• Source:JND

Presidential Award In AI chatbot:  A group of Indian-American students from Virginia won national recognition after creating an anti-bullying chatbot at the first Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge awards ceremony held at the White House on Tuesday, June, 9, 2026. The awards were presented by First Lady Melania Trump, who praised the participants as the future leaders of the nation and highlighted the growing role of artificial intelligence in education and innovation.

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Bullying Prevention App Takes Top Elementary Honor

The five-member winning team from Aldie, Virginia, comprising Aarna Jaiswal, Eshani Khatri, Riva Madda, Samhitha Pinnamareddy, and Sanuli Rathnayake, clinched the National Champion Award in the Elementary School Track 2 category. Their project, the "Friendzone Chatbot Bullying Prevention App," stood out for directly addressing a critical issue that affects school children across the country.

The competition itself drew massive engagement, with more than 20,000 students participating from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Department of Defence schools overseas.

Middle And High School Innovators Claim Victory:

Several other brilliant minds were recognized for building practical AI tools. In the Middle School Track 1 category, Viha Iyer, Arya Pratap, and Shrimayi Shetty from NorthStar Middle School in Sammamish, Washington, won for their project named "Skillup." Meanwhile, the high school division saw Khandakar Mahin of Pennsylvania win Track 1 for a sophisticated computer vision project designed to identify hotel rooms during criminal investigations. Mahin is set to graduate this week and will attend Harvard University in the fall.

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Diverse AI Solutions for Public Safety and Accessibility

The remaining accolades highlighted how students are already leveraging technology to improve safety, learning, and accessibility in meaningful ways. Exceptional projects included a "Homework Helper" tool developed by students from Tennessee, and an urban blight detection system created by Shan Vance from Florida using street view images. Additionally, Alexander Du from Pennsylvania was honored for engineering a navigation framework specifically designed to help visually impaired individuals navigate complex city environments.


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