Hackathon witnesses good participation of students

Pune, Apr 15 Internal Smart India Hackathon 2022 (SIH 2022) was organised in DY Patil International University (DYPIU), Akurdi, Pune on April 11.

SIH is a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem solving. Considering that the university promotes innovation, entrepreneurship and interdisciplinary problem solving on societal issues, such kinds of events are ideal exposures for students to understand the kind of problems that exist in India and also to think of approaches to solve them. The list of the winners includes, AbraCODEabra, Waves, Lorem Ipsum The Rockers, Is Squad, SARSHA, Team Lupin, Developer, Snaguine and Al-Mechs.

Innovation is the basis of the development of any society. Hackathons like Smart India Hackathon not only promote Innovation, but also focus on solving everyday problems of society. Considering that most of the current generation is working in silos and are disconnected from some of the grassroot issues, such hackathons are their perfect entry into

the real world issues of both urban and rural India.

Talking to Bizz Buzz, Dr Surabhi Sonam, Head of the Department of Bioengineering, DYPIU, who was also the single point of contact (SPOC) for the event, said, "SIH is a great platform for young minds to create Innovative Solutions in cost effective ways. The out-of-the box solutions of students also gives them an opportunity to be a part of nation building and get exposure and recognition on the national level."

Eventually, in the last round, students became a part of the innovation movement of India and got to work with some of the best talents in the country. For the students of young university like DYPIU, it is a perfect platform to build further on the knowledge they have attained in their classrooms, labs and projects.

According to Dr Sonam, "This year, due to the University's late entry into the Hackathon, we had student participation from technical courses only. However, I had a lot of queries from the non-technical courses also and I hope in future we will see large participation from them too."

A total of 18 teams registered for the Hackthon. These teams were registered for 18 different problem statements ranging from MedTech / BioTech / HealthTech, Clean & Green Technology, Heritage & Culture, Smart Education, Agriculture, FoodTech & Rural Development, Smart vehicles to Blockchain & Cybersecurity.

Of the 18 teams, 3 had proposed hardware-based solutions, 14 had proposed software-based solutions and 1 proposed a hardware- and software-based solution

The 18 teams included, 76 male members and 32 female members from 4 different disciplines ranging from Bachelor of Computer Applications, BTech Computer Science Engineering, BTech Bioengineering and MSc Medical Biotechnology. After team registrations, team leads were briefed on the plan of the event.

The jury included Dr Dilip G Khairnar, Dr Varsha Harpale, Dr Vinayak Kottawar, Dr Abhijit Janardan Patankar. Each team was given 10 minutes to present and 5 minutes for the Q&A.