The Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), a constituent of Manipal University, will be one of the 26 host colleges in the country to organise ‘Smart India Hackathon’, a 36-hour round-the-clock event conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on April 1 and 2, according to Preetham Kumar, Professor, Deputy Registrar - Academics (Technical), who is coordinating the event here.
Considered to be one of the biggest digital product development hackathons held till date, it is in line with the vision of Digital India as it directly involves the youth in finding solutions to problems.
About 10,000 youngsters, across the 26 colleges, will rack their brains over 598 problem statements put forth by the various Union government ministries and departments such as the ISRO, Ministry of Defence, and others, covering all aspects that need to be addressed to digitize India.
In response to the 598 problems, initially, ideas were received from 7,531 teams (6 students and 2 mentors per team) including 2,100 plus colleges across India. Of them, 1,266 teams were nominated for the ‘Grand Finale’ to be held on Saturday and Sunday.
The event is being organised as a part of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the institute. It will begin at 7.30 a.m. on April 1 and will continue, without a break, till 8.30 pm on April 2, at all the 26 colleges simultaneously.
Over 250 students and more than 100 IT professionals as mentors will find solutions to the problems, provided by UGC, at MIT. The UGC officials, along with experienced IT professionals from Robosoft Technologies Pvt Ltd, will form the panel of judges to evaluate the solutions.
N. Gopukumar, Joint Secretary, SWRO – UGC, Bengaluru, and Priyanka Mary Francis, Deputy Commissioner of Udupi district, will be the chief guests for the inaugural function that will be presided over by Narayana Sabhahit, Registrar of Manipal University. G.K. Prabhu, Pro Vice-Chancellor, will be present.
