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Crescenta Valley High sophomore creates an app that helps classmates sign up for lockers

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When administrators at Crescenta Valley High School needed a more efficient way to assign lockers to students, they turned to one of their own students for help.

Lyron Co Ting Keh was enrolled in Greg Neat’s advanced-placement computer science class last year when he got an idea to create an app that students could access on their phones or computers to sign up for lockers.

The app replaced the need for administrators to sift through paper sign-ups, something they had turned to following a years-long — and less-organized — tradition of groups of students running down hallways weeks before the start of school to secure their lockers.

Lyron, 15, began developing the app last winter, and built it so students could list a few preferred options for where they wanted their locker. Ultimately, as buildings filled up with requests, students could see those buildings on their screens appear in gray, notifying them to look elsewhere.

Lyron tested the app several times with his classmates in his computer science and robotics classes before debuting it to the school’s roughly 2,000 students at the end of the last school year.

One perk for creating the app meant that Lyron got to secure his locker in a prime location, on the second floor of the 5,000 building.

“These are the nice ones,” he said, smiling, one recent morning.

On the first day of school last week, Lyron observed a smoother transition for his classmates.

“I’ve overheard students say that the process was really convenient and easy. They particularly liked how they knew what locker they were going to have right away so they could start planning ahead of time,” Lyron said.

More than three years ago, when Crescenta Valley High Principal Linda Junge was hired, she knew she wanted to adopt a new method for students to use when signing up for lockers each year.

She’s said she’s proud that Lyron made it possible.

“The ‘run for lockers’ that many Falcons will remember was something I knew I wanted to change when I came to CV over three years ago, and Lyron has moved us forward leaps and bounds — past cumbersome paper sign-ups, well beyond the unsafe rush to lockers, and to a place of sanity and order,” she said.

Now a sophomore, Lyron’s favorite class continues to be computer science, an interest he first recognized when he was 8 years old when his older brother gave him a robot to build and program.

“Whether it’s on the side, or as a profession, I will definitely keep creating apps,” he said.

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