NIT, Warangal to host Smart India Hackathon on March 2,3

Hyderabad: Smart India Hackathon (SIH), the world’s biggest open innovation platform, is a nationwide initiative by Ministry of HRD and a platform for the students to offer innovative solutions for pressing problems we face in our daily lives and this will inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem solving. It was started in 2017 by the government and includes Hardware and Software editions. The event involves 2 lakh + technical students, 3000+ technical institutes, and 200+ organisations across India. 

The previous editions ( 2017 and 2018) were a roaring success with separate hardware and software editions and this one (SIH-2019 Software) is the third edition of hackathon. 
The event will be inaugurated on March 2 by Minister of HRD Prakash Javadekar (live video from New Delhi) and Chairman, AICTE, Smart India Hackathon – Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe, Co-Chair, AICTE, Smart India Hackathon – Dr. Anand Deshpande will also speak (live video from New Delhi). Prime Minister is also expected to interact at length with some selected centres over video conferencing on the same night.

Problems statements are provided by all the Ministries and other private/public sectors, NGO’s in 10 different themes like Smart communication, Health care and biomedical devices, Agriculture and Rural development, Smart vehicles, Food technology, Robotics and Drones, Waste management, Clean water, Renewable energy and Security & Surveillance. 

The Grand Finale (36 hours non-stop event) is scheduled to be held on March 2-3. NIT, Warangal has been chosen by MHRD as one of the 45 nodal centres across the country to organise the Grand Finale. 32 student teams (200 students), 60 mentors and judges from across the country will participate in the event at NIT, Warangal. The student teams allotted to NIT, Warangal will be working on the 8 problem statements given by eZDI, Sun pharmaceuticals and Robert Bosch companies. Each team will have 6 students, out which one will be a girl student, which is mandatory.

More than one lakh students from IITs, NITs, govt and private engineering colleges and various other educational institutes have submitted their ideas and solution methodologies, out of which around 10,000 students (around 1500 teams) are shortlisted for the Grand Finale. The winning team of each problem statement would get a cash award depending on the level of solution offered (Rs 50,000 for simple, Rs 75,000 for complicated and Rs 1,00,000 for complex solution) 
 The hackathon events will be conducted simultaneously across the country in all 45 nodal centres in synchronisation with live speeches over video conferencing by MHRD, AICTE from New Delhi. NIT, Warangal will provide lodging and boarding to the students, mentors and judges for three days, in addition to the required Highspeed internet connectivity of at least 200 Mbps, and other IT hardware like Video conferencing facilities, computers, projectors and all other related accessories.