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RSTV: IN DEPTH- HACKATHON

RSTV: IN DEPTH- HACKATHON

Introduction:

            Innovation and incubation have become buzzwords for New India. They are the new approach to the task of nation – building and helping to find practical and out-of the box solutions to every day problems in various fields are events that have come to be popular as hackathons. Hackathons are attempts to find homegrown solutions to problems. The second edition of the Singapore-India Hackathon, that started at IIT-Madras came to an end. This first joint international hackathon between India and any other country is an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Addressing the event Prime Minister Modi said through events like the hackathons, the aim is to create an ecosystem for innovation in India. Reiterating that India was poised to become a 5 trillion dollar economy, the PM stated that innovation and startups will play a crucial role in achieving the milestone.

 

Hackathon:

  • A hackathon is a design sprint-like event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, and others, often including domain experts, collaborate intensively on software projects.
  • The goal of a hackathon is to create usable software or hardware with the goal of creating a functioning product by the end of the event.
  • Hackathons tend to have a specific focus, which can include the programming language used, the operating system, an application, an API, or the subject and the demographic group of the programmers.
  • In other cases, there is no restriction on the type of software being created.
  • The word “hackathon” is a portmanteau of the words “hack” and “marathon”, where “hack” is used in the sense of exploratory programming, not its alternate meaning as a reference to computer security.

 

The Singapore India Hackathon, an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is the first of its kind joint international hackathon between India and any other country, started on Saturday at IIT Madras and will conclude on Monday.

20 teams are taking part in the 36-hour long hackathon. Each team will have three students from both countries for exchange of culture and ideas.

“I think Indian students are very creative. They have many ideas that they are willing to share with us. While working together, their advice has been very helpful for us,” a student of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) of Singapore said.

Singapore-India hackathon focused on 3 areas

  • Good health and well-being
  • Quality education
  • Affordable and clean energy

 

Social Hackathons:

  • A simple model to predict drought or water scarcity.
  • Automatic instrument to record call of specific birds.
  • Ability to record weather parameters in a location.
  • Recorder to identify, capture frequency and amplitude range of target species.
  • Recorder will store data with relevant weather information.
  • ‘SMART’ system to guide patients.
  • Detect nature of waste and enable automated segregation.
  • Geo-tag places with photograph, category, type of disabled-friendly facility.
  • Social media analyses
  • GPS enabled smartphones.

 

Types of Hackathons:

Offline Hackathons

  • Usually lasts for 24 hours.
  • Aim to solve problem statements for specific themes.

Online Hackathons

  • Companies engage participants across different geographies and time zones.
  • Purpose is to solve problem, drive innovation.

Internal Hackathons

  • Also known as a corporate hackathon.
  • Conducted by an organisation for its employees.
  • Helps to crowd source ideas, collaboration and engagement.

External Hackathons

  • Company engages people within organisation.
  • Influenced by goals.
  • Enables companies to harvest ideas across the globe.

Application based Hackathons

  • Based on specific platforms for development

Language Hackathons

  • Based on specific programming language
  • Conducted to improve features for specific application programming interface.

Cause based Hackathons

  • Also known as social hackathons.
  • Addresses prominent issues like healthcare, education, public services.
  • Aim to empower people.
  • Addresses specific social problems

Demographic hackathons

  • Engages specific demographic groups
  • Often conducted alongside interactive workshops
  • Build awareness, promote a collaborative culture that nurtures innovation.

 

Smart India Hackathon

Smart India Hackathon 2020 is a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem solving.The last edition of the hackathon saw over 5 million+ students from various colleges compete for the top prize at 65+ locations.In SIH 2020, the students would have the opportunity to work on challenges faced within various Ministries, Departments, Industries, PSUs and NGOs to create world class solutions for some of the top organizations including industries in the world, thus helping the Private sector hire the best minds from across the nation. It can help to:

  • Harness creativity & expertise of students
  • Spark institute-level hackathons
  • Build funnel for ‘Startup India’ campaign
  • Crowd source solutions for improving governance and quality of life
  • Provide opportunity to citizens to provide innovative solutions to India’s daunting problems

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