell said.

“The other ideas were variations of something that was already there,” he said. “We decided it was the most original.”

Eish said car accidents are a concern for high school-age drivers.

“Sometimes when we drive to school, there would be car accidents outside the high school, so we decided to come up with an app to help those kids who are new to driving,” he said.

Eish said the app also could help more experienced drivers.

Eish and Stabell said the app would begin by asking if anyone is hurt and helping them call an ambulance if there are injuries. If accident victims can move, they said, it would tell the driver to get everyone to safe place.

The app would then ask the driver to gather name and contact information, license plate number and insurance information for the other driver. They said the app would then help the driver contact local law enforcement. It would ask the driver to take pictures and have a place to store images of accident damage, they said.

Stabell said another option would be for the app to include some basic first aid information in case anyone is hurt.

“We all agreed that we would like to have that app,” said Stabell. “It walks you through anything and everything you’d need to know in the event of a car crash.”

Stabell is thrilled with the team’s success.

“It’s a really good surprise for all of us,” he said. “It looks good on college applications, and we’re proud to represent CHS in such a good light.”

For the contest’s first round, Moss said, students submitted a three-minute video explaining their app. They also had to submit four short essays on the app.

Their prizes for winning the state round were an android tablet for Moss and each student, and a $5,000 grant for career and technology education courses at the high school.

For the second round, Moss said, students submitted a 30-second video commercial for the app.

Stabell said the third round, which involves a 15-minute online presentation to judges, will be the most challenging.

“We have very little time to prepare,” he said. “That’s kind of the most nerve-wracking thing about it.”

If they win Best in Nation, the students will travel to Nashville, Tenn., this summer, get expert help on how to make their app a reality and get a $15,000 grant for the school’s career and technology courses.

Clover and other teams in the Best in Nation contest also can compete in a Fan Favorite contest.

Supporters of the Clover students can vote for them to win the Fan Favorite award by texting “TEAMCAR1” to 22333. The Fan Favorite team will earn $15,000 and the chance to work with experts to make their app a reality.

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 7:28 PM with the headline "Clover High winners in Verizon app contest prepare for national round."