Ahmedabad: About 10,000 engineering and management students from across the country have started their attempts to create innovative solutions in the form of mobile and computer applications to solve day-to-day problems faced by people at world’s biggest Hackathon event which is in Gujarat hosted by Gujarat Technological University, Gujarat University and Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO) at Gujarat University Convention hall in Ahmedabad. The participants will work non-stop 36 hours. 440 coders at Gujarat University convention hall will create apps to solve ISRO problems. The HRD ministry has produced 360 problem statements for about 30 government departments and ministries.

The students, who have been shortlisted among the 42,000 students from 2,183 engineering and management colleges and universities from across India, are working in 1,266 teams nonstop to build products based on their ideas across 26 locations in India during the grand finale of Smart India Hackathon.

Government of India has appreciated the experience of Gujarat Technological University (GTU) in organizing Hackathon by giving the responsibility of hosting the mega event, Prof. (Dr) Navin Sheth, Vice Chanacellor of GTU said.

Two years ago, Hackathon 2015 Code for Gujarat was conceptualized by GTU to bring together academia and government to help society using technology. Students developed codes and web based apps during the Hackathon to help data collection, analytics and decision making processes for the government officers on issues like agriculture, health, nutrition, women and child welfare and rural governance. About 100 GTU students of Computer/IT Engineering Background from 8 different districts, 40 government officials working in the fields of health, education, agriculture, women and child welfare along with a competent team of GTU officers, professors and administrative staff participated in the event for 36 hours day and night team work to develop ICT solutions for solving social and rural issues of society. During the Demo fair on Oct 28, 2015, each team showcased their prototypes, gave a mock-demo and the best teams received awards.

DeshGujarat