DES MOINES, Iowa — Team FrostByte, a group made up of five high school students in Des Moines, has advanced to the next round in NASA's App Development Challenge.
The team is made up of North High School students Sujal Pokhrel, Romas Pokhrel, Jefrey Allen, Champ-Pacifique Mukiza and virtual campus student, Moss Louvan.
Team FrostByte now looks ahead to Feb. 7 when the students will present their project to a NASA panel. If they make it past that round, the team will go to Houston in April and present live at the NASA Space Center.
The team spoke first to Local 5 News in December.
They are the only team of students from Iowa competing in NASA's App Development Challenge, where they use their knowledge of science, technology, engineering and math to visualize the moon's South Pole and display essential information for navigation and communication.
FrostByte has been working on their app since October, with Friday's public presentation serving as the culmination of that work.
"Having that support feels really great as kids, and that just encourages not only me, but peers around me, to do the same," Pokhrel said in December.
The teens said because their respective schools are often considered by others to be some of the district's least favorable, their participation in the challenge is momentous.
"Knowing that what we have going on is something that's pretty significant to North and to DMPS in general, it feels good," Pokhrel said.