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A team of Dublin High School seniors received statewide recognition late last month for creating Neurochess, an app intended for neurodiverse learners to improve focus and cognitive skills through chess.
In addition to skill-building, the app also provides chess lessons and seeks to build a community of players through collaborative learning.
For creating the app, Anish Ummadi, Josh Zeng, Vikrant Ganesan and Sudith Thota won the 2024 Congressional App Challenge in California’s 10th Congressional District, a competition meant to encourage youth to learn coding as well as inspire creativity and an interest in STEM education.Â
“Each year, the Congressional App Challenge allows students in our community to hone their coding skills and showcase their creativity,” Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) said in a statement. “As always, I’m very impressed by the talent and ingenuity demonstrated by these students.”
The creators of Neurochess began building the app late last year after discovering that playing chess helped them develop focus, strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, Ummadi said.
“We wanted to create a platform that could make these benefits more accessible in a structured way, especially for people close to us with ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions,” Ummadi added.
The teens designed an AI feature that gives personalized predictions and insights to help users understand gameplay and improve their focus and decision-making abilities, according to a statement from the office of DeSaulnier. They also created instructional videos to reinforce patience and strategic thinking for the benefit of individuals with ADHD.
For Sati Hillyer, who sat on the judges’ panel, Neurochess stood out from other applicants.
“I received a lot of great submissions, but Neurochess was my top pick,” Hillyer said. “The impact their app could have on individuals with ADHD is both timely and much needed. On top of that, the technology behind it is impressive.”
As the Neurochess team looks to the future, they continuously refine the app based on user feedback to make it as effective and engaging as possible.
“The power of chess and technology is what brought us together to build this app, and we hope to continue building on it with more advanced features to make a lasting impact,” Ummadi said.
