The first edition of Manipal Hackathon was inaugurated at KEF R&D auditorium on Friday.
The event, organised by Student Council of Manipal Institute of Technology-MAHE, has finalists from institutes all over the country, including BITS-Hyderabad, VIT-Vellore, VIT-Chennai and PICT-Pune.
Deputy Commissioner G Jagadeesha congratulated the students for their efforts in making the event a success.
He also stressed on the need to organise more events such as the Hackathon. Dr H S Ballal, Pro-Chancellor MAHE, highlighted the importance of encouraging innovations.
He also stressed on the need to use technology to uplift rural people and to empower women.
The Manipal Hackathon is a software challenge that began in May 2019.
Inspired by the Smart India Hackathon, it aims to find answers to pertinent social issues by using simple programming solutions.
Initially, the competition had 1,500 participants from across the country.
Among these, 125 participants eventually travelled to Manipal for the 36-hour final challenge.