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CONGRESSMAN HONORS GHS JUNIOR FOR MOBILE APP

April 19, 2017
 
Congresional App Challenge  
 
Granbury High School junior Shane Smiskol was honored by Congressman Mike Conaway for winning the Congressman App Challenge. The classroom presentation was held on April 19, 2017, at GHS.
 
The annual competition for high school students to highlight the value of computer science and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education.
 
The winning entry entitled MarkovSMS analyzes a person’s sent text messages through a Markov Chain algorithm, which generates new sentences.  “The more messages you have, the better the responses,” Smiskol says.
 
Smiskol says he is constantly working to improve the algorithm, which is written in Java computer programming language. All messages and information are safe and never leave the device, he noted.
 
The GHS junior is an Android developer and has created numerous other mobile applications since 2013.
 
A member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Conaway represents the 11th Congressional District, which includes Hood County.  He serves as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
 
Pictured above are (left to right) Congressman Conaway, Shane Smiskol, and GHS computer programming teacher Angela Jumper.