Congressional App Challenge Award, 2025

BreastRecur wins Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Wisconsin’s Third District

January 29, 2026

Rep. Derrick Van Orden has named Saanvi Muduganti of Onalaska High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Wisconsin’s Third District. Their app BreastRecur helps breast cancer survivors and their care teams monitor recurrence risk through AI-driven analysis of genomic, imaging, and clinical data, providing personalized reports and proactive care recommendations.

When asked what inspired the creation of BreastRecur, Saanvi Muduganti said, “BreastRecur is an AI-powered clinical tool designed to predict breast cancer recurrence with greater accuracy and interpretability.

“Breast cancer remains one of the most prevalent and deadly malignancies worldwide, with over 2 million new cases diagnosed each year. Among the greatest ongoing challenges is recurrence, which affects a significant portion of patients despite advances in early detection and treatment. Approximately 20-30% of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer will experience a recurrence in their lifetime, even after initially successful therapy. In more aggressive subtypes such as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), recurrence rates can reach up to 40%, often occurring within the first 3-5 years. For hormone receptor-positive cancers, the risk persists for up to 20 years. This persistent threat is driven by the biological complexity of breast cancer, which includes diverse molecular subtypes, varying treatment responses, and evolving resistance mechanisms.

“Current predictive models are limited because they rely on single data sources and fail to capture the complex, multifactorial nature of breast cancer. BreastRecur addresses this gap through a multimodal machine learning framework that integrates genomic, imaging (mammography, MRI), histopathological, and clinical data.

“By learning from these data streams simultaneously through a transformer-based architecture, BreastRecur identifies cross-modal patterns that may remain hidden when each modality is analyzed alone. This holistic approach enhances predictive power and supports clinicians in making earlier, more precise treatment and monitoring decisions.

“The idea for BreastRecur grew from recognizing the gap between cutting-edge genomic research and practical, accessible clinical tools. The app aims to bridge research and patient care, bringing the next generation of precision oncology into real-world use.”

The 2025 Congressional App Challenge marked another record-setting year for the program. A total of 394 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives hosted App Challenges in their congressional districts, the highest level of participation in the program’s history. More than 13,800 students from across the country participated, submitting over 4,600 original apps focused on real-world challenges ranging from health and accessibility to education, sustainability, and civic engagement.

The Congressional App Challenge is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives that encourages middle school and high school students to learn to code, explore computer science, and build practical technology solutions for their communities. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and winning teams are invited to showcase their projects to Members of Congress, staff, and industry leaders at the annual #HouseOfCode celebration on Capitol Hill.

The Challenge is proudly bipartisan and reflects a shared commitment to expanding access to STEM education and preparing the next generation of American innovators for the future workforce. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from the Broadcom Foundation, AWS, Infosys Foundation USA, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.

National STEM Champion, 2026

2026 Champions - U.S. — National STEM Festival

Capital Science and Engineer Fair, 2026

Society of Women Engineers Award

Trust for Sustainable Living, 2026

National Finalist from USA

Wisconsin Interscholastic Speech & Dramatic Arts Association (WISDAA), 2026

Gold Medal at State for Speech on Women in History

Two Wisconsin students recognized as national STEM champions

BY Phillip Boudreaux Wisconsin

PUBLISHED 7:13 AM ET May 20, 2026 in Spectrum News

WISCONSIN — Two girls from Wisconsin are headed to Washington, D.C. this summer to show off their winning projects.

They are among 55 national STEM champions selected from more than 2,000 applications around the country.

What You Need To Know

• Two girls from Wisconsin are headed to Washington, D.C. this summer to show off their winning project

• They are among 55 national STEM champions selected from more than 2,000 applications around the country

• One of them is seventh-grader Nikayla Washington of South Milwaukee and the other is Saanvi Muduganti, a freshman at Onalaska High School

• The National STEM Festival is June 23-27

One of them is seventh-grader Nikayla Washington of South Milwaukee, who studied zebra mussels in Lake Michigan, which is two miles from her school.

The other National STEM Champion in Wisconsin is Saanvi Muduganti, a freshman at Onalaska High School.

Her research entailed using AI to determine if breast cancer would recur.

She wanted to look into this field because of a friend’s mother, whose breast cancer initially went into remission but eventually came back.

Muduganti built a multi-modal model that can predict breast recurrence with 84% accuracy using a patient’s clinical, genomic (DNA) and imaging data.

“This tool provides oncologists with the tool to identify high-risk patients earlier and guide personalized treatment decisions,” said Muduganti

Muduganti is also looking forward to presenting her research at this year’s National STEM Festival, which is June 23-27.

“I think this would also allow me to connect with other students with similar interests and help me in the future with continued research,” said Muduganti.