Mysore/Mysuru: Two students from Excel Public School (EPS), Mysuru — V. Hithashree and I.B. Srinivas — have bagged the top position in the recently concluded International Virtual Hackathon (Vickathon) hosted by the Gymnasia HaRealit School, RishonLezion, Israel.  

The five-day event witnessed participation of 181 students and 42 mentors from Israel, China, Hong Kong and India. The students were expected to work in teams and explore, ideate and express their thoughts on the challenge given, using their ingenuity and creativity. 

The topic given to the teams was, “How to make live online learning more creative and exciting?” The various teams showcased their creative and innovative ideas as pitches, discussing viable plans that included learning management systems, apps, quizzes and so on. 

The teams were evaluated by eminent entrepreneurs and top researchers from India, Israel, China and Hong Kong on the impact of their solution, the relevance to the theme, their pitch and the scalability of the proposal.

Out of a mixed batch of students of different nationalities grouped into 22 teams across grades 9 to 11, two teams comprising EPS students were shortlisted among the top 3 pitches. The team comprising Srinivas and Hithashree bagged the first prize and another team comprising Siddarth Dinesh and Gouri B. Krishna were ranked second in the audience poll.