College students would cringe if they are asked to spend 12 hours on campus.
However, the students of the computer science department of PESIT, South Campus were more than happy to do so recently.

‘Ingenious’, a ‘hackathon’ competition, saw students pushing themselves to make the best software and computer applications.

The students were divided into groups of four and the application or software created by them had to be a combined effort of all the members of the group.

The students came up with some great applications which can solve many problems. Aquilla and her group worked on a software which lists small shops, the details of which are not available on other websites.

“Small shops, which sell chaat, or the vendor on Brigade Road, who engraves names on a grain of rice, are never listed on popular websites. That is what we are trying to do. Our application will have a database of all the cool shops in the City. The most interesting part of this application is that if it is installed in the phone, the GPS will automatically show the location and other interesting places that are there in your radius,” says Aquilla.

While some of the students were making applications, which would help the society as a whole, some were concentrating on the common problems of the student community. For instance Karan, Radhika and Varshini made smart identification cards for students.

Once installed in the phone, it will inform students about details like library books, fees and college notifications. “We have been working on this project since thismorning and it is something which is very interesting. It will present the unique qualities of the students and is not the run-of-the-mill kind,” explains Karan. The competition had four judges and the students were marked on the basis of various criteria like efficiency, speed, quality etc.

The competition saw students putting together all their ideas to showcase their best. “It is the students’ interests that motivated them to sit through such a long span of time on a Sunday. We will choose the five best projects and put them in the public domain so that everyone can see them,” says Srikanth Murthy, head of the department, computer science.