By: C.M. Paul

Guwahati :Two out of three teams from Assam Don Bosco University (ADBU) were in the final eight of the latest All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)-organised ‘Smart India Hackathon 2017’ and one of them was declared winner of the contest, along with three other teams.

The ADBU team, named MATRIX, the only team from North East India, was among the winning teams of the contest and it was adjudged fourth for the persistent inspirational award at the contest held recently in Guwahati.

The ADBU team consisted of six students mentored by faculty members Dr Bobby Sarma and Gypsy Nandi of the CSE Department under the leadership of team member final year student Abhijit Matak. Their project was ‘Explaining the Famous Products of North East India’. Their project code has been delivered to and accepted by DoNER.

The team ‘Bitcoders’ from Gandhi Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar led by Ravi Prakash Gupta was declared winners of the competition held at the Guwahati nodal centre.

The first and second runners up of the competition were respectively, ‘Stark’ from MM Engineering College, Mullana, Ambala and ‘Detect & Direct’ from Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon.

The team ‘Matrix’ from ADBU, Azara campus, Guwahati won the persistent inspirational award.

All the winners were awarded cash prizes sponsored by DoNER Ministry in the final with amounts Rs. 1,00,000 for winners, Rs. 75,000 for 1st Runners, Rs. 50,000 for 2nd Runner and persistent inspirational award of Rs. 10,000.

The AICTE received 7,682 project proposals from the technical institutions. Of these, only 1,200 were accepted and approved.

Of these 1,200 project proposals, 31 were related to the DoNER Ministry under six headings. These 31 teams came to Guwahati on April 1 and 2, for the finals of the ‘Smart India Hackathon 2017’, with North East India being represented by six teams, three of which were from the ADBU.

‘Smart India Hackathon 2017’ organised by the AICTE, was a 36-hour non-stop coding competition that involved finding digital solutions to several problem statements made by Ministry Of Development Of North Eastern Region (DoNER). It was organised in response to an invitation by the Prime Minister to the Union ministries, to involve the AICTE- approved institutions of the country in providing technical knowledge in the functioning of the projects that the ministries had in mind.

Dubbed as the world’s largest hackathon, the event brought together some 10,000 programmers to compete in the 36-hour event finale held at 26 locations in the country.

The program focused on solving 598 problems of social importance for 29 ministries and government departments.

The initial response for the event came from over 7,500 teams of approximately 42,000 students.