Hackathon is a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve some of the challenging problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem-solving. It facilitates students to meet and collaborate with others in their field of expertise. It challenges the participants to exhibit their ability to innovate and create compelling, real-world solutions. Due to the learning-by-doing approach employed at hackathons, students learn new skills and attain new knowledge within a short span of six months, and can be hugely rewarding. Hackathon promotes healthy competition and imbibes a sense of achievement among the participants.
SAKEC promotes and motivates students to participate in various hackathons. It does effective hand-holding for the entire process of learning. All the functional and non-functional requirements of hardware and software editions are fulfilled by the institution to bring a positive and proactive approach among students.
Objective:
The process of mentoring students for competitions such as Hackathon meets the following objectives:
- To motivate students to participate in such competitions in order to leverage its benefits
- To inculcate team building and leadership skills among the students
- To make students understand and apply a systemic approach to problem-solving
- To imbibe the culture of product innovation to solve some of the pressing problems in our society
- To harness the creativity and expertise of students, academicians, and visionaries
Committee:
Practices:
Apart From the mandatory spokesperson from the directive of Smart India Hackathon (SIH), SAKEC has a full-fledged committee exclusively formed for Hackathon. The committee is responsible for the smooth functioning of activities such as publicity, registration, documentation, arranging expert lectures, coordination between students and the institute for all other requirements. Following are the sequence of activities performed during the entire process-
- Registration: Pre-registration forms are circulated among all the students through the college website.
- Group Formation: Students form a group of six students involving at least one female candidate (recommended). At the same time, they are made to select a few problem statements of their interest
- Mentor selection by Students: As per the domain of problem statements and the expertise of faculty members, the group approach and decide the mentors on mutual consent.
- Problem Statement Finalization: A rigorous discussion and evaluation of the feasibility of all the selected problem statements are done and finalized. If required, all problem statements can be discarded and a new one can be selected.
- Solution Proposal: A prototype model of the proposed solution is built under the guidance of a mentor as per the requirements given by SIH.
- Evaluation and review solution proposal: The proposed solution is reviewed by a panel of experts consisting of internal and external members. In order to standardize the process of review, well-defined rubrics are designed by the internal members based on the on-field experience of the internal SIH committee and mentors. As per the suggestions given by panel members, the solution is revised and improved.
- Final submission of Solution Proposal: Documentation teams along with the department coordinators prepare the consent letter of the institute which is needed while uploading the final revised proposal. Students upload the final proposal in the SIH portal which is validated by the spokesperson of the institute.
- Acceptance/confirmation of participation from students: The SIH declares the shortlisted proposals on the SIH website. Group Leader get the intimation of acceptance which needs to be acknowledged as a confirmation of participation in the Grand Finale.
- Preparation of Grand finale: Following activities are done as part preparation-
- Session by industry experts that help the group to bring novelty and completeness in the proposed solution.
- Mentors and students partially implement the solution to the final selected problem considering the different factors such as innovation, uniqueness, sustainability, timeliness and social impact. Solution is finalized after number of revisions.
- In parallel, departmental coordinators complete all the functional and nonfunctional requirements such as stationary, hardware, banners,etc.
- Spokesperson and respective group leader coordinate with host institute to look into accommodation and travel arrangements.
- Grand Finale: Mentor(s) accompany their respective groups to the grand finale. They guide and motivate the group to perform to their potential.
- Felicitation of Participants and Winners: After successful completion of grand finale, institute felicitates presenting and winning teams which motivate the next batch of students to participate in hackathon.
- Further implementation request by Concerned Ministry / Institiute: In some cases, either the concerned ministry or private industry may approach students to further develop their prototype model to full fledged solution. In such situations, the mentors continue to handhold the group throughout the complete process.
Evidence of Success: