Mysore/Mysuru: The National Institute of Engineering (NIE) and Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering (VVCE) are playing host to the nation-wide Smart India Hackathon (SIH 2023) which was centrally inaugurated yesterday.

The SIH 2023 will be on till Dec. 23 and will provide the student community a platform to come out with innovative ideas and cost-effective solutions and help imbibe a mindset of problem-solving. SIH-2023 is jointly organised by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, All India Council for Technical Education and i4c.

Over 12,000 students are participating in the grand finale being held at 48 nodal centres across the country. Students to tackle 231 problem statements posted by 25 Ministries. In this year’s hackathon, more than 50,000 ideas were received from 44,000 teams — an almost seven fold increase compared to the first edition of SIH.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the students via video conferencing yesterday and expressed his hope in youngsters and urged them to contribute towards achieving the vision of New India.

“I never miss any opportunity to interact with Young Professionals, Young CEOs, Young Scientists and Young Bureaucrats”, he said.

“I am happy to see young minds thinking about ways to take our nation forward. It is a delight to be among smart innovators of smart India,” he added. While the event at VVCE is being held at H. Kempegowda Indoor Stadium, the NIE is holding it at its Diamond Jubilee Sports Complex. 

At NIE, 25 teams from across India comprising about 150 students are taking part and it is housing problem statements given by the Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Defence and Autodesk Company. NIE has been selected as a Nodal Centre to host the event (Hardware category).

The finale was inaugurated by CEO, Proxelera Ravishankar. NIE Principal Dr. Rohini Nagapadma, Programme Manager, Autodesk Ramesh Shankar, Advisor – II, AICTE Dr. N.H. Siddalinga Swamy, Director, NIE Managing Committee N. Sathya Kumar and Hon. President Dr. M.S. Ranganath were present.

At VVCE, a total of 27 teams, comprising more than 200 participants from VVCE, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, VIT and IIIT Bengaluru are participating. The chief guest was global head of L&T Limited Shashidhara Dongre. He said that till 10 years ago engineering colleges were teaching theoretical aspects neglecting practical exposure.

But in today’s competitive age, the field of engineering involves cutting-edge innovation and greater success can be achieved by developing the attitude of finding an appropriate solution to real-world problems. Hackathons are seen as the seed for greater things to come, he added.

VVCE Principal Prof. B. Sadashive Gowda explained that a hackathon is an event where computer programmers and other interested individuals come together to improve upon or build a new software programme in a short period. Each winning team will get a prize of 1 lakh and a total of Rs. 2 crore prizes will be given across the country, he added.

The problem statements being addressed at VVCE are Similar Document Matching Algorithm, Dak Ghar Niryat Kendra (Postal Department), Optimising Doctor Availability and Appointment Allocation in Hospitals through Digital Technology and AI Integration, Real Time Vehicle Tracking System, Smart Glass Cleaning Robot.

Nodal Officer Prof. M.R. Pooja, AICTE Deputy Director Dr. Nikhil Kant, Hon. President of Vidyavardhaka Sangha Gundappa Gowda, Hon. Secretary P. Vishwanath, Hon. Treasurer Srishaila Ramannavar, Prof. Nitin Kumar and others were      present on the occasion.