A campus workshop at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, turned middle and high schoolers into app builders for a day on Friday, part of a national push tied to the 2026 Congressional App Challenge called "Build the Challenge Las Vegas." Rather than simply learning theory, participants spent hours sketching out concepts, testing ideas, and building toward entries they can eventually submit to the national contest. Joseph Alessi, who directs the Congressional App Challenge, said the format was built around peer learning as much as expert instruction. "The ideas that they work on today or come up with today will, over the next series of months, be built into something real that can aid their communities." "People think that Las Vegas is a one-hit wonder when it comes to just entertainment and hospitality… but it's also so much more than that.