By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 30 Aug: A ‘SAP Next-Gen Design Thinking Hackathon’ session on the theme of ‘Reboot the Earth’ was organised by the School of Computer Science, UPES, in collaboration with its Academic Partners, ‘SAP Next-Gen’ at the Bidholi Campus of the University. The hackathon was a part of the Global Youth Hackathon for Climate Solutions – an initiative of ‘SAP Next-Gen’ and ‘UN Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL)’. Rahul Sachdev, Head, University Alliances Program- India Subcontinent at SAP attended the session as the Key Speaker. Briefing the media on the event, Arun Dhand, Sr Director, Public Affairs, UPES, shared that ‘Reboot The Earth’ is planned as a social coding event that brings young computer programmers, scientists and other interested people together under the auspices of the United Nations to improve upon or build a new software programme that addresses the earth’s current climate crisis. This event will present young people, including students, with the opportunity to use open data and tech concepts to solve a local climate crisis that may be unique to each location and its community needs, through a series of Tech Challenges across four continents during the months of August and September 2019. “Being an organisation which has always been sensitive towards its obligations for Society, UPES always encourages its students to participate in such events,” Dhand declared. Rahul Sachdev shared his insights on the subject with the participants on the processes involved in a design thinking process – right from ‘understanding the problem’ to ‘creating a prototype’. “Thinking is a mind-set backed by a suite of tools that gives us a powerful new way to solve problems and unlock potential. The changing face of technology can convert innovative ideas into business opportunities and help solve sustainable development challenges,” Rahul added. Sharing the details of the session, Dr Vinay Awasthi, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science (SCS), apprised that the event was participated in by students from the engineering and design disciplines at UPES. The students were able to learn a lot about how they could take best advantage of ‘Design Thinking’ for developing solutions. Later, the student teams proposed solutions for local climate crisis unique to their community needs to accomplish the goals of sustainable development using the available open data and tech concepts. Dr Manish Prateek, Dean SCS, Dr Ajay Prasad, HOD, SCS, and Mithali Chughwere present during the event. “A number of creative and innovative proposals were presented by the teams which are being currently processed. The ideas, tools and proposals submitted through the climate challenge Hackathon will be researched by a diverse jury of reviewers before being presented to a panel of judges,” shared Dr Awasthi.
