Aaron Prager of Newton has created an app that helps monitor Type 1 diabetes and won the Eastern Region Congressional App Challenge. Courtesy photo
As the son of two software engineers, Aaron Prager figured app development was in his future. Little did he know that the first app he made would be recognized on a national platform.
His app, BoostT1D, designed to help people with Type 1 diabetes, was chosen by Rep. Jake Auchincloss as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in the Massachusetts Fourth District. On Feb. 26, Aaron found out his app was picked as one of the top apps in the East Region from among 400 district winners – and over 4,000 apps submitted overall.
Aaron, 16, a junior at British International School in Jamaica Plain, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 17 months old. The disease hinders the body’s ability to properly create insulin and allows blood sugars to build up. Most people with Type 1 diabetes get insulin through injections or a pump attached to the body.
“Your sugars are hard to control in every part of your day,” Aaron said. “You just suddenly start feeling bad because of your sugar and who knows where or when.”
When his family lived in San Francisco, his mom, Faina, had to quit her job in order to provide Aaron’s insulin since there were no staff to do so in the schools.
“His Type 1 diabetes used to be everything I saw about him,” Faina said. “But he was growing up surprising me all the time.”
The idea for BoostT1D came to Aaron long before he was aware of the Congressional App Challenge.
“Originally, I went to dinner with my friends, and I was the only one out of my friends at this dinner who was diabetic,” Aaron said. “And I’m trying to figure out how many carbs there were and how much insulin to give for that, but obviously when you’re in a restaurant, it’s not going to tell you how many carbs there are.”
After hearing about the app challenge from a friend, Aaron turned his idea into a product.
“I was gonna try making a tool that could take photos of food, and it shows you how many carbs and how much insulin you give,” Aaron said. “And it actually works.”
BoostT1D lets the user take a photo of a meal and get the calorie, carb and sugar breakdown. To demonstrate, Aaron took a photo of a pastry at a cafe, and the carb information and insulin suggestion appeared in seconds.
Aaron used Google’s Gemini Vision AI tool, which has databases of food nutritional information, to share that information but also calculate how much insulin the user may need. BoostT1D allows the user to connect to NightScout, an application that diabetics use to visualize their sugar levels, so the recommendations are personalized.
Aaron started with the food scan feature as his focus but after being selected as Massachusetts delegate for Children’s Congress, an event run by the largest diabetes research foundation Breakthrough T1D, he found more ideas for this app.
There, Aaron talked with other diabetics and learned what problems they faced in their lives.
He ended up adding more features including therapy adjustments for insulin intake and a mentorship program for those newly diagnosed to be partnered with volunteer mentors.
Ironically, Aaron’s parents were initially hesitant to introduce their son to coding. Faina said being a software engineer was hard but good work and thought another field would better suit her son.
But after coming back home from a coding camp, and creating a video game for his dad’s birthday when he was 7, Faina realized there was no stopping her son’s zest for software development.
“We kind of thought that, no matter how hard we try, he’s going to code,” Faina said.
As a junior, college is on the horizon for Aaron, but he’s unsure if he wants to go all in on software development.
“I think I want to go broader to start with probably mathematics or computer science cause there’s so many places you can go from there,” Aaron said. “I like to learn. I think I’m going to love college.”
His mom hopes for him to stay close to home, hinting at a certain college on the Cambridge side of the Charles River.
“I want him to stay close to home. And MIT looks very attractive,” Faina said with a laugh. “When he won, it was like a step closer.”
Outside of coding, Aaron is an accomplished competitive ballroom dancer.
“I’ve been doing it for a long time,” he said. “And I’ve been doing it pretty seriously recently.”
He had been dancing since he was 7 and placed third in last year’s United States Dancesport Championships. His coach of five years, Ronen Zinshtein, said he remained supportive of Aaron despite the challenges that came with his diabetes and winning bronze was one of his fondest memories with his student.
“Aaron actually is very genuine and patient,” said Zinshtein, owner of Todos Dance and Fitness Studio. “He’s unique in a sense where he takes the time to actually listen to what he processes and then, once he processes, he can do it.”
For a nationally recognized ballroom dancer and app developer, Aaron seems to carry himself with humility and curiosity.
“I just wanted to make life with diabetes as livable as possible,” Aaron said.
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This story is part of a partnership between the Newton Beacon and the Boston University Department of Journalism.