Front row: NCS Division Director Chris Scales, Jaiden Saran, Jasmine Ma, Sophie Zhang, Eesha Viswanathan, Varsha Ayala, Amanda Smedley, INTEGRITYOne's Pete Lamont. Back row: NCS' Robert O’Quinn, Ramin Ghodoumipour, Rolando Muradez, NCS' Karmentrina Kearse, Hunter Mill Supervisor Walter L. Alcorn, Franconia Supervisor Rodney L. Lusk, Dranesville Supervisor James N. Bierman, Alan Wang. Click photo on page for high-resolution version.

Finalists in the 2025 Fairfax Area High School Shark Tank Technology Challenge were honored at a breakfast ceremony at the Fairfax County Government Center on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.

The Shark Tank Challenge is an annual competition for Fairfax County, Fairfax City and Falls Church City students. The participants are challenged to create an innovative device or app that will have a positive impact on the lives of older adults or adults with disabilities.

The place winners and finalists were recognized at the reception by Karmentrina Kearse, Shark Tank Challenge Coordinator; Walter Alcorn, Hunter Mill Supervisor; Lloyd Tucker, Fairfax County Neighborhood and Community Services Director; Cathy Cole, Fairfax County Committee on Aging Chair; and Pete Lamont, INTEGRITYOne Partners CEO (event sponsor).

The first-place innovators were Varsha Ayala and Eesha Viswanathan (The Madeira School) for innovating RapidX, a wearable device that allow paramedics to retrieve patient data instantly, cutting down retrieval time from eight minutes to eight seconds, reducing human error and language barriers.

Other place winners:

Second Place

• Artisin - Alan Wang (McLean High School)

Third Place

• Gaitway - Jasmine Ma (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology), Jaiden Saran and Sophie Zhang (McLean High School)

Honorable Mentions

First

• BlindSight -  Kriesh Tivare (Langley High School)

Second

• Branch Out - Chethna Ganesh, Kamya Raman, Sreeya Sangaraju (Centreville High School)

Third

• CHAT - Aryan Rathour (McLean High School), Chenxi Xu (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology), Sean Miles (Herndon High School)

Partners for the challenge include NCS, The Fairfax County Department of Family Services Fairfax Area Agency on Aging, the Commission on Aging, George Mason’s Kellar Institute and INTEGRITYOne Partners.

Judges were Pete Lamont (INTEGRITYOne Partners), Tiffany O’Neal (AIM-VA), NCS Tech Educators Ronaldo Muradez and Ramin Ghodoumipour; and Amanda Smedley (ServiceSource).

To learn more, visit the Fairfax Area High school Student Shark Tank Technology Challenge website.

 To see a complete photo album of the ceremony, visit NCS' Flickr page.