The two-day NASA International Space Apps Challenge hackathon began at Jyothi Engineering College, Cheruthuruthy, here on Saturday.
The NASA International Space Apps Challenge is a hackathon for scientists, designers, technologists and innovators across the world to come together to create solutions to challenges we face on the earth and in space.
Jyothi Engineering College, in collaboration with Dubai -based Unique World Robotics, is organising the event.
According to Fr. Jose Kannampuzha, academic director of the college, as many as 3,750 candidates are participating from the Centre in the hackathon and this may be the highest number of participation from any single centre in the world. Ciro in Egypt comes in second position with 2,300 participants.
The hackathon is being conducted in more than 400 centres in 165 countries and 13 space organisations from different countries, including ISRO, are collaborating for the event.
NASA has given 30 challenges, featuring various topics. The participants can choose from the list and provide creative solutions. A jury will select the best suggestions. The selected suggestions will get global nominations. The top three suggestions, in junior and senior categories, will receive cash prizes of ₹50,000, ₹30,000 and ₹20,000. All participants will get certificates from NASA, according to the college authorities.
