Hackathon
HACKATHON [2018-19]
A Hackathon is where your crazy ideas turn into reality. The SVCE-ACM Student Chapter in collaboration with the SVCE Alumni Association conducted Yet Another Hackathon (YAH! 2K’18) on the 18th and 19th of August 2018 at Ascendas IT Park. From over 450 participants spanning a staggering 157 teams, the top 27 teams were selected based on an online screening test which tested both their ideation as well as their product development skills.
The event started off with a small icebreaker session to allow the teams to network with each other followed by an orientation speech. At 12 PM the hackathon officially began. The topics given to the teams a day earlier were – “Gaming with a Purpose” which came under the domain of Education, “New Improvements and Innovations in Public Services” which came under the domain of Governance and “Personal Security” under the domain of Security. The teams came in with a plethora of ideas spanning the domains. Needless to say, they wasted no time in getting started with the implementation.
The clock kept ticking and ticking, but the participants went on with their coding which only showcased the relentless commitment and vigour they possessed. To ensure that their enthusiasm and energy levels stay up, food and beverages were provided to them at regular intervals. In addition, we also had mentors available around the clock to structure out their ideas, to highlight their strengths and weaknesses and even to help them out technically. But all code and no play makes for an unhealthy hackathon. To remedy that, we had a variety of activities going on every couple of hours to get the participants to move around a little and stretch their muscles.
On the 19th of August, at 12:00PM – exactly 24 hours since the start, the hackathon ended. After a brief break for the participants to relax and to set up their systems for the demo, it was time for the judging. The judging panel consisted of Mr. Dorai Thodla, a techno-preneur who works with startups and product companies and helps them with their technology strategies, Mr. A. X. Praveen Kumar, tech lead at getknowapp.com, hackathon veteran and a core member of the Google Developer Groups Chennai, Mr. Shiva Kris, the CTO of 2adpro (our lead sponsor) and an accomplished executive with over 20 years of experience in the industry, and Mr. Shankar, Production Manager at 2adpro.
The panel had an incredibly tough time deciding the winners which reflected the high standard of performance by the all the teams. In the end, they chose the victors – Team SSNsCreed consisting of Sundararaman, Vishal Gupta and Shrikanth from SSN College of Engineering. They bagged Rs. 30,000 in cash. The runner-ups were team AI Enthusiasts comprising of Ayush Parasbhai Maniar, Pawar Pranav Dayanand and Singhal Rajat Vikas, from IIT Madras. In addition, there were also prizes for the Best UI, Best Idea, Best Feature, Most Feasible Product and People’s Choice Award.
The various prizes were distributed by the panel of judges, Dr. Ganesh Vaidyanathan, Principal of SVCE and Dr. Arun Janarthanan, representing SVCE Alumni Association. This was followed by small speeches by each of them motivating the students to participate in more hackathons and attain greater heights. The event ended with the vote of thanks followed by a group photo of all the participants, mentors, judges and volunteers.
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