The Grand Finale of fourth edition (Software) of Smart India Hackathon – 2020 concluded on August 4, 2020. The Hackathon was held simultaneously at 40 virtual nodal centers across the country, from 1st to 4th August, 2020. Considering the Covid pandemic, the Grand Finale was organized virtually for the first time in the history of SIH, which connected all the participants throughout the nation together over a specially-built advanced SIH platform.
Smart India Hackathon 2020
Nearly 10,000 members including the delegates, jurors, students, nodal center committee and organizers were associated with SIH 2020 including 1080 teams and 705 mentors (6 participants per team, about 6480 participants) who competed for 36 hours across 40 different centers in India. 70 organizations participated in the Hackathon this year as Problem Statement creators. Central ministries/ Departments such as Indian Space Research organisation, Bureau of Police Research & Development, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Women and Child Development etc., along with State Ministries/ Departments, such as the Government of Sikkim, Government of Goa, Government of Bihar etc., and other private industries, such as the Amazon web services, Yamaha motor services etc. were partners in the SIH 2020.
Total of 243 problem statements, based on 11 themes were worked upon during this edition of SIH. Some of the problem statements seen this time included tracking & tracing of fake news, UAVs for disaster identification and alerting system, network connectivity in remote areas, designing innovative methods to prevent blackmailing and frauds against women specific cases and many others. Several problem statements were also associated with “Atma-Nirbhar Bharat”, including e–marketplace wherein tribals can promote, market and sell tribal produce such as handicrafts, arts, paintings, minor forest products etc. on line with provision of delivery and e-payment and promotional discounts given by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
1126 domain experts and evaluators from Ministries, Institutes and Industries mentored and evaluated all the 1080 teams participating in the Grand Finale. The 36-hour hackathon had prize money for each problem statement worth Rs. 1,00,000/-. 220 winning teams were announced during the Valedictory session organized at 40 nodal centers on 4th August, 2020 simultaneously. Out of these, 12 teams developed projects associated with “Student Innovation”, these included themes such as sustainable environment, sports and fitness, smart vehicles, smart textiles, travel and tourism, agriculture and rural development, smart communication, smart cities, finance, energy / renewable energy, smart education, security & surveillance, healthcare & biomedical devices and miscellaneous. Students had the opportunity to work on challenges faced within the Government ministries, private sector organizations and create world-class solutions for some of the top companies in the world, thus helping these sectors hire the best minds from across the nation.
