Hyderabad: Telangana is all set to host the country’s largest hackthon. Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) initiated Digithon in collaboration with Pixel hackathon gets support from NASA, Telangana Government, JNTU, Microsoft, Mozilla, IBM, Google, Fire Fox and other technology giants. The hackathon will be conducted in Hyderabad and across Telangana involving 10,000 participants at the same time. IIT-Basar, Hyderabad IT corridor, JNTU affiliated colleges, several universities and schools in Telangana will host the event. The logo for the hackathon has been formally unveiled by Telangana IT Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan at the Secretariat on Monday.
NASA has unveiled certain challenges to find solutions for the problems that the world is facing. Rolled out since 2012, NASA is conducting competitions globally. TITA hackthon is aspiring to attempt to find out solutions for six of the problems that NASA has identified for the latter has sought solutions as part of its challenge. In addition to this, both Telangana government and TITA are inviting participants to take up other challenges.
Telangana government is rolling out challenges relating to smart cities. Intelligent traffic management, smart parking, smart sewerage management will be the areas of focus. Digithon has designed tasks around aspects such as cyber security. Those who want to participate in the hackathon need to opt for one of the challenges or tasks and develop/deliver solutions by creating a team.
People between the ages of 13 to 60 can take part in the hackathon irrespective of their academic background or qualifications free of cost. They can register themselves for the hackathon through the link- https://goo.gl/oJi2hZ. The mega hackathon will also need 1,000 volunteers. Technology professionals and faculty can enroll themselves as volunteers.
There will be competition among the districts of Telangana. The winners will be receiving the awards. Of the 10,000 participants, about 1,000 will be shortlisted and will be invited to Hyderabad. They will participate in the main event that will be held at Nampally exhibition grounds from October 19 to 21. Of the 1,000 shortlisted solutions, three projects will be sent for NASA global nominations. The three shortlisted teams will be funded entirely by NASA.
Telangana government will encourage teams to find solutions for the challenge that it poses and the winners will be given a chance to be part of the pilot projects that will initiate.
Pixel’s head Neha Bhandari has been chosen to oversee the NASA Space Apps challenge. Bhandari who is a serial entrepreneur has been taking part in the NASA programme for the last three years. She tied up with T-Hub to host the challenge in 2016 for which she has received an award from the State government.
On the occasion of unveiling the logo for the hackathon, Jayesh Ranjan said it’s a momentous occasion for the State to host such a major event through TITA. He exuded confidence on TITA to host the event on a large scale, having jointly organised several events along with the government in the past. He encouraged all the innovators to take part in the hackathon to find solutions for real-time problems.
TITA Global President and the brain behind the hackathon Sundeep Kumar Makthala said enthusiastic participants from government schools, colleges and engineering colleges will be selected for the event. The hackathon is aiming at identifying and nurturing innovative bent of mind among those living in the rural areas. The event will help build team work, constructive development, presentation skills (as they will present in front of the jury). This will also enable development of creating thinking among the participants, he opined.
Young innovator Neha Bhandari expressed that she is overwhelmed to take part in the NASA Space Apps for the third time. Telangana government support to TITA hackathon will boost the innovators. Focus on social issues and cyber security will make the event find solutions for real problems and is a step in the right direction. (NSS)