Warangal: Hackathon gets underway
Warangal: The five-day Smart India Hackathon 2019 (SIH2019), Hardware Edition, got underway in SR Engineering College (SREC) along with other nodal centres IIT Delhi, IISER+NCL, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Indore, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Mumbai, NIT Trichy and others simultaneously on Monday with Union Human Resource Development Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal and AICTE Chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe launching the programme through web cast.
Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal said that this is the third consecutive year of Smart India Hackathon, touted as World's Largest Open Hackathon in which around two lakh students have participated from all over the country. It may be recalled here that first part of Smart India Hackathon 2019, Software Edition, was held from March 2 to 3 this year.
Anil Sahasrabudhe said that there are more than 1.2 lakh students from 2,235 colleges participated in SIH2019. The students sent their entries for 198 problem statements, submitted by more than 40 industries and nine Central Government Ministries.
The teams participated in the Hackathon will provide innovative hardware solutions for 124 problems said, SREC Principal Dr V Mahesh said. SR group of Institutions Chairman A Varada Reddy said that Hackathon would bring out 'Out-of-the-Box Thinking' ideas from students. It would augur well for the students planning for start-ups.
There are eight teams participating from Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh that likely to solve problems pertaining to Agriculture, Waste Management, Clean Water, Renewable Energy, Healthcare & Biomedical Devices, Smart Vehicles, Robotics and Drones, Smart Communication, Sustainable Environment, Smart Textile and Smart Cities areas. It's heartening to note that the girls' participation is more compared to boys. Cash prizes of Rs 50,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs 1 lakh will be awarded to winners, SREC CEO Sreedevi Devireddy said. Dean- International Relations & Alumni Affairs, NIT Warangal, Dr KV Jayakumar, Director Dr CV Guru Rao and MHRD Innovation Cell Ankush were among others present.