A 16-year-old Maryland high school student has won the ARRL’s annual Student Coding Competition for helping to make it easier for amateur radio operators to prepare for the ARRL’s license examination.
According to a posting on the website of the ARRL, Ben Leovy, a sophomore at Howard High School in Ellicott City, Maryland, won this year’s competition for his design and development of a mobile application intended to support licensing applicants as they study to take the exam. The competition judges chose Leovy’s application for the award “based on usability, clarity, stability, and code quality.”
Leovy will receive a $5000 cash prize for his win, as well as a new MacBook Neo. In addition, the ARRL has offered him a consulting project for the summer months so that he can work with ARRL employees to further refine his application. He’ll earn an additional $5000 for the consultancy and will also be eligible for a $5000 ARRL scholarship when he starts college in a few years.
The ARRL’s annual Student Coding Competition is part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to develop the next generation of radio amateurs. Similar ARRL initiatives include its Collegiate Amateur Radio Program and its Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology.
Read the ARRL posting on its 2026 Student Coding Competition winner.