Hackathon organised by IIT Madras encourages citizens to find solutions using IoT Sensor Board

NEW DELHI: Citizens across the country can now participate in solving India-specific problems of societal interest using IoT Sensor Board through a national hackathon called 'SAMVEDAN 2021 - Sensing Solutions for Bharat', a statement said on Saturday.

Registrations for the competition commenced on July 1 and are open to all Indian nationals residing in India, it said. It is being organised jointly by IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation (IITM-PTF) and Sony India Software Centre, and is based on the Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation's SPRESENSE Board, which participants can use for this challenge.

IITM-PTF is a Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) for Sensor, Networking, Actuators, and Control Systems (SNACS) area supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Calling upon citizens from all over the country to take part in this hackathon, Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary of DST, said, “The future is all about a tight convergence of physical systems with communication, computing, information and data gathering, machine sensing, autonomous decisions and actions and control. Thus sensors of all sorts will play a vital role in the cyber-physical systems.”

A team with a maximum of three members can register for the grand challenge, which will be held in three stages -- quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals. A total of 75 ideas will be selected for the quarter-finals, and among them, 25 best ideas will be chosen for the semi-finals, it added. There will be seven finalists with prizes for every finalist. Prizes worth Rs 3 lakhs will be awarded to the best teams. Apart from the prize money, the winners will be eligible for an entrepreneurial support scheme by IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation. Further, each quarterfinalist will be provided with a SPRESENSETM board free of cost by Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation through IITM Pravartak Technologies Foundation.

Highlighting the unique aspects of 'SAMVEDAN 2021', event coordinator professor V Kamakoti, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “IITM-PTF is committed not only to identify innovative solutions and talents across the country in the area of sensor-based solutions but also to provide a platform to successful start-ups that could solve societal problems of national importance. SAMVEDAN is one of the platforms to enable this." "IITM-PTF plans to offer Entrepreneur-In-Residence scholarship for the top team for a year which will enable them to nurture it into a start-up,” Kamakoti said.

Speaking about this collaboration with IIT Madras, Masayuki Toriumi, Managing Director, Sony India Software Centre, said, “We are very pleased to be able to contribute to India's problems and challenges by using Sony's leading-edge technology, India's excellent software engineering resources, and the ecosystem involving the public and private sectors."

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