After Smart, hardware hackathon in June, says Javadekar

The third Smart India Hackathon, a 36-hour non-stop exercise to find solution to problems, was inaugurated simultaneously at 48 nodal centres across the country by Union Minister for Human Resource Department Prakash Javadekar on Saturday.

He addressed the participants, nearly 11,000, through a live video broadcast.

Udupi Deputy Commissioner Hephsiba Rani Korlapati was the chief guest at the Hackathon organised at Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), MAHE, one among the 48 nodal centres.

Addressing the audience across the country, Javadekar said the event was an unique one.

“There are lots of problems and these hackathons are useful in finding solutions to these problems. In the first year more than 30,000 students participated and came up with 19 solutions. This year over two lakh students are participating after the elimination rounds,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is of the firm belief that only those countries which innovate can prosper. This event is unique as it is the world’s biggest software hackathon, he said.

“We will have a Hardware Hackathon in June,” the minister announced. AICTE Chairman Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe and co-chair organizing committee, Dr Anand Deshpande also addressed the students through video.

Speaking on the occasion, Hephsiba said, “Your contribution to this country will make life better for our people. It will be wonderful if your ideas can be taken to the common man.”

She also invited students to witness the functioning of EVMS and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).

MIT Director Srikanth Rao later told media persons that MIT was also keen to host the Hardware Hackathon being planned in June. “We will be happy to host that event too,” he added.

Sharing details of the event, he said 23 teams will have to tackle 60 problem statements from four organisations. BEML alone has three. They are: ‘Variable Speed Transmission Device for Mechanical Power Train’; ‘Knowledge based mobile App for eProcurement SRM’ (Supplier Relationship Management) and ‘Automatic Active Server Communication
Alerts’.

Problem statement of Mahindra Electric is, ‘Intelligent Range Estimator with real time traffic information’. WM Ware has ‘Talking Fingers’ as its problem statement and finally, Belgaum Foundry Clusters has, ‘Power consumption monitoring and recommendation system for efficiency improvement.’

MAHE Registrar
Dr Narayana Sabhahit welcomed the gathering. Aditi Gupta the AICTE representative to the nodal centre also spoke about the event.