Engineering students win Uber hackathon

Uber announced the winners of the Uber HackTag 2.0, for creating the next big innovation prototype that will reimagine the way the world moves for the better here on Monday.

The first prize of Rs 2.5 lakh was awarded to team Xsparks, from KIET Group of Institutions (KIET), Ghaziabad, for innovating on z-index and its use cases for Uber. Using the power of AR core, the team developed a model which enables users to locate a point of interest and guide them to that point accurately, without the need for a continuous internet connection. "We are committed to giving access and opportunities to budding talent towards developing meaningful ideas and solutions in India. The right mentorship and direction will go a long way in setting them up for success and innovate purposefully. Heartiest congratulations to all the members of the winning teams," Jayaram Valliyur, Senior Director of Engineering at Uber, added.

The second prize of Rs 1.5 lakh was awarded to team YellowPlatedCoders, from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), ISM, Dhanbad whose innovation revolved around deploying an in-vehicle driver monitoring system to prevent road accidents. Using computer vision and machine learning, the team developed a working prototype that alerts drivers in case drowsiness, face movements and single-handed driving is detected.

The third prize of Rs 1 lakh was awarded to team CodeLite, from Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS), Pilani, Hyderabad Campus whose innovation revolved around adding emergency care services as a new category to the already existing Uber application.

Executed in partnership with Dare2Compete, a social community engagement platform, Hacktag 2.0 witnessed enthusiastic participation of over 34,000 engineering student innovators and builders from across India. The participants were required to devise innovative solutions for Uber's next billion users. The top three winners were rewarded with cash prizes worth Rs 5 lakhs.