By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 31 May: The First Edition of the UPES Inter-University Coding Event ‘U Hackathon 1.0’ was held at UPES on 28 – 29 May at its Bidholi campus. The event was an initiative by the School of Computer Science (SCS), UPES, to provide a platform to young students by enabling them to identify real life problems and to think, design and develop modern solutions for them. The competition exposes students to an environment optimal for exploring new techniques for problem solving and was an ultimate test of the participant’s Coding skills, Patience and Resilience. It continued non-stop for 24 hours to find the ultimate champion.
The two-day event was inaugurated by Amit Kumar Sinha, Director, ITDA, Uttarakhand, as the Chief Guest in the presence of experts from IBM; Deloitte; Xebia; Amptech Software, etc.
According to Arun Dhand, Sr Director, Public Affairs, UPES, U Hackathon 1.0 was the first of its kind organised by the School of Computer Science of the University. “The first round of the event started around March 2019 when over 240 teams from reputed technology institutions across the country submitted their proposals to solve the problems.” Eventually, 44 teams from Chandigarh College of Engineering & Technology, Chandigarh; FC Rodrigues Institute of Technology, Mumbai; Gakaraju Rangaraju Institue of Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad; Global Academy of Technology, Bengaluru; Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women, Delhi; Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, NOIDA; MKSSS Cummins College of Engineering, Pune; Thapar Institute of Engineering Technology, Patiala and UPES reached the final round held in the UPES premises.
Welcoming the Chief Guest, Industry Experts and the participants to the UPES Campus, ‘Event Convener’ Dr TP Singh – Head, Dept. of Informatics, SCS, said, “The USPs of this competition are that, one, it is a unique industry linked event where we have directly collaborated with the Industries from different sectors for the problem statements that range from agriculture to smart cities and, two, that the winning team members will get internship offers courtesy our event collaborators. The opportunity will be based on their performances during the event,” Dr. Singh shared. Chief Guest Amit Sinha shared his life experiences and encouraged the participants never to fear failure. Out of the box ideas alone can solve the modern day problems and create a sustainable world,” he stated.
The panel of experts judging the events comprised Manjit Singh – Project Head, IBM, India as the Head, Technical Judge ‘U Hackathon’; Divyanshu Sinha – Project Coordinator, Xebia India; Naveen Srivastava – MD, Amptech Software; Mukul Kashiv – Sr. Data Analyst, Deloitte; Alok Negi – Assistant Professor, Quantum University, and T Dharani Kumar – Industry Fellow, SCS UPES. The solutions implemented during the event included a ‘Smart Stick to assist the Blind’; ‘Accident Avoidance & Detection System’; ‘Smart Irrigation System’; ‘Automatic Attendance System’ and ‘Smart Portals & Apps for solving a wide range of problems’, etc.
The Judges declared ‘Team Jaypee Institute of Information Technology Noida’ for the 1st Prize; the all-girl team of ‘Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women, Delhi’ for the 2nd Prize; the 3rd and 4th Prizes went to ‘Team UPES’, while Team ‘Global Academy Of Technology, Bengaluru’ bagged the 5th Prize at the ‘U-Hackathon1.0’. The top two winners received Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 as cash prizes, respectively, besides a ‘hamper’ each from Xebia. Amptech Software offered internship opportunities to three participants during the event itself. Dr Manish Prateek, Dean SCS & the ‘Event Chair’, congratulated the organising team.
Amitava Choudhury, Assistant Professor, Department of Informatics, proposed the vote of thanks.
