A group of eigth grade students from Hauser Junior-Senior High School have been named a Best in State winner in the fourth annual Verizon Innovative App Challenge for their mobile app concept called “Speak Bot Pro.”

Verizon officials say that students focused on creating an app to help others speak through it. Those who cannot speak for medical reasons or due to language barriers would be able to use icons to communicate verbally. The team was selected from more than 1,200 submissions nationwide and will receive a $5,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation and tablets for each of the students on the team.

The Hauser team, and a team from Zionsville, have a chance to become a national winner. Both Indiana teams are competing for the Best in Nation award and for a Fan Favorite award.

From now until Jan. 31, anyone can vote to help the Bartholomew County team win the Fan Favorite award by texting SPEAKBOT2 to 22333. The Fan Favorite award winner will receive an additional $15,000 and the chance to work with experts from the MIT Media Lab to turn their concept into a working app.