To create a vent for students’ ideas and to tap the solutions from the young minds, the All India Council for Technical Education along with other organisations such as Inter-Institutional Inclusive Innovation Centre (i4C), Persistent systems have organised Smart India Hackathon 2018. Many students from different colleges of the country have participated in the recently concluded event. Two teams from Narasaraopeta Engineering College (NEC) of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh have made into the list of the participating teams.
Around 1296 shortlisted teams the finale of this tech-tournament was held on 30th and 31st March 2018. The Honourable Prime Minister of India addressed the Grand-finale of Smart India Hackathon 2018 through Video-conferencing. He felt happy over the increasing enthusiasm among students to resolve some of the progress-hindering issues.
The Smart India Hackathon consists of two sub-editions namely Software and Hardware. Through this event, the government of India is expecting to:
1. Give a shape to ideas of students
2. Provide impetus to institute-level hackathons
3. Build funnel for ‘Startup India’ program
4. Churn out solutions for the persistent problems faced in governance
Around 45+ Union Ministries and departments, and 18 State governments have been part of this mega event. Each participant is waiting for solutions that can up turn the status of the problems faced by the country/state. The organisers have invited students to come up with Hardware-related solutions centering on 11 categories namely:
• Smart Communication
• Medical Devices/Health Care/Bio-sensing technologies
• Clean Water Technologies
• Agro-Electronics
• Automobiles/Smart vehicles
• Waste Management
• Technology for Rural development
• Drone and Robotics
• Education
• Import substitution
• Security and Surveillance / Defence and Security
As the mentioned topics are crucial for the inclusive development of the country, the government is waiting for the solutions on these topics. Every topic is inter-related and needs contribution from citizens/students. The technology for rural development could include Waste Management technologies, Education technologies, Agro-Electronics, Clean Water technologies, and Health Care. The solutions pertaining to these topics promise holistic development of the society. The organisers introduced this component in this 2nd edition of Smart India Hackathon.
Two teams from the Narasaraopeta Engineering College got selected for the grand finale.
- The team “Techchamps”, which is led by Mr. Kandepu Chandrashekar, worked on the project “Highway agents”.
- The team “Space solutions”, which is led by Mr. Chennuboina Sai, worked on the project “Location Based Services Offline Routing Mobile App”.
Both teams from the college performed well with their projects. The management is waiting for the results and is expecting a positive outcome. As two teams from the college have participated in this interesting event, it would instill a sense of creativity among other students.
The Narasaraopeta Engineering College is encouraging innovations of its students through its incubation center, which till date has incubated around 4 Startups. If the college maintains its momentum of encouraging new ideas, there would be an immense increase in the number of teams participating in the next editions of the Smart India Hackathon.
