Avon native Nicolas Campisi ’27 was recently announced as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Connecticut’s Fifth District for creating a mobile app that enables users to easily and accurately analyze the ingredients of food products in order to verify their allergen content.

The Congressional App Challenge is an annual competition organized by 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.” Members of Congress choose a winning app from their district, and winners are then invited to Washington D.C. to showcase their projects to Congress, staff, and industry leaders at the annual #HouseOfCode celebration on Capitol Hill.

In 2025, more than 13,800 students from across the country submitted over 4,600 original apps. In January, it was announced that Campisi was chosen as the winner for Connecticut’s Fifth District.

Campisi had already moved on to new projects by the time he learned his app had been chosen, but was still pleased nonetheless. “I was excited even though I had almost forgotten about it. It was a surprise, but a really good one,” Campisi said. The announcement that he had won came with instructions for next steps, which included creating an informational webpage about the app before traveling to Washington D.C. in late April.

On Tuesday, April 21, Campisi arrived in D.C. and attended the day’s #HouseOfCode events, which included keynote speakers from leaders in the tech industry and a meet and greet with other student winners. He spent the following day showcasing his app to members of Congress and other event attendees. Campisi said he especially enjoyed this portion of the event because it also provided an opportunity for feedback on potential ways to improve his project.

Campisi’s app is called Snap & Snack. Users can begin by entering their food allergies, sensitivities, or preferences. The app can quickly identify every ingredient in a food item simply by scanning the product’s barcode or taking a photo list of ingredients. The user will be alerted if an allergen is present. It even recognizes if allergens are included under different names. Users can also use the app to translate ingredient lists and nutrition facts from other languages. Additionally, Snap & Snack has an AI assistant feature that can offer allergy-free recipe alternatives or local allergy-friendly restaurant recommendations.

The idea for Snap & Snack had been in Campisi’s head for a while. “When I heard about the competition over the summer, that’s when I decided to put the plan in motion and made the idea a reality,” he said.

In fact, the idea came naturally for Campisi, who has had to deal with lifelong allergies to eggs and dairy, two ingredients that appear not only in obvious foods like ice cream, but also in unexpected places such as hand soaps containing milk proteins. “My allergies are pretty severe, so wondering what is in my food has always been a major source of anxiety. For everything I eat and touch, I am essentially putting my life in the hands of others. I wanted to create a way to know what ingredients are present so that my life and the millions of others with food allergies aren’t as worrisome and dangerous.”

His desire to help people with allergies didn’t begin with the Snack & Snap project, and neither did his interest in computer science. That began when he enrolled at Avon Old Farms School. “I’ve always been interested in math, but I had never done anything with computer science until my freshman year when I took an intro to coding class,” Campisi said. “That’s when I saw the potential of it being a future career.”

Since then, Campisi has taken more advanced coding classes at Avon, and also utilized the Advanced Independent Project (AIP) program to pursue further computer science projects during his free time. So, when he came across the Congressional App Challenge he was ready to enter.

He began by doing research into the topic. “I have personal experience, but I wanted to see how others around the country are affected by this issue. It turns out there’s about 32 million Americans living with food allergies.”

He then learned two new coding languages to be able to build the app for iPhones and other smartphones, and began building the program. While he had plenty of experience with back-end coding, this was his first foray into front end elements like design and usability.

By the time school started back up in the fall, he was just about finished with his submission. Ultimately, Rep. Jahana Hayes chose Campisi as the winner for her district.

For Campisi, his trip to the nation’s capital went beyond his existing interests in coding. “As much as it was exposure to the world of computer science, it was also exposure to our government,” he said. “I don’t pay too much attention to that type of thing usually, but being there made the world feel smaller in a way.”

Campisi has a few more steps to complete before the app is available to download, but is excited at the prospect of seeing his application get to work helping others. “This goes beyond just helping my school or town. I think this is a great opportunity to help a larger community.”