Manalapan Teen Wins Congressional App Challenge

MANALAPAN, NJ — Aditya Choudhary doesn't just want to get to the bus on time. He wants to get to the bus just at the right time. That means no waiting in the rain, freezing cold or under the blazing hot sun.

To solve his everyday hurdle he decided to build an app, which got him first place in the 2021 Congressional App Challenge for New Jersey's 4th Congressional District.

"I use it for my school bus every day. It's really helpful, especially when it's raining," Choudhary told Patch. "I had this idea, like I'm pretty sure like all the students do, that they want to figure out somehow when the bus is coming, so they don't have to wait."

His classmates seem to agree.

"Everyone is like 'you better do it, I really want it,'" Choudhary said.

Having just gotten elected student body president at Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School, the 14-year-old plans to make the app a common feature in his community.

"One of the promises I made was that I would try to convince the school district and the bus drivers to use the app so they wouldn't have to wait outside," he said. "I'm currently adding more buses as we go."

The app is called Trackie and can be used by students, parents and bus drivers to communicate the bus location with each other. You can make an account and create a bus route and then invite people to join that bus group.

Even if you're using the app by yourself, Trackie keeps track of previous bus arrival times and self-adjusts its alarms to keep riders on time for the bus. If the bus driver joins the group, however, everyone will get the real-time bus location.

Choudhary said he was inspired by a WhatsApp group that his mom had, where everyone would share the bus's current location.

"I kinda took that idea and tried to make an app where the students and the parents could work together and figure out where the bus is and when to go to their stop."

The 14-year-old knew very little about coding, besides simple notions from school computer science courses when he decided to build an app in the summer of 2020.

With the help of the internet, he taught himself Javascript, React Native and Google Firebase. And with some guidance from his dad (who is a web developer), he started putting the app together step by step.

Trackie is currently available on the App Store and Google Play.

After the pandemic hit, there was little to do in the summer of 2020, Choudhary remembered. He couldn't play soccer or chess.

"School was over and there was really nothing to do. I decided to ask my dad if I could learn how to develop apps and programming," he said.

Rep. Chris Smith, from the 4th district, praised Choudhary's hard work.

"Congratulations to Aditya Choudhary from Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School for his ingenuity and creativity in developing the winning app 'Trackie,'" Smith said in a statement. "This incredible app helps students and their parents monitor school bus arrival times to prevent students from waiting outside in the cold for an extensive amount of time."

Choudhary is currently in the eighth grade. What does he want to do when he grows up?

"I want to make something that benefits the world. And become famous and everything," he said.

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