Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. (It's also why we wrote this article four hours past deadline.) Students at Howard University Middle School think they have an answer for it: an app that sends reminders and alerts about homework and tests, and lets students reach out to teachers and keep parents updated. It’s called S.E.E.D., and it’s one of the concepts that won best in state at Verizon’s third annual Innovative App Challenge held this week. The team includes (standing) Marcel Gabriel, Wesley Ellis (assistant principal), Quran Watts, Ache'a Cunningham, Zandria Tuckson Haynes and Jaiye Garrett. Not pictured: Alonus Lette-Daffeh.

The students will advance to a national level and the winners will get tablets, funding for STEM programs at their school, and help from an MIT team to develop the app and sell it. The company launched the competition to inspire more kids to pursue STEM professions – 3 million STEM jobs are unfilled in the US, and STEM jobs will increase to over 9 million by 2022. This team at Cardozo Education Campus High School won Best in State for its EduCentral app concept, which is designed to increase attendance and cut down on dropout rates. The team includes Davina McKinnon, Francisco Delgado and Gabriel Solomon, with Principal Tanya Roane. Also on the team but not shown: Carlos Hernandez and Daities Broome.