Turning Lived Experience Into Innovation: How Three High Schoolers Combined Real-World Problems with the Power of Code 

Names, Year, and High School: 

The Allergy Aid team consists of Jaiden Harrison, Jimmy Chen, and Shrey Patel. We are all rising seniors at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, PA.

What did you create? 

At the Hackathon: We created a very early prototype of our vision for a website/app that filters restaurant menus based on a user's dietary restrictions. 

Now: We've developed a working website that efficiently filters long menus by allergens or dietary preferences selected by the user. Our goal is to make dining out safer and more accessible for people with food allergies by clearly presenting allergen information based on official restaurant menu data. 

What inspired you to create this project? 

Our inspiration came from personal experiences, and the feedback that we received from the Drexel judges at the Hackathon, who said that our project was unique and addressed a real problem. Specifically however, 

• Jimmy works at a family owned Chinese restaurant and regularly interacts with customers, asking whether menu items contain certain allergens. 

• Jaiden has family members with dietary restrictions and has seen firsthand how difficult dining out can be.

• Shrey is a vegetarian and often takes more time finding options that suit his needs whenever he goes out, due to the confusing format of many menus.

Why are you interested in CS? What do you hope to do in the future? 

We are interested in computer science because of the possibilities we can explore with it. As the world becomes more digital, knowing how to code allows us to build real world solutions. In the future, we all plan to major in a tech/STEM related fields such as computer science, AI, or engineering. We hope to keep working on meaningful projects, just like Allergy Aid, that make a difference. 

What high school courses did you take? 

We took AP Computer Science A (Java) and AP Computer Science Principles. 

Were there any skills you learned in your high school courses that aided you in the completion of this project?

Yes, absolutely. Beyond just programming fundamentals, our classes taught us the process of coming up with ideas, the actual programming, and debugging the code. Having experience in Java and Python gave us a strong foundation for building our projects. In the hackathon, our previous knowledge of Python made it easier to start development and allowed us to focus more on the functionality of our project rather than trying to learn a new language. While we mainly use HTML, CSS, and JS for the website, having previously worked with other languages made it all the easier to pick up a new coding language.

What advice would you give to high school students interested in CS? 

Advice that we would give to high school students is not to wait until you’ve learned everything to start building something. We believe the best way to grow is by applying your knowledge to real world projects. Also, remember that your path doesn’t have to be linear. If you’re passionate about an idea, follow it, even if it doesn’t line up perfectly with what you’re currently learning in class. Being curious and solving challenges is what computer science is all about.