INDIANA– Computer Science (CS) teams from Fayette, Hendricks, and South Vermillion counties took top honors Wednesday at the 7th annual Nextech CSforGood Competition in partnership with the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE).
But Childs Elementary in Monroe County shined in second place.
About 200 projects were originally entered into the competition. Eighteen projects were showcased today at the Indiana Statehouse.
First-place projects were:
- White Water Career Center’s Clario: a universal classroom audio system that provides live captions on students’ devices, enabling them to review missed content, follow discussions in noisy or fast-paced classes, and participate confidently. It supports hearing-impaired students and enhances accessibility for all learners.
- South Vermillion Middle School’s Little Readers Library: a website that brings stories to life with local students and teachers in fun videos with a random story generator, mini AI choice game, and audio support, making reading interactive and accessible.
- Guilford Elementary School’s Spot & Claim: an app that enables students, families, and staff to easily search for lost items by browsing a catalog of found belongings. Users can claim their items directly in the app, streamlining the process and ensuring lost belongings are returned quickly and efficiently.
Second-place projects were:
- Carmel Clay Schools’ Countsheep: an app that monitors biometrics, provides AI-powered personalized insights, syncs with school calendars, and offers wellness tools to promote better sleep and mindfulness to empower users to prioritize students’ health and well-being daily.
- Cold Spring School’s A Classroom Appropriate for the Year 2025: which revisits long-established communication and class signals to make learning spaces more comfortable to neurodivergent learners.
- Childs Elementary’s Clean Up Bot: A robot that would remove leaves and other debris from storm drains, eliminating clogging that leads to flooding.
Third-place projects were:
- Warrick County School Corporation’s Tutor Track: a secure online platform connects students with qualified tutors based on academic needs. With built-in safety features and verified accounts, TutorTrack ensures a trustworthy experience while making academic support more accessible, effective, and equitable.
- Danville Community School Corporation’s Food Pantry Finder: an app that enables users to select their state and ZIP code to see a list of local food pantries, along with hours of operation, addresses, and contact information. An AI chat button enables them to reach out directly for more details.
- LaVille Community Schools’ I Don’t Need Vapes.com: a website designed to discourage youth from vaping using affirmations and rewards. It first gives users positive affirmations, then provides assignments like “don’t vape for 5 days in a row.” Those who complete the assignments earn badges.
“We’re always blown away by the creativity and skills demonstrated by these young CS leaders,” said Nextech President Karen Jung. “This year is no exception. It’s just a great day that indicates how Indiana’s leadership in computer science education is making a big difference.”
Indiana Secretary of Education Dr. Katie Jenner spoke at the event.
“Our students’ creativity was on full display as I met with competitors from across Indiana who are using technology to identify and solve community-level needs, such as developing an app to connect students to tutoring opportunities, a website to support early literacy, or a robot to remove leaves from storm drains,” Jenner said. “Our primary goal in education is to set all students up for success as our future innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders. The students participating in today’s competition demonstrate the incredible potential of all students to make a positive difference when we empower them with the knowledge and skills they need to tackle our greatest challenges.”
High Alpha, an Indianapolis-based venture firm that has launched more than 40 new companies and backed more than 100 founders, is a sponsor and will host the high school-winning groups in February for a day of learning.
“We are optimistic that the students participating in CSforGood will become Indiana’s tech entrepreneurs of the future,” said Scott Dorsey, High Alpha’s Managing Director. “We look forward to hosting these students at our facility and hopefully inspiring them to lean into technology career pathways.”
The event was also sponsored by the Everwise Foundation and TechPoint, Central Indiana Corporate Partnership’s industry-led growth initiative for Indiana’s tech-powered economy.
“This event embodies the Everwise Foundation’s vision to be a positive force in the communities we call home,” said Jennifer Stansberry, Executive Director, Everwise Foundation. “We champion Lifelong Learning in all its forms, and it’s exciting to support programs that help students build skills and confidence for the future.”
TechPoint CEO Ting Gootee applauded the annual competition as well as policy and community leaders’ work to instill CS skills in young Hoosiers.
“The world has embraced artificial intelligence tools in an unprecedented and pervasive way. Computer science skills are the basic first layer needed to fully understand, use and improve the way tech, including AI, is used,” she said. “These students already understand that and are using tech to improve their communities. It stands to reason they’ll take that mindset into their continuing education and career experiences.”
Teams win cash prizes, and educators win money as well, which is to be used to purchase tech for their CS programs. Winners come from elementary, middle and high schools.
The 2025 CSforGood Competition was open to all Indiana K-12 students, who were asked to use their imagination, creativity and tech skills to identify a problem in their school or community and to design a solution to it using computer science (such as an app, website or physical computing device.)
Sixty-six teams entered the competition in the elementary, middle, and high school divisions. Eighteen teams earned finalist status and showcased their CS team projects at the Indianapolis event. One from each division emerged as the winner. Students earned $50, $100, and $250 in each respective category. Teachers of the winning teams earned $1,000 to go toward classroom tech needs.
When Nextech launched in 2014 to support CS curriculum needs in Indiana schools, only 18 percent of Indiana schools offered CS classes. Today, 91 percent of Indiana high schools provide a foundational CS course. Code.org’s 2024 State of Computer Science Education Report recognized Indiana as one of just 11 states with a CS graduation requirement.
