LPU engineering students win world’s biggest innovation competition ‘Smart India Hackathon-2020’

Jalandhar: Engineering students’ “Team Electronica” at LPU has made illustrious win in the world's biggest open innovation competition ‘Smart India Hackathon (SIH) Hardware Edition-2020’ for the second time in a row. This concept is conducted by the Ministry of Human Resources Development and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and allied government bodies. This year problem statement posed to LPU students through Government of Madhya Pradesh was ‘Solo IoT Devices to capture Video and Audio Evidences’. A team of 6 LPU students worked hard to develop a “Camouflage CCTV Monitoring System’ that can be hidden in a display board, like matrix timer at railway stations. This system can help to detect suspicious activities, criminal recognition, and even track the suspects.

LPU team leader Medisetty Arun Sai Teja had worked for this project along with fellow engineering students Juluri Bharath Kumar, Nukala Ram Kumar, Meka Vishnu Madhavi, Naitik Gohain, and Kasthuri Bhanu Prakash. Bharath Kumar explains that “this CCTV system is so precise that it works all around at 360 degree with clear visibility. LPU faculty Mandeep Singh and Rajesh had mentored the team.

Congratulating the winners, LPU Chancellor Mr Ashok Mittal shares: “‘Team Electronica’ of our students can be termed as an unstoppable team. Even during terrifying pandemic time, its member-students got together for development of a perfect solution for the problem posed to them by a state government. The brilliant result of their hard work is before us all. In a way, our students are regularly proving up to the expectations of PM Modi whether it is enhancement of digital literacy or working on his dream projects like ‘Make in India, Atam Nibhar Bharat’.”

For SIH, a wide number of ministries, public sector units, private organizations, and educational institutes participate from across the country. Participating central ministries and departments include DRDO, ISRO, Jal Shakti, Ayurveda, Food Processing, Communications, Health, Family welfare, Railways, Atomic Energy, Science & Technology, MSME, Financial Services and more. These pose problems to the competing students and, in turn, students work hard to provide them with suitable solutions for problems faced by these organizations or government.

In fact, Smart India Hackathon is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a broad platform to solve pressing problems faced day to day. This huge and prestigious competition inculcates a culture of product innovation and a mind-set of problem-solving. Various areas worked for getting solutions included Robotics & Drones, Waste Management, Clean Water, Food Processing, Smart Vehicles, Agriculture & Rural Development, Health-Care & Bio-Medical, Smart Communications and miscellaneous. Commenced in 2017, SIH has seen participation of 10 lakh innovators from 7218 institutes, 256 organizations, up to now. In addition, 5635 selected ideas have been worked upon in context to 1886 problem statements posed.