Two of the city-based engineering colleges are part of the nation-wide Smart India Hackathon which was inaugurated on Tuesday and will provide the student community a platform to come out with innovative ideas and cost-effective solutions and help imbibe a mindset of problem-solving.
The SIH 2023 will be on till December 23. National Institute of Engineering and Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering are playing host to the nation-wide event which has attracted nearly 58,000 teams in what is reckoned to be the world’s largest hackathon event.
SIH is a nationwide initiative by Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell to provide students a platform to solve the pressing problems of the government, ministries, departments, industries and other organizations. SIH-2023 is jointly organised by Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, All India Council for Technical Education, and i4c.
The authorities said the event brings together some of the brightest minds from across the nation, all dedicated to collaboratively addressing and solving real-world problems.
At NIE, 25 teams from across India comprising about 150 students are taking part in the finale which will be held round the clock. NIE is hosing problem statements given by the Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Defence and Autodesk Company.
The finale was inaugurated by Mr.Ravishankar, CEO, Proxelera and NIE Principal Dr.Rohini Nagapadma was among those present. NIE has been selected as a Nodal Centre to host the event (Hardware category)
VVCE centre
At VVCE which is one of the four nodal centres in Karnataka, the event is being held at H. Kempegowda Indoor Stadium. The chief guest was Shashidhara Dongre, the global head of L&T Limited who said that till 10 years ago engineering colleges were teaching theoretical aspects neglecting practical exposure. But in today’s competitive age, the field of engineering involves cutting-edge innovation and greater success can be achieved by developing the attitude of finding an appropriate solution to real-world problems. Hackathons are seen as the seed for greater things to come, he added.
B Sadashive Gowda, Principal, VVCE, and explained that a hackathon is an event where computer programmers and other interested individuals come together to improve upon or build a new software program in a relatively short period, such as 24 or 48 hrs. Each winning team will get a prize of 1 lakh and a total of ₹2 crore prizes will be given across the country, he added.
At VVCE, a total of 27 teams, comprising more than 200 participants from VVCE, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, VIT, IIIT Bengaluru, and different states students are participating, said Dr. Gowda.
The problem statements being addressed are Similar Document Matching Algorithm, Dak Ghar Niryat Kendra (Postal Department), Optimizing Doctor Availability and Appointment Allocation in Hospitals through Digital Technology and AI Integration, Real Time Vehicle Tracking System, Smart Glass Cleaning Robot.
