© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras held a two day “hackathon” on April 7 and 8, 2017. The event saw 80 participants from 12 colleges in Tamil Nadu take part in a series of tasks involving idea scouting, problem defining, ideating for solutions and on the spot solution development.
Students from Rajalakshmi Engineering College won the first prize with the idea of a “smart hoodie” that can help the blind navigate by sensing nearby objects. The hoodie can sense objects at the height range of the sensors and can prevent blind people from getting hurt by accidentally banging on heavy objects by giving notifications tot the user.
Read | App developed by IITians reaches finals of B-plan competition
The second prize was secured by students on IIT Madras who gave the idea of an “Ultrasound Wireless Power Transfer (UWPT)” that can Improve the battery life of Implantable Medical device (IMD). US Consul General Deborah Robinson awarded the winners with Rs 25,000, 15,000 and 10,000 each for the first, second and third place.
The theme of the hackathon was “Hack2Help”. Students in the 24 teams that took part were asked to build “novel solutions addressing social issues like education, health care, citizen services, agriculture and farming, smart technology, disaster management, clean and green energy.”
The event was supported by the US Consulate in Chennai, Learning Links Foundation, IIT-M Incubation Cell and IIT-M RTBI. Civil societies, innovation and hacker communities, academia, start-up ecosystem and government organisations also had a hand in the event to promote innovative thinking among the youth to solve “real world problems”.
For more stories on IIT Madras, click here
